Second Dawn: Victoria Tillman
From EryriWiki
This is a reference document for the LARP The Second Dawn.
Contents |
[edit] Victoria Tillman
Player: Sarah Hersman Immortal traveler, last Knight of Avalon
Age: 348/20ish
Additional Information (read first):
[edit] Background
You were born in 2078, in the old days before the Cataclysm. You grew up in Newport, surrounded by wealth and privilege, until you went away to Brown University in 2096. Among the other students there, you learned how the rest of the world lived, how the wealthy and the government had scoured and spoiled the world’s resources, with countless billions living in marginalized poverty. Disillusioned, you dropped out before the end of the first semester, and went to live in a Green commune out in south central Massachusetts. While many of the Green organizations were violent guerillas, your home was a place of safety, where you farmed and lived in peace, though you knew that many of the travelers who came through would, when they left, go shoot at cars on the highway.
To this day, you still feel guilty over your initial joy when you heard of the Cataclysm’s start. You heard how your brethren and allies sacked the bombed cities, bringing down the monstrous. But, in the chaos of the aftermath, things began getting worse everywhere, as the Greens and rebels and religious fanatics struggled for the ever-dwindling pie. Your isolated commune stayed together for more than a decade, taking in stragglers and wanderers, farming and foraging and staying hidden from the spreading madness. Those were the years when it first became obvious that you weren’t aging. They didn’t last long, in the greater scheme of things; bandits eventually found you, stealing what they could and burning the rest. You fled with a man named Ed Archibald, another “ageless” young man who had settled down for some years after wandering in.
After the commune’s failure, you were both disillusioned, but unlike Ed, you were angry. He just wanted to settle down and figure out what to do with immortality in a ruined world, but you knew what you wanted. He helped you find and prepare a boat, and provision it for a great journey across the Atlantic Ocean. After all, if the three Great Powers of the old world had destroyed each other, shouldn’t the small nonaligned nations like the city-states of Europe still stand?
You sailed across the sea, eventually making it to Europe and out into the land. You spent long decades crossing the continent, stopping for a decade or two in the most memorable places. All throughout, you were disappointed. They too had been ruined in the Cataclysm, living like iron-age villages amidst the blackened ruins of the old world. In some places, great feudal cities had arisen, with the last vestiges of technology used to enthrall hordes of serfs, lining up to give tithes in exchange for access to a water purifier or the like. Soon enough, you found that almost all of these feudal lords were Ageless like yourself; this was how they gathered the power, and retained the knowledge, that made them who they were. Ageless yourself, you gained access to their courts, but the pageantry there quickly left a sour taste in your mouth. They all wanted nothing more than to conquer and rule in order to give themselves lives of ease and power. Each place was the same, whether at war or peace; disgusting little kingdoms, each alike in its pettiness.
Finally your travels led you across the channel to Britain. There, at last, you found a place with some idealism and beauty at its core. The Kingdom of Avalon, ruled by an Ageless named Arthur Cobb (“King Arthur”), was slowly developing into a place of learning and peace. They recovered the technologies of the Ancients with an eye to preservation and knowledge, and Arthur was developing an educational system, so that he could eventually devolve power back to the people. It was a glorious place, and you stayed there for nearly 50 years. With your knowledge of the pathetic places that a nation could easily become, you became one of his closest councilors and friends; you were a Knight of Avalon. Not a warrior, but still a guardian of that glorious land, holding the knowledge of the Ancients and guiding the people back to it.
All that ended in 299. The King of Brittany sent his forces across the channel, storming north while a secret alliance with the unaligned highland-folk opened another front from the opposite direction. All its wisdom and learning and peace had left Avalon unprepared for war. In a matter of weeks, his castle was besieged, and the ancient weapons of Brittany far outpaced those defending the Tower of Avalon. When a missile stove in the tower’s walls, falling stone shattered Excalibur, the symbol of Arthur’s reign.
That’s when he sent you on your last and most important duty. He gave you the broken Excalibur, and entrusted you with taking it to safety and finding someone worthy of wielding it. As he and the other ageless Knights defended his keep, you boarded a prepared stealth boat on a secret canal, out down the Thames and eventually to the sea. With nowhere else to go, you set your course westwards.
It took you nearly 30 years to return to America. You took the northern routes, via Ireland and Iceland and Greenland, the cold and frequent starvation stressing your ageless body to its limits. At long last, a week ago, your half-broken boat sailed under cover of night into Naragansett Bay. You have spent the last few days foraging on the city’s fringes, listening to the local rumors, and learning what you had to do.
First, you had to get aboard this boat: not too hard, their security seemed surprisingly disorganized. Here, you will be able to find people of power and importance to whom you can tell your tale. The people of America have prosperity, peace, nations that care for their citizens; from the rumors you hear, even the Plains States provide a far better standard of living than you ever saw in Europe. You must help these people understand how fortunate they are to have what they have. Given what they do have, you want to live here at last, where they have railroads and spaceships and clean water. And, of course, you must find someone worthy of wielding Excalibur.
There is one last thing you wish to do here, a theory you’ve developed from all you’ve seen. Ageless, people like you, are dangerous. You know too much, live too long, and have the capacity for too much power. The one truly unique feature about the Eastern Union is its Tinkers, its remnants of the old scientists; they must be what have allowed it to become the paradise it is today. You aren’t quite sure yet, because it means betraying your own kind, but you fear that the only way to ensure that America never goes the way of Europe may be to inform the Tinkers about the existence of the Ageless.
[edit] Roleplaying notes
Despite all the centuries you have seen, your personality has changed little. You’re a passionate idealist, with little patience for those who have taken power by force, or who abuse the trust given to them by the people. You have much more moral courage than physical. You would prefer a quiet life for yourself, but are proud of the duties you have carried out. Despite the glamour of Avalon, the modernity of the Eastern Union still leaves you a bit awestruck.
[edit] Goals
- Find someone worthy of wielding Excalibur.
- Decide whether or not to inform the Tinkers about the Ageless.
- Acquire Eastern Union citizenship.
- Help all the people of America understand their good fortune.
[edit] Opinions
- Second Dawn: Amazing, that the Union can build a spaceship, a mere three centuries after the Cataclysm!
- Black science: Such things should only be handled by those with the knowledge to do so safely.
- Tinkers: While they too keep the wisdom of the Ancients, they share the same mortal perspective as the rest of mankind.
- Eastern Union: No place in Europe is half as clean and comfortable and prosperous as here, except the now-destroyed Kingdom of Avalon. They have done so much for so many people here; this city alone contains as many people as all Avalon!
- Religion: You used to be a Gaian, back when such beliefs were rare. You don’t think much about religion these days.
[edit] Key Information
- You can identify heroic people who might make good candidates for wielding Excalibur. However, the best candidate need not be such a hero. The right candidate would be someone who’d be a good leader and wise steward, committed to the good of mankind, and willing to claim their place as rightful king of England. (That last requires both a moral stand and real action, if not necessarily immediate; Brittany’s conquering military was formidable.)
- While you are worthy to carry Excalibur, you do not consider yourself up to the task of wielding it. Your mission is to find another, not keep it for yourself.
- Excalibur is currently broken. Having it fixed would be nice, but not strictly necessary; its symbolic power as sign of Avalon’s kingship is not dependent on the sword’s old function as a weapon.
- You returned to America less than a week ago; you only know what you’ve heard on the streets since then. You got on the launch platform by stowing away.
- In order to get Union citizenship tonight, you will need to either marry (or at least become engaged to) a Union person, or get special dispensation from the Minister of the Interior or the President himself.
- Having seen the damage done by Ageless in Europe, you are considering “selling out” their secret existence to the Tinkers. This is not a step to be taken lightly, so discuss with Edward (the one you can trust), and perhaps have him introduce you to others in the area to you can judge them. You probably shouldn’t tell any of those other Ageless about that idea, they might react badly.
[edit] People (in approximate order of importance)
- Edward Archibald (?): There he is, the man who helped send you on your adventure so long ago. It’s good to see a familiar face after all these centuries. You’d want his advice and input before you consider explaining your presence to the Tinkers; he’s one person you know you can trust.
- Artair Tinker, Minister of Sciences (Jed S): The leader of the Tinkers. Perhaps he should be the one to whom you should speak eventually. However, it may be wise to talk to some of the other Tinkers first, to get a sense of who they are, what they believe, and how they might respond.
- Beathag (Sue B), Ceallach (David B), Malamhin (Abrihette Y), Niallghas (Aaron B): Other Tinkers.
- Margaret Eisenhower, Minister of the Interior (Abbie P): She’s in charge of citizenship issues.
- Jules Dyer (Thomas L), Kenneth Sanford (?): These two seem like law-enforcement types; you might want to stay away from them, make sure they aren’t about to toss you overboard.
- Jonothan Grant, President of the Eastern Union (Ted M): The leader of this nation, you must tell him of the fates of Europe and Avalon. If you can impress him, he may be useful for pushing Eisenhower into giving you citizenship, though you don’t entirely understand how this Union government works.
[edit] Stats
[edit] Ratings
- Pilot: 1
- R: 1
- D: 2
- G: 3
[edit] Nametag Symbols
O, R
[edit] Attributes
- Physical: Defense 4 Pool Rating 3 [] [] []
- Mental: Defense 4 Pool Rating 3 [] [] []
- Social: Defense 4 Pool Rating 4 [] [] [] []
[edit] Recoveries
- Tell someone a story about Europe (+1 point, 3/hour)
- Tell someone a story about Avalon (+1 point, 2/hour)
- Show evidence of your lack of knowledge about America (+1 point, 2/hour)
[edit] Abilities
- Penetrating Insight
- survivor (x2)
- suspect
- charm
- fisticuffs
- attack
- entice
- convince
- aura of heroism
- who are you?
- what have you done?
- sneak
- theft
- a practiced eye
- virtual reality
[edit] Items
- Knife
- broken sword
[edit] Special Abilities
[edit] Virtual Reality
- System: Recognize an item with the “V” quality as virtual reality gear. You’d really like to get your hands on it and spend some time immersed in the comforts of the good old days, enjoying its best parts without any of its downsides.
[edit] Aura of Heroism
- System: Anyone with the “H” symbol strikes you as a brave and potentially heroic individual. These people may be worthy of Excalibur, though they may not be the only potentially worthy individuals.
[edit] Character Addition: An Old Friend
When you and Edward Archibald (unplayed) made it back to the grounds of old Providence, you met one other Ageless before you departed on your journey. A melancholy man named Donald Baxter (Jerry S), he had lost his young child just before the Cataclysm, and his wife during it. He was a very ordinary person, in a way you found trustworthy; with his newfound immortality, he just wanted to get back into the rhythms of a life, to work and live as he’d always done. He had been some kind of salesman in the old days, but he mentioned something about his wife wanting to join the Green militants. He and Edward helped you get and rebuild the boat that took you on your 300-year journey.
Edward doesn’t seem to be here at the party, at least not yet. But unless Don has changed a lot in the past three centuries, you should be able to confide in him; calm and reasonable, he was never the type to grasp at selfish power.
