Offetstine Wiki - User contributions [en]

Animalfolk

2024-08-11T07:26:25Z

Midori Nishikawa: Redirected page to Animal-folk

#REDIRECT: [[Animal-folk]]

Offetstine:Partnerships

2024-07-24T18:20:14Z

Midori Nishikawa: make some changes that Eun wanted :3

{{Official policy}}

{{Tentative}}

''Interested in partnerships, and just want to see our partner agreement? Skip to [[#Agreement|the Agreement]].''

As of 23 July 2024, Offetstine invites [https://www.reddit.com/r/discordapp/comments/lhcvnk/how_does_partnering_with_another_sever_work/ partnerships] with other online communities, which enable cross-promotion between their respective Discord servers. The goal of accepting partnerships in Offetstine is to enable cross-pollination, to allow members of either community to more easily find spaces that represent their interests and that they feel comfortable and are inspired in.

== Rationale ==

Offetstine has allowed its members to advertise their creations, including Discord servers, since it first became a public community. Since a large portion of Offetstine's audience has always been artists, whose livelihoods depend on visibility, we have always been open to allowing artists to use our platform to promote themselves. We have allowed owners or admins of Discord servers to promote them with invites; however, until recently, we have not allowed Discord server partnerships in our community.

Following a [https://discord.com/channels/809184885485994016/815412637168959527/1265078034851954698 recent referendum], we've decided to open up partnerships; but we still want to make sure that partnerships are not detrimental to our members or yours. Just like with advertisements, we want to spotlight independent creators' works and help our members find communities that might interest them.

Communities, especially roleplay communities, are often more fun to participate in when they're bigger and more active. Because of that, we hope that through partnerships, we can help people more easily find where they want to be. Our rules for partnerships are somewhat stricter than our rules for advertisements, since partnerships (much more like sponsorships) are direct endorsements that we make, and we don't want to use our influence to direct anyone somewhere they will feel uncomfortable or be endangered.

This document aims to capture all the information that prospective partners might want to know about working with us at Offetstine, and all the information that our members may want to know about how we choose partnerships and work with partners.

== Agreement ==

As an ambassador for an online community interested in partnership with Offetstine, we ask that you agree to the following agreement ''(hereafter: the Agreement).'' Prospective partners are allowed, and encouraged, to bring their own contracts to the table. The partnership will be effective when all contracts, including the Agreement, are signed by both parties, until either community decides to terminate the agreement. '''(TBD: You can't sign this contract yet. We're still working out the terms. Check back soon!)'''

The Agreement outlines a series of bilateral terms that help us ensure a safe and inclusive environment, both for members joining Offetstine, and for members joining your community from Offetstine. In addition to that, the Agreement outlines a series of unilateral terms that we'll uphold, because we personally believe it's the right thing to do.

'''TL;DR:''' Before asking for a partnership, make sure you're an established member of your community. Make sure your community is safe and inclusive, and allows minors. Each of us can send a staff member of our community as an ambassador, and post our advertising copy in a prominent location (e.g. #partners channel).

* '''Bilateral terms:''' We pledge of our community, and ask of your community, ''(hereafter: the Community)'' that:
** The Community identifies a staff member ''(hereafter: the Ambassador)'' to join their partner server for the duration of the partnership.
*** At least one of the Ambassadors is an established member of the other community. For Offetstine, we require that any incoming Ambassadors either have an approved character in roleplay, or have been a spectator member for more than two weeks. This serves as a simple litmus test to sift out members that join ''only'' to partner.
*** Ambassadors are required to be in good community standing. We promise of ourselves, and request that, Ambassadors will act respectfully and uphold the principles of the communities they join. We'll try to participate actively and positively rather than just watching from afar.
** The Community is safe and inclusive for all people, regardless of their background. The Community disallows all inherently intolerant mentalities (racism, sexism, etc.) and protects members from shock media (unwilling exposure to pornography, gore, etc.)
*** The Community's primary demographic is not adult/NSFW, and minor members may join.
** The Community has reason to believe that partnership will be mutually beneficial for members of its partner. Nobody on the Community's staff objects to the partnership.
** The Community posts the relevant [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_(publishing) advertising copy] of its partner, and updates the posting in a timely fashion when their partner revises the copy. See our ad copy [[#Advertising Copy|here]].
* '''Unilateral terms:''' We pledge, without demanding reciprocation, that:
** You don't have to be a roleplaying space. As long as you think our communities could benefit from each other, feel free to reach out about partnership.
** If your community is a roleplaying space, we'll try to promote and endorse the community for material (characters and stories) that are better suited to it than our own, including material that we don't allow but you might (for example, established-universe works).
** If you're interested, we'll reach out for potential collaborations with your community (such as art contests, and rewards available to members of both communities) especially if we believe it will help encourage participation and grow our communities even more.
** We'll give Ambassadors in our community a special, hoisted role to commemorate them for their service and collaboration.
** We won't hold it against you if you decide to discontinue the partnership after a decision made behind closed doors. You have the right to terminate a partnership with us for any reason; we'll delete any advertising copy and stop promoting your community.

If we ever need to update these terms, we will reach out to all partners who have signed this contract for any nontrivial changes. We'll provide clear and comprehensive documentation of what changed, and request that all parties reaffirm the contract. We may correct minor errors that don't change the semantics of the agreement (spelling and grammar mistakes and the like) on our own with no notification.

== Advertising copy ==

Formatted in Markdown, we request that you post, or that our Ambassador is able to post, one of the following messages in your Discord server, in a prominent and non-ephemeral location. Either the full copy or short copy is acceptable, especially if one fits better than the others next to existing partner listings. Please include the provided illustration '''(TODO)''' if you are posting the full copy. We're also willing to write bespoke copy for a community if there is any technical need. We request that the copy is not modified except to suit the format of its posting.

The copy, including accompanying media, is provided under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC BY 4.0] license to all people. That means you can copy and remix it to your heart's content (for example, to write your own ad copy) as long as you attribute it to us. If you join us as a partner, you are also required to reproduce it verbatim, according to the above paragraph's terms. This means you're bound to both the Creative Commons license and our own. '''(TBD: need to make sure the other mods agree about licensing)'''

=== Full copy ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="markdown" line class="midori-wrap">
*Nature is the best keeper of secrets, and there is no secret more powerful than what lies here...*

# Offetstine · Urban Fantasy RP

There is untold magic in our world. Magic that, to you and I, may seem obvious—but humans don't know about it. They can't know. Fantastical creatures that with grand powers that weave through the human masses undetected, flit through the night upon papery wings, or lurk menacingly in the shadows. The few who know us call us demi-humans and mages... there's no guarantee we can be ourselves in that world. But, by god, is it something incredible.

There's a world we cannot believe waiting for us beyond the thickets and the trees. I've been there once before. I hid my ears with a hat, used just enough magic to take their language from their lips... it was not enough to quite fit in, but they thought I was just another traveler. There are billions of them, so many that they simply ascribe my oddity to merely being born of a foreign ethnicity. Their world is tremendous, and terrifying. But we can't stay here for much longer.

And there are little pockets. Places where creatures like us still survive... thrive, even. We might still be able to find a place to call home. We've made it through hardship before, and we can do it again.

**Featuring...**
🌍 A familiar yet exciting *turn-of-the-millennium urban fantasy setting*
🧙‍♂️ *Unlimited character slots,* for mundane and magical characters alike
👋 Leisurely, welcoming, and *open community* with varied interests
🌐 A *rich and comprehensive wiki* (beta) at https://offetstine.eunakria.com/

(invite link)
</syntaxhighlight>

=== Short copy ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="markdown" line class="midori-wrap">
*Nature is the best keeper of secrets, and there is no secret more powerful than what lies here...*

# Offetstine · Urban Fantasy RP

Do you want to hear it? Listen close, now... this world's deepest, darkest secret is the world of demi-humans—fantastical creatures with grand powers that weave through the human masses undetected, or lurk in the shadows. Powerful magicks that could tear us apart if we glanced at them wrong. Now, you hold within your hands the key to that world. Do you think you have what it takes to make your mark on this world—or even survive it?

**Featuring...**
🌍 A familiar yet exciting *turn-of-the-millennium urban fantasy setting*
🧙‍♂️ *Unlimited character slots,* for mundane and magical characters alike
👋 Leisurely, welcoming, and *open community* with varied interests
🌐 A *rich and comprehensive wiki* (beta) at https://offetstine.eunakria.com/

(invite link)
</syntaxhighlight>

After updating our ad copy, we'll reach out to any partner community to inform them of the update.

Offetstine:Partnerships

2024-07-23T21:50:11Z

Midori Nishikawa: initial commit

{{Official policy}}

{{Tentative}}

''Interested in partnerships, and just want to see our partner agreement? Skip to [[#Agreement|the Agreement]].''

As of 23 July 2024, Offetstine invites [https://www.reddit.com/r/discordapp/comments/lhcvnk/how_does_partnering_with_another_sever_work/ partnerships] with other online communities, which enable cross-promotion between their respective Discord servers. The goal of accepting partnerships in Offetstine is to enable cross-pollination, to allow members of either community to more easily find spaces that represent their interests and that they feel comfortable and are inspired in.

== Rationale ==

Offetstine has allowed its members to advertise their creations, including Discord servers, since it first became a public community. Since a large portion of Offetstine's audience has always been artists, whose livelihoods depend on visibility, we have always been open to allowing artists to use our platform to promote themselves. We have allowed owners or admins of Discord servers to promote them with invites; however, until recently, we have not allowed Discord server partnerships in our community.

Following a [https://discord.com/channels/809184885485994016/815412637168959527/1265078034851954698 recent referendum], we've decided to open up partnerships; but we still want to make sure that partnerships are not detrimental to our members or yours. Just like with advertisements, we want to spotlight independent creators' works and help our members find communities that might interest them.

Communities, especially roleplay communities, are often more fun to participate in when they're bigger and more active. Because of that, we hope that through partnerships, we can help people more easily find where they want to be. Our rules for partnerships are somewhat stricter than our rules for advertisements, since partnerships (much more like sponsorships) are direct endorsements that we make, and we don't want to use our influence to direct anyone somewhere they will feel uncomfortable or be endangered.

This document aims to capture all the information that prospective partners might want to know about working with us at Offetstine, and all the information that our members may want to know about how we choose partnerships and work with partners.

== Agreement ==

As an ambassador for an online community interested in partnership with Offetstine, we ask that you agree to the following agreement ''(hereafter: the Agreement).'' Prospective partners are allowed, and encouraged, to bring their own contracts to the table. The partnership will be effective when all contracts, including the Agreement, are signed by both parties, until either community decides to terminate the agreement. '''(TBD: You can't sign this contract yet. We're still working out the terms. Check back soon!)'''

The Agreement outlines a series of bilateral terms that help us ensure a safe and inclusive environment, both for members joining Offetstine, and for members joining your community from Offetstine. In addition to that, the Agreement outlines a series of unilateral terms that we'll uphold, because we personally believe it's the right thing to do.

'''TL;DR:''' Before asking for a partnership, make sure you're an established member of your community. Make sure your community is safe and inclusive, and allows minors. Each of us can send an ambassador, and post our advertising copy in a prominent location (e.g. #partners channel).

* '''Bilateral terms:''' We pledge of our community, and ask of your community, ''(hereafter: the Community)'' that:
** The Community identifies a staff member ''(hereafter: the Ambassador)'' to join their partner server for the duration of the partnership.
*** At least one of the Ambassadors is an established member of the other community. For Offetstine, we require that any incoming Ambassadors either have an approved character in roleplay, or have been a spectator member for more than two weeks. This serves as a simple litmus test to sift out members that join ''only'' to partner.
*** Ambassadors are required to be in good community standing.
** The Community is safe and inclusive for all people, regardless of their background. The Community disallows all inherently intolerant mentalities (racism, sexism, etc.) and protects members from shock media (unwilling exposure to pornography, gore, etc.)
*** The Community's primary demographic is not adult/NSFW, and minor members may join.
** The Community has reason to believe that partnership will be mutually beneficial for members of its partner. Nobody on the Community's staff objects to the partnership.
** The Community posts the relevant [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_(publishing) advertising copy] of its partner, and updates the posting in a timely fashion when their partner revises the copy. See our ad copy [[#Advertising Copy|here]].
* '''Unilateral terms:''' We pledge, without demanding reciprocation, that:
** You don't have to be a roleplaying space. As long as you think our communities could benefit from each other, feel free to reach out about partnership.
** If your community is a roleplaying space, we'll try to promote and endorse the community for material (characters and stories) that are better suited to it than our own, including material that we don't allow but you might (for example, established-universe works).
** If you're interested, we'll reach out for potential collaborations with your community, especially if we believe it will help grow our community even more.
** We'll give Ambassadors in our community a special, hoisted role to commemorate them for their service and collaboration.
** We won't hold it against you if you decide to discontinue the partnership after a decision made behind closed doors. You have the right to terminate a partnership with us for any reason; we'll delete any advertising copy and stop promoting your community.

== Advertising copy ==

Formatted in Markdown, we request that you post, or that our Ambassador is able to post, one of the following messages in your Discord server, in a prominent and non-ephemeral location. Either the full copy or short copy is acceptable, especially if one fits better than the other in an existing partner docket. We're also willing to write bespoke copy for a community if there is any technical need. We request that the copy is not modified except to suit the format of its posting. The copy is provided under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC BY 4.0] license. '''(TBD: need to make sure the other mods agree about licensing)'''

=== Full copy ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="markdown" line class="midori-wrap">
*Nature is the best keeper of secrets, and there is no secret more powerful than what lies here...*

# Offetstine · Urban Fantasy RP

There is untold magic in our world. Magic that, to you and I, may seem obvious—but humans don't know about it. They can't know. Fantastical creatures that with grand powers that weave through the human masses undetected, flit through the night upon papery wings, or lurk menacingly in the shadows. The few who know us call us demi-humans and mages... there's no guarantee we can be ourselves in that world. But, by god, is it something incredible.

There's a world we cannot believe waiting for us beyond the thickets and the trees. I've been there once before. I hid my ears with a hat, used just enough magic to take their language from their lips... it was not enough to quite fit in, but they thought I was just another traveler. There are billions of them, so many that they simply ascribe my oddity to merely being born of a foreign ethnicity. Their world is tremendous, and terrifying. But we can't stay here for much longer.

And there are little pockets. Places where creatures like us still survive... thrive, even. We might still be able to find a place to call home. We've made it through hardship before, and we can do it again.

**Featuring...**
🌍 A familiar yet exciting *turn-of-the-millennium urban fantasy setting*
🧙‍♂️ *Unlimited character slots,* for mundane and magical characters alike
👋 Leisurely, welcoming, and *open community* with varied interests
🌐 A *rich and comprehensive wiki* (beta) at https://offetstine.eunakria.com/

(invite link)
</syntaxhighlight>

=== Short copy ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="markdown" line class="midori-wrap">
*Nature is the best keeper of secrets, and there is no secret more powerful than what lies here...*

# Offetstine · Urban Fantasy RP

Do you want to hear it? Listen close, now... this world's deepest, darkest secret is the world of demi-humans—fantastical creatures with grand powers that weave through the human masses undetected, or lurk in the shadows. Powerful magicks that could tear us apart if we glanced at them wrong. Now, you hold within your hands the key to that world. Do you think you have what it takes to make your mark on this world—or even survive it?

**Featuring...**
🌍 A familiar yet exciting *turn-of-the-millennium urban fantasy setting*
🧙‍♂️ *Unlimited character slots,* for mundane and magical characters alike
👋 Leisurely, welcoming, and *open community* with varied interests
🌐 A *rich and comprehensive wiki* (beta) at https://offetstine.eunakria.com/

(invite link)
</syntaxhighlight>

After updating our ad copy, we'll reach out to any partner community to inform them of the update.

Soul

2023-11-20T04:14:09Z

Midori Nishikawa: I just wrote everything I know about souls in Offetstine... I'm really not sure about a lot of this so you can edit it after and fix anything I got wrong 🪄

One of the fundamental concepts in the world of magic in Offetstine is the idea of living beings that can influence [[magic]]. These are beings which demonstrate some kind of [[wikipedia:Sentience|sentience]], [[wikipedia:Wisdom#Sapience|sapience]] or [[wikipedia:Self-awareness|self-awareness]]. While these ideas are not perfectly well-defined, they are usually found in the mundane natural world in humans and some other animals, and in the magical world in [[Demi-human|demi-humans]], and they coincide with the presence of '''souls''' in these beings. The nature of souls is not well understood, and is considered part of [[wikipedia:Philosophy|philosophy]] more than it is a part of the [[wikipedia:Science|science]] of magic, though certain schools of magic such as [[necromancy]], which depends heavily on understanding the soul, have made strides in the understanding of the precise nature of souls.

It is not possible to define precisely what can and cannot have a soul, and there are many beings in the world which seem like they should have souls but do not, and vice versa. Parallels have been drawn between the idea of the soul and religious beliefs and philosophies such as [[wikipedia:Creationism|creationism]], though scholars of magic generally reject this idea. The existence of souls as a concept in magic does not imply that the world, before the prevalence of magic, did not form by entirely mundane means, and it does not imply any specific [[wikipedia:Cosmogony|cosmogony]].

== Definitions ==
One general consensus about the definition of souls is that magic can only be controlled, employed and influenced by beings that have souls, though it is possible for a magically trained individual to create artifacts which influence magic of their own right, or through the [[Will of the People]] to make magical ideas real if they exist in the collective consciousness.

=== Protégé hypothesis ===
One hypothesis suggests that souls only exist to provide for magic, and the first beings to have souls were also the first beings capable of magic in any capacity, likely early [[wikipedia:Human|humans]] or early [[wikipedia:Animal|animals]]. It suggests that humans, and some other early animals, were the protégés or champions of a then new concept that would eventually become magic, and to empower them in this new concept, these species developed souls per the Will of the People. Those souls conferred no benefit on their face other than the ability to control magic, but eventually that ability distinguished the branch of species from the others.

The hypothesis proposes that souls developed in this mundane species in order to provide them magic, because of their potential in [[wikipedia:Reason|reason]], or some other factor that is usually associated with humans and other animals. The hypothesis does not specify what factor would have led humans and other animals to be able to control magic, though it has been understood by some theologians and others to mean that there is something about humans that makes them special and sets them apart from the rest of the world. Proponents of the hypothesis often insist that it is, by itself, [[wikipedia:Agnosticism|religiously agnostic]].

The hypothesis at first does not appear to line up with the age of other ethereal planes such as the [[afterlife]] and [[underworld]]. Some estimates suggest that these planes existed for anywhere from millions to billions of years before humanity. However, other ethereal planes are not necessarily made of traditional physical matter. The afterlife and underworld are instead made of incorporeal magical energy, which has a physical form that can be sensed and interacted with, but is not bound to any of the rules that physical matter is and operates under its own rules to a similar end result.

Magical energy is seen in the natural world as well, in the form of ethereal beings such as [[Spirit|spirits]] and [[Nymph|nymphs]] who exhibit various strange behaviors in the physical nature of their bodies. For example, while the conditions that a nymph of most [[Species taxonomy|subspecies]] is subject to may be explained by being made of biological matter, it is often impossible to dissect the body of a deceased nymph and identify those organs, or perhaps when injured, the damaged parts of their body may simply disappear in wisps. However, the level of apparent physicality of an ethereal object may vary. For other ethereal beings, for example, it is possible to take a swab of them and observe individual cells or molecules under a microscope. This implies that the afterlife and underworld were willed into existence through the minds of beings with souls, and appear to have the age they do because they are not physical in nature, and there is no conflict from the proposition that they are, in fact, young.

=== Heredity hypothesis ===
One interpretation of the concept suggests that there is nothing about the beings which have souls that entitle them to their souls, and instead, their heredity gives them their souls. The classification is convenient but not meaningful by itself, and suggests that it is simply a coincidence that living beings that are typically associated with higher-order reasoning, such as animals and humans, have souls. It is similar to the [[Soul#Protégé hypothesis|protégé hypothesis]], but does not suggest that all beings which have souls share certain traits. Instead, it suggests that the family of beings that have souls follow a certain reproductive lineage which includes all animals.

The heredity hypothesis is generally more widely accepted by scholars than the protégé hypothesis. However, similar to the protégé hypothesis, it also has a significant number of religious interpretations that are not necessarily core to the hypothesis. Some interpretations suggest that the progenitor of souls and magic in the heredity hypothesis was a [[wikipedia:Sexual_reproduction|sexually reproducing]] [[wikipedia:Eukaryote|eukaryote]], often an early human, who had a child with [[wikipedia:God|god]]. These notions are widely disregarded in the community studying magic, though these interpretations, and variants of them, have served as the base for some organizations such as the [[Major Arcana]] in [[Offetstine]].

== Behavior ==
While a lot can be said about how to define souls, it is generally considered more productive by mages to focus on how souls impact the way the world, and magic, works. Generally, it can be said that many living beings in the world, including most animals, have a soul. That soul is created when they are conceived and exists until their death. As the study of souls is still in its infancy, many edge cases here are not well-understood, such as the presence of souls in children with [[wikipedia:Anencephaly|anencephaly]]. Generally, it is understood that any being individually capable of becoming a mage has their own soul.

Generally, a being with a soul requires that soul to function as an individual, and some beings do not have physical forms on their own. A being may be only a soul and may possess another body or take an incorporeal, artificial form, and such beings are usually considered [[Spirit|spirits]]. These beings often come from another ethereal plane, such as the [[afterlife]] or [[underworld]]. Sometimes, a being without a body can possess another body, which, if it has another soul in it, will usually push the soul out of the body, effectively killing the person but letting the body be used by the other soul.

=== Relation to cognition ===
Despite the implication of its name, the soul does not confer any powers of cognition by itself. For most souls of beings that have physical forms, the soul just provides a small amount of the character and personality of a person, the parts that aren't based on their species and the instincts and cognitive functions it provides. It is sometimes hypothesized that for spirits, the soul is responsible for all their cognitive function, but this claim is disputed. For some species of spirits that possess other bodies, they show only very generic and high-level cognitive function until they have a body to possess. For others, it is suspected that the magical energy around them, while it does not provide them a tangible form, does give them their cognitive power.

Moreover, the species of a being is likely not inherent to a soul since that species may change as a being is subjected to different magic, which implies that all traits which define a being's species are outside of their soul. The counter-hypothesis, which is considered more likely, is that all souls only provide that very basic high-level cognitive function. It suggests that the soul itself is not associated to any single species or any body, and that it can even be limited by being in a particular body, and is generally undetectable in mundane terms.

=== Death ===
Upon death, a soul departs from the host body and usually goes to the [[afterlife]]. However, there are some cases where the body might stay behind on its source plane, usually the natural world, to become a [[revenant]]. It is exceptionally difficult to continue to use a body after it has died, so the soul may wander the world on its own as a spirit if it is sufficiently powerful to resist going to the afterlife. Part of [[necromancy]], for example, involves the preparation of bodies for accepting a soul again. A soul that has departed to the afterlife is widely considered to have reached its final destination. While souls are not subject to any conditions of [[wikipedia:Spiritual_death|spiritual death]], especially the longer a soul has been in the afterlife, the harder it is to retrieve it from the afterlife. For a foreign soul to be in the afterlife, it is generally considered that the soul is "at peace," and it usually causes more problems than it solves to disturb the soul of a person who has died.

A soul in the afterlife is known to have some limited influence over the natural world and people who are still alive. For example, a soul still has a connection to the body it was alive in, and can still influence that body after its death. This connection to the natural world is closely leveraged by fields of magic such as necromancy, and has provided the most completely understood aspect of souls. It is generally understood that a soul, even after its death, emotionally reacts to events in its home plane (usually the natural world or underworld) and exerts some sort of subtle, but measurable, influence on those subjects. The influence is often understood as [[wikipedia:Luck|luck]] or [[wikipedia:Blessing|blessings]].

Magic

2023-11-13T06:57:50Z

Midori Nishikawa: /* Practices */ replace the alchemy and necromancy sections with excerpts from Alchemy and Necromancy like the "full articles" imply. thanks Barelyhuman for the inspiration 💖

'''Magic''' is a broad and diverse concept that underpins the primary diversion of the fictional world of Offetstine from the real world. Practicioners of magic, often referred to as '''mages,''' form a diminutive yet significant subset of the total population of the world of Offetstine.

== Practices ==

Various magical practices exist in the world of Offetstine that usually have parallels to real-life pseudosciences or schools of magic in fantasy fiction. In many cases, the same name refers to a family of independently derived practices, which are often quite different in nature. Due to the fundamentally underground nature of magic as per the [[Masquerade]], developments in magic very rarely trickle back to human science, although the fields are nonetheless considered pivotal to each other in their shared quest for applied, empirical knowledge.

While it is impossible to offer a comprehensive list of magical practices, for the same reasons as it is impossible to offer a comprehensive list of demi-human species, as the art of [[species taxonomy]] nonetheless aims to create. To that extent, this list is incomplete.

<blockquote>'''Editor's note:''' This section is ''very'' incomplete. There is no world in which the two most important fields of magic are "alchemy" and "necromancy". Fix urgently.
</blockquote>

=== Spellcasting ===
Spellcasting describes any practice of producing magical work that does not require biologically ingrained magic. For this reason, spells can even be learnt by nonmagical entities, such as humans. Spells rely on an underlying, metaphysical set of rules, sometimes requiring items, life force, energy, or multiple casters. What magic is ultimately performed is a result of the will of the casters combined with these underlying rules, resulting in a functionally limitless amount of possible outcomes.

The art of learning spells requires immense dedication and is often considered prestigious. Institutions that pass down spellcasting exist in Offetstine, hidden from normal society.

=== Rituals ===
Rituals (also referred to as rites) are a class of practices that, like spellcasting, can create a wide range of effects based off the intent and composition. Rituals are even less discriminatory on creators than spells; nearly all rites can be prepared, engaged, and finished by anyone.

Commonly stationary, rituals use the chemical, mechanical, and magical energy that is stored in participants or items, either depleting or destroying them when completed.

=== Alchemy ===
''Full article: [[Alchemy]]''

'''Alchemy''' is a school of [[magic]] involving the study of magical properties of substances, and thereby the craft of magical properties such as potions and enchanted items, and the otherwise unnatural manipulation of mundane properties, such as material transmutation or the generation of matter and energy in ways that otherwise contradict the known limitations of mundane physics.

Alchemy derives its name from the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy real-world pseudoscience] of the same name, largely recognized as the forebearer of modern mundane [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemistry chemistry], which posited relations between the material sciences and celestial bodies, and frequently involved the pursuit of certain particular goals, such as the search for an elixir of immortality or the transmutation of common metals into more precious ones. While the protoscientific belief has since faded into predominant obscurity and been eclipsed by more [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology epistemologically] rigorous approaches, the term survived in reference to various similar arts in fantasy fiction.

=== Necromancy ===

''Full article: [[Necromancy]]''

'''Necromancy''' is a school of magic that consists of the revival of individuals, whether mundane human or animal or demi-human, who have died and whose [[Soul|souls]] have passed to the [[afterlife]]. The process may involve the retrieval of the soul from the afterlife and the reconstruction of the body of the deceased, and the result is an [[wikipedia:Undead|undead]] demi-human body that lends at least in part from the original deceased. Necromancy is a highly stigmatized practice and frequently likened to [[wikipedia:Playing_God_(ethics)|playing god]], but necromancers argue that it can be performed with informed consent.

Necromancy is widely considered an extremely difficult school of magic, though simpler forms of it can be learned with relative ease compared to other practices of magic. Generally, the closer an undead subject resembles their original form, the more difficult necromancy is to perform. However, all forms of necromancy demand that the practitioner has an extremely deep understanding of the nature of the soul and the afterlife, whether the specific revival they are performing involves returning a deceased soul to its own body, reanimating a body with a new soul, or giving a deceased soul a body to inhabit.

== History ==

Magic is typically understood to have originated from demi-humans in prehistoric times, coinciding with the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic_Revolution Neolithic Revolution]. Common myths state the initial practitioners of magic were demi-humans who unknowingly used the power to guard their interests, such as through the [[Illusion magic|illusion]] of [[animal-folk]], to hide their inhuman traits and uphold the Masquerade. These demi-humans are said to have expanded on their practice and developed it into serviceable general-purpose forms that augmented the technology of the time, and as such passed the practice down through generations.

Magic practices are said to have eventually spread through certain isolated human communities who were already exposed to magical energy, although since the practice of magic is predicated on that exposure, most humans were unable to take up the practice. Even to date, mages remain a highly exclusive circle of individuals, far overshadowed by demi-humans who are either magically empowered or controlled but do not practice a general-purpose form of magic. However, especially at the time, mages were frequently opposed by mundane humans to whom they demonstrated their powers, and the practice of general-purpose magic was largely vilified even in communities where demi-humans were accepted.

The precise cause of this effect is unknown, although the vilification is commonly attributed to the malicious portrayal of mages in common superstitions which stem from religious myth. The source of religious myth in Offetstine varies, either being born of interpretations of demi-humans such as spirits and deities, or of entirely mundane means, though despite the prevalence of magic in Offetstine, even mages and demi-humans lack consensus as to the particular truth of any particular religious myth. However, in part because of this persecution, magic is often viewed by mages as a secular art, detached from the doctrine of any particular faith.

== Culture ==

Mages are generally known to form isolated communities when possible. Magic is often considered a carefully guarded secret, in part by virtue of the Masquerade, but even to the extent that demi-humans who do not practice a general-purpose magic are excluded from communions of mages. The Masquerade is varyingly recognized as either imperative statute to the continued and safe existence of magic in Offetstine, or archaic and discriminatory legislation that stunts the scope and pervasiveness of the practice. As many members of the [[Veilkeepers]], the organization responsible for upholding the Masquerade, are themselves mages, conflicting perspectives are even more pervasive from within the organization.

Mages occasionally form underground communities in regions where magical energy is abundant, as presence in such areas further empowers them. For instance, one such location is [[Cedar Crest University]], a university built around an ancient cedar tree commonly recognized to amplify magical energy. While due to the Masquerade, the university cannot openly acknowledge its openness to demi-humans or mages, its founder, the mundane human [[Erin Hazell]], has previously privately acknowledged the magical community which sprung up around her institution and given it her blessing.

Due to the nature of the Masquerade prohibiting overt communication, societies of mages and demi-humans have historically favored the use of telecommunications gear to facilitate communication. The use of ciphers and encryption traces back to the roots of magic in Offetstine, where grimoires were frequently written in high-entropy ciphers or mystical languages unknown to humans, and ephemeral messages were often communicated in cant. In modern times, criminal organizations such as the [[Coalition]] and [[Ringleaders]], both of which limit their membership to demi-humans, have created encryption toolkits for private use. One such framework, [[CREST]], has found use across the [[Greater Offetstine Area]] for computer-aided secure communications between mages.

=== Secrecy ===

Mages generally express mixed perspectives with regards to the Masquerade in Offetstine. While some mages note the benefits that magic has to the broader scientific community, a perspective especially shared by [[#Magical epistemology|magical epistemologists]], others argue that the continued existence of the Masquerade is critical for protecting magical civilization from mundane human oversight.

The exact motives for the Masquerade vary by individual. Generally, the most prevalent belief is fear of persecution. Mages and demi-humans frequently rationalize that through the exposure of their secret, humans will launch military-scale attacks out of fear. As many schools of magic pose threats that mundane humans are plainly unequipped to deal with, such as the [[Psychic magic|mind control]] of many [[Vampire|vampires]], such a hypothetical war is suspected to end in a conclusive victory for demi-humans and mages. Despite this, such a victory is projected to herald the casualties of, among others, humans who are falsely suspected to be mages, demi-humans such as many subspecies of [[Harpy|harpies]] who are weaker than humans, and mages who are genuinely interested in the betterment of humanity such as magical epistemologists.

Another common belief that is often used to justify the Masquerade, though often frowned upon from within and without, is the notion of supremacy conferred by magical powers, especially demi-human nature. Certain communities of mages view themselves as inherently superior to humans by virtue of their powers and through their exclusive nature. This belief is typically countered by the viewpoint that the ability to wield magic is a skill, and thus is not a privilege, but rather the result of innate ability, with no inherent difference between the average human and a mage. Despite this, it remains the foundation of the [[Coalition]], a defunct criminal organization in Offetstine, which during its height was exclusive to demi-humans and quite prevalent.

== Concepts ==

=== Demi-humanity ===

''Full article: [[Demi-human]]''

'''Demi-humans''' are a rare and diverse class of magical species that roughly demonstrate some form of humanity, usually in the form of sapience and humanlike bodies. While their exact nature is difficult to pinpoint, demi-humans are most often the result of magic affecting the body of an otherwise biologically human individual (such as with [[Vampire|vampires]] and [[Harpy|harpies]]), or causing a humanlike entity to manifest in a human-populated area (such as with [[Spirit|spirits]] and [[Deity|deities]]).

While demi-humans are magical in nature, only a subset of them are themselves mages. Most demi-humans have magical abilities and powers, commonly including shapeshifting and various psychic powers, and they are generally not considered to be mages in their own right. Only some demi-humans are able to command a full, general-purpose school of magic and are considered mages.

=== Magical epistemology ===

'''Magical epistemology''' is the idea, named for its respective branch of philosophy, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology epistemology], that magic is a fundamental branch of the pursuit of knowledge as it pertains to humanity and demi-humanity. Many fields of science (especially anthropological and humanitarian, such as archeology and medicine) and magic regularly overlap in scope, and to that extent, it usually benefits mundane humans and mages alike to ensure that information and knowledge is exchanged between the two parties.

While no overt relations can exist as a consequence of the Masquerade, and under threat of the endangerment of many humans at the hands of more powerful mages, and vice versa, mages of the belief of magical epistemology often attempt to communicate knowledge and best practices across the barrier.

Despite this, due to the fact that magic often has a knack for violating certain laws of physics, especially [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_energy those of thermodynamics], and the exact nature of this relation prevents many magical innovations from reaching the human world, or even being used to affect large swathes of people.

Some mages have used their talent to excel at human arts, such as the somewhat infamous schoolteacher, mathematician and aerospace researcher [[Eliza Teak]], who has markedly used her magic to aid with space travel, chemical production and engineering and silicon fabrication. However, this is a niche use case and magic remains a largely private art.

=== Will of the People ===

One of the most prevalent ideas of magic in Offetstine is that concepts are often reified by nature that are prevalent in the minds of people, often referred to concretely as the '''Will of the People.''' Many concepts in the world of Offetstine, including magical species such as [[Spirit|spirits]] and [[Deity|deities]], are usually considered to be born only because of their prevalence in the minds of people.

Similarly, many common species, especially those that have notable ties to folklore such as most subspecies of [[vampire]] may usually trace their progeny back to a time and place in which the folklore was especially culturally prominent, such as in fictional storytelling, religious mythology or superstition, again implying that they were "willed into existence", as it were, by the people.

The exact mechanism of this phenomenon is still unknown, and notoriously difficult to harness despite the abundance of humans who have attempted to leverage this known phenomenon to confer magical power unto themselves. The relation of this power to social concepts of ethics and sympathy is unknown.

Necromancy

2023-11-13T06:52:17Z

Midori Nishikawa: a bunch of ideas 🧟

'''Necromancy''' is a school of [[magic]] that consists of the revival of individuals, whether mundane human or animal or [[demi-human]], who have died and whose [[Soul|souls]] have passed to the [[afterlife]]. The process may involve the retrieval of the soul from the afterlife and the reconstruction of the body of the deceased, and the result is an [[wikipedia:Undead|undead]] demi-human body that lends at least in part from the original deceased. Necromancy is highly stigmatized in certain cultures, both mundane in reference to the practice as it appears in common mythology and fiction, and in communities of mages who typically associate themselves with holiness and righteousness, who often believe that necromancy is paramount to [[wikipedia:Playing_God_(ethics)|playing god]].

Despite this stigma, necromancers believe the art can still be practiced ethically, often seeking informed consent for the revival of the deceased from their survivors, or from the soul itself as it exists in the afterlife. Some practices of necromancy outright refuse to work if the soul of the deceased is not willing to cooperate, which means they can only ever be used consensually.

Necromancy is widely considered an extremely difficult school of magic, though simpler forms of it can be learned with relative ease compared to other practices of magic. Generally, the closer an undead subject resembles their original form, the more difficult necromancy is to perform. However, all forms of necromancy demand that the practitioner has an extremely deep understanding of the nature of the soul and the afterlife, whether the specific revival they are performing involves returning a deceased soul to its own body, reanimating a body with a new soul, or giving a deceased soul a body to inhabit.

== Forms ==
Necromancy exists broadly in two forms, indiscriminate and focused, although some scholars of magic and necromancers argue that these forms lie along a single continuum or spectrum, especially considering how some forms of necromancy do not fit cleanly in either of the two categories.

=== Indiscriminate ===
Indiscriminate necromancy aims to revive the dead with the intention of the body being subservient to the necromancer as a master, and is almost always a [[Necromancy#Simple|simple necromancy]]. The soul that inhabits the revived body is typically either not the original soul, or heavily corrupted through the magic of the demi-human form granted to the body. Bodies revived through practices of indiscriminate necromancy are frequently unrecognizable to their original selves and often do not retain any memory or personality from their original life. They frequently identify as entirely different people, and practitioners of indiscriminate necromancy tend to see these undeads as far more disposable.

=== Focused ===
Focused necromancy aims to revive the dead with the specific intention of bringing someone back to life. While no form of necromancy allows a human to be revived as a human, focused necromancies typically allow the undead something resembling their original life. Focused necromancies are often very involved, and are usually [[Necromancy#Composite|composite necromancies]], although there are some examples of focused necromancies being simple.

The term "focused necromancy" is generally used to refer to the act of performing a necromancy that attempts to revive someone from the dead, but is also sometimes applied to the task of reviving a body with a non-native soul in order to give that soul a body. This latter case is sometimes practiced by some cults who hail a [[demon]] as their leader and who wish to give them a body to inhabit. However, since the necromancies are not typically performed at a high level or with powerful practices, if the person was killed to make way for the foreign soul, the original soul often clings onto the body that they died in, and can sometimes oust the foreign soul and regain control over their body as a demi-human.

Generally, a good focused necromancy, which revives the original body with a high level of fidelity, low mental distortion and little signs of physical disability, is considered a vaunted art. While it is impossible to revive a human as precisely human, actively practitioning necromancers frequently tout it as the gold standard that can always be approached but never reached. The act of legitimate revival, such that the undead feels comfortable in their own body and does not demonstrate significant physiological or cognitive behavioral changes, is considered a test of the mettle of a seasoned necromancer.

== Practices ==
Practices of necromancy can generally be divided into two categories, simple and composite. Despite their names, practices of necromancy both simple and composite are rich and full of nuance. The term refers to the number of spells and rituals involved, since simple necromancies are atomic or require at most single adjunct spells such as post-revival care, while composite necromancies are intricate and often tedious processes which can take weeks or, in extreme cases, even years.

=== Simple ===
Simple necromancies use single spells or rituals to perform all components pertaining to the revival of a deceased, and while these forms of necromancy are usually easier to perform, they are less powerful and do not closely resemble the idealized notion of bringing back the dead as-is. Simple necromancies are usually performed to raise armies for battle, or other cases where the individual identity of each party being raised is not as important as the number of undeads that can be produced. These practices are usually learned by human [[Alchemy|alchemists]], or demi-humans such as [[Vampire|vampires]] and [[Lich|liches]] who have endeavors of conquest in mind. Simple necromancies were especially common before the [[Masquerade]], although in recent centuries it has faded.

Simple necromancies include:

* todo :3

=== Composite ===
Other practices of necromancy, called composite necromancies, involve the study of separate rituals to individually mend the deceased's body and mind, to retrieve their soul from the afterlife or to summon a new soul to inhabit the body, and medical practices of both mundane and magical nature to nurse the undead back to health after their revival. While these forms of necromancy are generally far more complex to study, they may yield better results.

Composite necromancies often consist of separate procedures to amend the body in unnatural manners through the use of magic, to regenerate lost tissue including brain matter and to give the target soul a comfortable place to reside in the body, and targeted rituals to draw the desired soul from the afterlife, especially accounting for the tension that often exists when trying to bring a long-dead soul back from the afterlife, and the tendency for other souls, especially souls from the [[underworld]] that do not yet have a body and want to inhabit one, to leap at the chance. Composite necromancies are more likely to fail, and performing a composite necromancy frequently takes multiple people.

In some cases, composite necromancies have been used with the intention of using a body as a vessel for a particular soul, often one from the underworld. Typically, this ritual is considered a form of possession and is frequently used to give [[Demon|demons]] their form, but at a technical level, it is a necromancy. Frequently, the host body is killed at the moment it is needed to accept its host, which often prevents the original soul from fully leaving their body. This has led to cases of bodies being simultaneously controlled by two souls or, in especially rare cases, the original soul regaining control over their body after it was sacrificed to be inhabited by another. This simultaneous control situation makes a spectator more likely to believe that the body is possessed, similar to how some [[Spirit|spirits]] function, rather than undead.

Composite necromancies include:

* todo :3

[[Category:Schools of magic]]

Hunter's Guild

2023-10-17T04:34:35Z

Midori Nishikawa: add category

{{Tentative}}
{{Infobox criminal organization
|name=Bishops
|insignia=[[File:Bishops_logo.png]]
|caption=The insignia used by the Bishops following its rename from the Hunter's Guild.
|cognomina=Hunter's Guild ''(former, colloquial)''
Guild ''(abbrev., colloquial)''
|date_founded=
|founder=[[Evi Snijder]]
|num_members=8 ''(outer circle)''{{Amend}}
26 ''(inner circle)''
|admittance=Excluding [[Vampire|vampires]]
|relations=[[Serpents]] ''(rival)''
}}

The '''Bishops,''' formerly and colloquially known as the '''Hunter's Guild,''' are a [[Criminal organizations|criminal organization]] and guild of [[vampire]] hunters in [[Offetstine]]. It is split into two halves, the "inner circle" consisting of humans that have full knowledge of the state of the organization and target vampires directly, and the "outer circle" consisting of mixed human and [[demi-human]] recruits, naturally excluding [[Vampire|vampires]], who behave as a more traditional criminal organization.

== History ==

Despite its present incarnation being a criminal organization the likes of the [[Serpents]] or [[Ringleaders]], the Hunter's Guild was initially exclusively a guild of vampire hunters.

=== Inception ===

The Hunter's Guild was founded by Hera Kraus and a loose collective of fellow vampire hunters, Agnes Lenz and Lewis Pickering, operating in Offetstine over 120 years ago, where one of the predominant vampire subspecies at the time, ''<abbr title="Infernalis Sanguis">S.</abbr> Consili,'' was especially prolific. ''S. Consili'' was inherently predisposed to evil and at the time was directly responsible for a large portion of violent crime in [[Offetstine]]. Despite this, they were able to evade police capture under the auspices of the [[Masquerade]], making them a prime target for underground organizations such as the then-nascent Guild.

When one of its founding members, Lenz, was turned into an [[Eris vampire]], ''S. Erisi''<ref>Unlike ''S. Consili,'' vampires of the subspecies ''S. Erisi'' are not morally predisposed in any way, and are often benign.</ref>, and another, Pickering, was deemed compromised by Lenz's compulsion, they were subsequently assassinated by Kraus, leaving her the only remaining founding member of the guild. Despite this, in her death, Lenz specifically implored Kraus to continue her work in the Guild. Kraus remained as a vampire hunter until her retirement to entrust the guild to her progeny, and eventual death to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumonia pneumonia] in 1937.

During its foundation, the Guild was purported to have a flat structure. However, as it grew larger, the guild required leadership to keep it on track. At the time, Hera Kraus, being the de facto leader, was entrusted with the title. Upon her retirement, the title was passed down hereditarily through a series of near-unanimous votes by the members of the Guild. The last of these hereditary leaders was Duško Kraus, a controversial leader who was known for his belief in [[magical epistemology]] and his practice of recruiting hunters fresh out of secondary education, including [[Evi Snijder]], then a fresh graduate of [[Offetstine Secondary School]], who he saw as his foremost protégé.

Duško Kraus eventually voluntarily turned himself into a ''S. Consili'' vampire and attempted to capture and sexually assault Snijder, at which he was killed by her after a fierce altercation. The Guild bestowed the title of leader upon her unanimously in light of Kraus's passing, citing sympathy for the events that transpired and her lasting injury, and her fierce character that suited her to leadership.

=== Reestablishment ===

Eventually, the Hunter's Guild came to target [[Sonia Versace]], leader of the [[Serpents]], another criminal organization in Offetstine. As this was after the fall of the [[Coalition]], the Serpents had amassed significant tenure across Offetstine, claiming most of the town's northern half as its territory. As it was otherwise impossible to directly do combat with Versace due to her shielded nature, Snijder decided to reestablish the Hunter's Guild as a criminal organization to ensure their chances of success.

At the time, the Hunter's Guild consisted of 26 members including Snijder herself, hairstylist and Guild spy Regina Winters, and former security guard and Guild frontliner Felix Seward. Snijder came together with with Winters and Seward to form the "outer circle" of the Hunter's Guild, a criminal organization set to compete with the [[Serpents]] from without, allowing human recruits to take the fall on investigative missions in place of Snijder and her "inner circle".

Publicly, the Hunter's Guild was initially proposed as a strategy to "fight fire with fire" and mitigate the rise of gang warfare in Offetstine, which has been especially prevalent since the fall of the [[Coalition]]. Despite their stated purpose, the outer circle is known for [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racketeering racketeering] and, to an extent, violent crime targeting civilians. The organization is known for its boisterous nature and habit of overstepping its territory, specifically under the guidance of Snijder and Seward, in hopes of getting close to Versace.

=== Renaming ===

As the "Hunter's Guild" moniker eventually grew stale and did not fit the prescribed brand of the outer circle, the Guild was renamed to the Bishops a few months after its founding. The new name draws from its eponymous piece in the game of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess chess], wherein each player starts with two bishops which may each only travel to half the squares on the board, and are restricted to a single [https://www.chessprogramming.org/Color_of_a_Square color complex]. Furthermore, it draws from the term for a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop type of clergyman], under Snijder's characterization of the inner circle as an organization that rids the [[Greater Offetstine Area]] of the purported evil of vampirism, and the outer circle as an organization that rids it of the purported evil of [[Criminal organizations|gang warfare]].

Under its new name, the Bishops use an insignia of their respective chess piece. The symbol is not widely recognized in the outer circle, but used in official communication all the same.

== Notes ==

<references />
[[Category:Criminal organizations]]

Sonia's Serpents

2023-10-17T04:33:42Z

Midori Nishikawa: Redirected page to Serpents

#REDIRECT: [[Serpents]]

Serpents

2023-10-17T04:33:06Z

Midori Nishikawa: add category

{{Stub}}

{{Infobox criminal organization
|name=Sonia's Serpents
|insignia=[[File:Serpents logo.png]]
|date_founded=<abbr title="circa">c.</abbr> 1941
|founder=[[Sonia Versace]]
|relations=[[Coalition]] ''(rival, former)''
[[Ringleaders]] ''(rival)''

[[Bishops]] ''(rival)''
}}

The '''Serpents,''' known more precisely internally as '''Sonia's Serpents,''' are a criminal organization in [[Offetstine]] founded by the [[vampire]] and mafioso [[Sonia Versace|Sonia "Venom" Versace]] <abbr title="circa">c.</abbr> 1941, when she emigrated from the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States United States] citing persecution for her criminal activities and took it upon herself to found a new criminal empire in England. Since following the disbandment of the [[Coalition]], many of their old members were recruited by the Serpents, they are considered by some as a "Neo-Coalition", a term more traditionally used to refer to the [[Ringleaders]] and other organizations that spawned at the time and recruited old members of the organization; however, this classification is rebuked by some as the Serpents were over 50 years old at the time the Coalition disbanded.

After the Ringleaders, the Serpents are the second-largest criminal organization by territory in Offetstine, with about three-fifths the territory in terms of area. Before the disbandment of the Coalition, they only controlled a small region in the city center. Their territory is chiefly contested by the [[Bishops]], a criminal organization which arose from a vampire hunting guild chiefly in response to the Serpents being headed by a vampire; as such, the Bishops positions itself as an organization against organized crime, and frequently intrudes on Serpent territory. In addition, the Serpents are rivaled to the Ringleaders, and formerly the Coalition.

Ostensibly, both publicly and to lower-ranking members of the organization, the Serpents are headed by a group of managers of equal status, who have earned their title from longstanding contribution to the organization; however, they ultimately defer to Versace for official matters. Though Versace is not actively involved in the field any longer, she does occasionally present herself to members of her organization as another such manager.

== History ==

Born into the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_in_the_United_States Prohibition era] in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City New York City], Versace has been involved in the criminal underworld for the majority of her life. She was turned into a [[vampire]] at 25 years old and joined the organization of her sire, though it eventually dissolved, and by 1941, she determined she needed to emigrate from the United States citing her criminal past and violent practices. She forged a new identity in [[Offetstine]], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England England] and eventually began to recruit members to build out a new criminal organization.

During the period, Versace also established the Versace Heritage Butchery, a front for her operations and a purported family business, which she identified herself as the matrilineal heir of when the assumed identity of her mother became too old for her [[Immortality|immortal]] body. Over the next five decades, she slowly expanded the scope of her nascent criminal organization, and was mostly uncontested in the mundane human space, with most potential competitors being quickly edged out. The primary contest to the Serpents came from the Coalition, which, despite its small membership of only about 60 members,{{Amend}} proved proved formidable due to its demi-human exclusivity, as its members were typically proportionally more powerful.

When the Coalition eventually disbanded, some analysts hypothesized that the Serpents were involved, orchestrating the assassination of its vampiric leader [[Raja]], or other such. These hypotheses have been contested by later committee analyses, noting that despite the enigmatic nature of the Coalition's leadership, the primary muscle of the Serpents was human, and the organization was poorly equipped to contest the vampire. [[Raja#Proxies|Nere Szwedko]], the only member of the Coalition who was directly familiar with its founder and leader at the time and who did not disappear after its disbandment, refused comment on the affair, noting she wanted to put all affairs of the Offetstine underground behind her.

Despite this, after the disbandment of the Coalition in 1997, the Serpents specifically campaigned to recruit as many as possible of the organization's former members, making such promises as a quick path to the upper echelons of the Serpents, and a meritocratic attitude which the Coalition was reputed to sorely lack. They successfully enlisted about one-third of the former members, though precise numbers are not public. While the total sum of the recruitment effort, about 20 people, was seemingly diminutive, their [[demi-human]] identities and strong [[Magic|magical]] powers were identified as significant assets for the Serpents, enabling them to rapidly expand and seriously contest the nascent Ringleaders.

To date, while the Serpents are embroiled in conflict with the Bishops and Ringleaders, they have not made any significant moves. While members regularly engage in racketeering and other criminal activities, the broad scope of the Offetstine criminal underworld has remained largely the same.
[[Category:Criminal organizations]]

User:Discord-191999893978480641/Student AU

2023-10-09T02:36:41Z

Midori Nishikawa: mostly just write about Modeste, proofread the rest of it, still need to write about Constance

The Student AU is an informally defined [[wikipedia:Alternative_universe_(fan_fiction)|alternate universe]] where many characters from the world of Offetstine are reimagined as students, often with completely different backgrounds to their canon selves.

== Setting ==
The Student AU is set within and around [[Cedar Crest University]], in an indeterminate mid-late 2000s timeframe. With very few exceptions, each character has had their occupation replaced with studying a relevant course. Many characters have also been relocated to nearby student accommodation, with others usually somewhere else within [[Winthorpe]].

== Character Changes ==

=== Clover Lamont ===
Lamont is no longer a vampire or associated with firearms, instead studying [[wikipedia:Forensic_science|forensic science]] while taking part in inter-school [[wikipedia:Mixed_martial_arts|MMA]] events (a sport which, in this universe, got as out-of-hand as football did with American schools). She is frequently seen wearing workout clothes with a long coat, and at least one visible injury, usually a bandaged eye.

=== Modeste Daniau ===
As in her respective canon, [[User:Discord-317484070127009793/Modeste Daniau|Modeste Daniau]] is the assumed vampiric identity of Serena Markov following a bout of amnesia, she is represented in the Student AU as two individuals rather than one. In the AU, Markov and Daniau are twins who take their surnames from their parents, as neither of them wished to assume the surname of the other, as is [[wikipedia:Maiden_and_married_names|otherwise common]] in marriage in the English-speaking world.

In the Offetstine canon, Daniau has criminal ties with the [[Coalition]] due to being groomed by the organization official Athena as an assassin. However, in the Student AU, Daniau and Markov owe their wealth to their mother, Stirling Markov. Due to her name, she was often mistaken for a man during her life, and quickly became a formidable force in the Winthorpe [[Criminal organizations|criminal underworld]], before voluntarily turning herself into a vampire after learning about [[Demi-human|demi-humanity]]. She was allied with the [[Ringleaders]] since her transformation and has amassed a significant amount of wealth, generally suspended in stocks and non-liquid assets, before bequeathing it to her husband and children following her death in a [[wikipedia:Motorcycle_stunt_riding|motorcycle stunt]] crash. The father of the Daniau-Markov family is Clément Daniau, who in Offetstine canon is Modeste's father.

Much like her canon self before her death, Markov is studying [[wikipedia:Computer_science|computer science]], specializing in [[wikipedia:Computational_science|scientific computing]], as her introduction to the field of computer science was through the video game market of the 1990s. Despite being human, she has a brash and outspoken personality, and as such is frequently mistaken for her younger twin, the more soft-spoken Daniau. She is not shy about her parent's criminal ties and figures that while it may endanger her as a survivor, she has no reservations about living life to the fullest especially with her inherited assets. Despite this, she is reputed as a loyal and dependable friend.

In contrast to this, Daniau is reimagined as having been turned into a vampire by Stirling. Her cautious and soft-spoken nature are more prominent in the Student AU than in canon, and she attempts to live as human a life as she can, though she is not unwilling to use her powers to defend her friends and family, including Markov. Daniau is studying the [[wikipedia:Culinary_arts|culinary arts]] and aspires to be a [[wikipedia:Chef|chef]]. She openly denounces her mother's criminal ties and ill-begotten wealth, and is ashamed of her vampirism, though it has led her and Markov closer to the magical scene in Cedar Crest. Daniau shares a [[wikipedia:Dormitory|dormitory]] with Constance Vivas.

=== Constance Vivas ===
todo :3

Test

2023-09-16T23:56:23Z

Midori Nishikawa: modeste

Hello, world!

== A Christmas Carol ==

<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Serena</span> was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of her burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Athena signed it: and Athena’s name was good upon ’Change, for anything she chose to put her hand to. Young Serena was as dead as a door-nail.

Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Serena was as dead as a door-nail.

Athena knew she was dead? Of course she did. How could it be otherwise? Athena and she were partners for I don’t know how many years. Athena was her sole executor, her sole administrator, her sole assign, her sole residuary legatee, her sole friend, and sole mourner. And even Athena was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that she was an excellent lady of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.