Codex Noctis — The Complete Compendium
"This world is of blind entropy. The Wyrm's forces march ever-forth, and the leeches feed of man to shackle the beast within, clinging to they're fleeting humanity, our history buried with the bodies it hides. Wreathed in the decaying truth in the labryith of Malfeas. The world is of grutesque deceit, slaughter and massacre, the raging fires burn with... When will you let it out?"
White Wolf Publishing · Onyx Path Publishing
A gothic-punk universe where monsters are real, humanity is fading, and every night could be your last.
"Cities sprawl like infected wounds upon a diseased earth. The wilderness is not safe; the wild is receding. Even the stars seem cold and distant, offering no comfort to those who look up in desperate hope."— World of Darkness Core Setting Philosophy, White Wolf Publishing
The Classic World of Darkness (cWoD) is a shared setting first conceived by Mark Rein-Hagen, published by White Wolf beginning in 1991. The world is recognisably modern but darker — cities are corrupt, nature is retreating, and a hidden supernatural layer overlaps everything mortals see. Kindred rule cities in shadow. Garou patrol the spirit-soaked wilderness. Mages wage a secret war over the definition of reality. Hunters fight back with faith and fury.
After the original line concluded in 2004, Onyx Path Publishing revitalised the property with 20th Anniversary Editions beginning in 2011 — comprehensive hardcovers unifying decades of canon. V20 (2011), W20 (2012), M20 (2015), C20 (2016), and Wraith 20 (2018) are widely considered the pinnacle of Classic WoD design.
All Classic WoD games use a dice pool system built on d10s. Players roll Attribute + Ability against a Difficulty (usually 6). Each die meeting or exceeding Difficulty = one success. One success accomplishes the task; more successes = better outcome. A botch (more 1s than successes) = catastrophic failure.
The scariest thing in WoD is not the monster — it's what the character becomes trying to survive it. Stories explore moral compromise, loss of humanity, and the weight of power. Characters are not heroes — they are monsters trying to remember what humanity means.
All game lines share infrastructure: the physical world (Tellurian), the spirit Umbra, the Underworld (Shadowlands), and various supernatural planes. The Triat — Wyld, Weaver, Wyrm — governs the metaphysical forces shaping existence.
V20 (2011), W20 (2012), M20 (2015), C20 (2016), Wraith 20 (2018). Each collects all editions' canon into one authoritative volume. Self-contained, non-advancing-metaplot, and comprehensive. The recommended entry point for all Classic WoD play.
Paradox Interactive's fan content policy explicitly welcomes fan animations, audio dramas, actual plays, and creative works set in the WoD universe. This enabled Hunter: The Parenting and Norfolk Wizard Game — a contrast to Games Workshop's zero-tolerance policy.
Characters are defined by nine Attributes (Physical/Social/Mental × 3 each), Abilities (Talents/Skills/Knowledges), supernatural powers, Backgrounds, Virtues, and Humanity/morality tracks. 15 Freebie Points allow customisation after the core build.
Onyx Path Publishing · 2011–Present
Definitive hardcovers representing the pinnacle of Classic World of Darkness design.
Released October 2011. 560+ pages. Every clan, bloodline, discipline, and tradition in one definitive tome. The Kickstarter that proved massive demand for Classic WoD still existed.
V20 presents vampiric existence as personal horror and political intrigue. Each Kindred balances the Beast (predatory, inhuman drive) against whatever Humanity remains. The core tension: how much of yourself will you sacrifice to survive?
Once philosopher-kings of Carthage, now passionate rebels. Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Presence. Weakness: fierce temper, difficult Frenzy rolls.
Feral wanderers. Each Frenzy adds an animal feature permanently. Disciplines: Animalism, Fortitude, Protean.
All are cursed with profound madness, yet share strange insight. Disciplines: Auspex, Dementation, Obfuscate.
Hideously deformed, Appearance 0 always. Masters of shadow and secrets. Disciplines: Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence.
Aesthetes entranced by beauty — they can freeze when witnessing it. Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Presence.
Mages who stole vampiric immortality. Blood-bound to Clan hierarchy. Disciplines: Auspex, Dominate, Thaumaturgy.
Blue-blooded aristocrats who lead the Camarilla. Can only feed from one mortal type. Disciplines: Dominate, Fortitude, Presence.
Masters of living shadow. Cast no reflection. Disciplines: Dominate, Obtenebration, Potence.
Terrifying fleshcrafters. Must sleep in native soil. Disciplines: Animalism, Auspex, Vicissitude.
Assassins and warriors. Tremere-cursed to crack when drinking Kindred blood. Disciplines: Celerity, Obfuscate, Quietus.
Necromantic crime family who consumed the Cappadocians. Disciplines: Dominate, Necromancy, Potence.
Wandering illusionists. Nightly compulsion to indulge a vice. Disciplines: Animalism, Chimerstry, Fortitude.
Worshippers of the Egyptian god Set. Extra vulnerability to holy light. Disciplines: Obfuscate, Presence, Serpentis.
The Camarilla — Founded 1486. Seven Clans. Enforces the Masquerade. Hierarchy: Prince → Primogen → Sheriff → Archon → Justicar → Inner Circle. Conservative, self-preserving, politically lethal.
The Sabbat — Violent religious sect. Practices Vaulderie (shared blood loyalty), Paths of Enlightenment (replacing Humanity), and Diablerie openly. Hierarchy: Regent → Cardinals → Archbishops → Bishops → Packs. Believes Kindred should rule openly and prepare to resist Gehenna.
The Anarchs — Self-determination movement. No formal hierarchy. Barons manage Free States. Greatest achievement: the Anarch Free State of California (Los Angeles).
Generation measures steps from Caine. 3rd = Antediluvians. 13th+ = thin-bloods. Lower generation = larger Blood Pool, more Discipline power. Diablerie (consuming another's soul) lowers Generation at severe moral cost.
Humanity 1–10. Hierarchy of sins at each level. Failing Degeneration checks costs Humanity permanently. At 0: wassail — total Beast dominance. Frenzy triggered by hunger, anger, fire, sunlight. Rotshreck = terror-frenzy from fire/sun.
① Masquerade ② Domain (Prince's law) ③ Progeny (Embrace with permission) ④ Accounting (sires responsible for childer) ⑤ Hospitality (announce to Prince on arrival) ⑥ Destruction (only Prince may order Final Death).
Animalism · Auspex · Celerity · Chimerstry · Dementation · Dominate · Fortitude · Necromancy · Obfuscate · Obtenebration · Potence · Presence · Protean · Quietus · Serpentis · Thaumaturgy · Vicissitude. Each rated 1–5 with Elder powers beyond.
Released 2012. All thirteen Tribes, five Auspices, full Umbra, and the complete war against the Wyrm in one volume.
Scouts, questioners, jesters. Lowest Rage. Challenge the status quo through cunning.
Shamans and spirit-speakers. Keepers of sacred Rites. Highest Gnosis.
Arbiters of Garou law. Mediators of conflict. Preserve the Litany.
Lorekeepers and storytellers. Preserve Garou history through song and howl.
Maximum Rage. Born to lead the charge. Highest combat potential.
Predominantly female warriors. Protect wild places and the divine feminine. Patron: Pegasus.
Scorned by all, know everything. Patron: Rat. Resilient and surprisingly wise.
Diplomats and healers. Believe internal Garou peace is essential. Patron: Unicorn.
Irish/Celtic warriors, poets, drinkers. Patron: Stag. Passionate and musical.
Value strength above all. Patron: Fenrir. Controversial racist sub-faction: Sword of Heimdall.
Most technologically advanced. Work within human corporate systems. Patron: City Fathers.
All born wolves. Deeply hostile to humanity. Patron: Griffin. Advocate human extinction.
Machiavellian Eastern European nobles. Patron: Grandfather Thunder. Seek to dominate the Nation.
Cursed by vampire Sutekh to wander forever. Nomadic lorekeepers. Patron: Owl.
Hereditary rulers. Noble and proud but afflicted with deepening hereditary madness. Patron: Falcon.
Buddhist warrior-monks. Left the Nation to join the Hengeyokai in W20. Patron: Chimera.
Guard dangerous lore and bind dark powers. Patron: Uktena (great serpent spirit).
Most traditionalist Pure Tribe. Hostile to European contamination. Patron: Wendigo.
Garou shall not mate with Garou (creates deformed Metis offspring). Combat the Wyrm wherever it dwells. Respect the territory of another. Accept an honourable surrender. Submit to those of higher station. The leader's word is law in times of war.
Released 2015. Over 700 pages — the largest single WoD book ever published. Definitive Mage rules and lore.
M20 is a game of cosmic ambition and philosophical war. Players are the Awakened — mages whose Will has shattered the shackles of consensus reality. The central question: who gets to define what is real?
The body as the path to Awakening. Physical discipline as metaphysical mastery.
All religions worship facets of one divine truth. Power through prayer and sacred song.
Sensation, passion, and altered consciousness as enlightenment. Drugs, music, extremity.
Indigenous shamans and spirit-workers worldwide. Hold deep Umbral knowledge.
Death as sacred transformation. Misunderstood assassin-healers. Fate as their canvas.
Classical European high magic from Alexandria. Formal and theoretical. Tremere's origin.
Aether, phlogiston, steam-punk engineering. Discarded science that still works via belief.
Blood, life-force, and primal cycles. Old Faith pagans and hedge mages.
Defected from Technocracy. Code as magic. Digital space as the next mystical frontier.
The universe's immune response to vulgar magic performed in front of Sleepers. Accumulates as a pool. Effects range from botch-additions to Paradox Spirits attacking the mage to catastrophic Backlash and imprisonment in a Paradox Realm. Coincidental magic (looks natural) generates no Paradox.
Iteration X (cyborg transhumanism) · New World Order (surveillance and social control) · Progenitors (biological engineering) · Syndicate (economic control) · Void Engineers (space and interdimensional exploration). Not simply villains — they have spent centuries making the world genuinely safer for ordinary humans.
Published 1999 (Revised 2000). The same world as the Big Three — seen from the only angle that matters: ordinary human beings who fight back.
Hunter begins as a human who witnesses something impossible and, instead of forgetting or going mad, is Imbued by the Messengers — mysterious beings who flood the hunter with supernatural perception and Edges (powers). The Imbuing cannot be reversed. You can never un-see the world as it really is.
Motivated by loss and rage. Hunt to destroy. Danger: become as monstrous as what you hunt.
Protect the innocent. Endure what others cannot. Power manifests as shielding.
Recently imbued, still questioning. See clearly but don't always understand what they see.
Apply justice systematically. Some monsters can be redeemed; others must be destroyed. Judges decide.
Believe their suffering powers their purpose. Most dangerous and most tragic Creed.
Believe monsters can be saved. Often naive. Occasionally right. Always controversial.
Not a Creed — a fate. Hunters who slip into indiscriminate killing. Monsters in human skin.
Combine Attribute (1–5) + Ability (0–5) for your pool. Roll all dice against Difficulty (usually 6). Each die ≥ Difficulty = one success. 1s subtract successes. One success = task done. More = better. Botch (more 1s than successes) = catastrophic failure.
① Initiative: Dexterity + Wits + d10 roll. ② Declare actions (reverse order). ③ Attack: Dexterity + combat Ability vs. Difficulty 6. ④ Damage: Strength/weapon damage + attack successes vs. Difficulty 6. ⑤ Soak: Stamina vs. Difficulty 6 to reduce damage. Bashing = anyone can soak. Lethal = supernatural toughness required. Aggravated = requires Fortitude or specific powers.
① Concept/Nature/Demeanour ② Attributes: Primary 7 pts / Secondary 5 pts / Tertiary 3 pts ③ Abilities: Primary 13 / Secondary 9 / Tertiary 5 ④ Advantages (powers, Backgrounds) ⑤ Finishing: Humanity usually 7, Willpower from Virtues, 15 Freebie Points (Attribute=5pts, Ability=2pts, Discipline=7pts, Background=1pt, Willpower=1pt).
Complete Lore Archive · All Game Lines
Every faction, character, event, and secret of the Classic World of Darkness — exhaustively catalogued.
From Caine's curse to the coming of Gehenna — the complete mythology of the Kindred.
The Biblical Cain murdered Abel and was cursed by God: to walk in darkness, burn in sunlight, thirst only for blood, and bear the Mark forever. He wandered to the land of Nod, discovered his immortal curse, and eventually sired three childer (the Second Generation). These three made their own childer — the Antediluvians, founders of the thirteen Clans.
Caine gathered his bloodline in the First City (Enoch). God destroyed it in the Flood. The scattered Kindred began the long game of the Jyhad. The Book of Nod — Kindred apocryphal scripture — contains fragments of prophecy, history, and dark verse attributed to Caine himself. Multiple contested translations exist.
Gehenna is the prophesied ending — the night the Antediluvians wake from torpor to devour their descendants. Signs: proliferating thin-bloods, awakening elders, darkening stars, the Week of Nightmares (1999) as a preview. V20 deliberately leaves it unresolved — Storytellers choose their own canon.
Published Gehenna scenarios: Wormwood (biblical cataclysm), Fair is Foul (Caine returns), The Crucible of God (mortal judgment), Nightshade (Antediluvians actually feed). Each offers a different answer. Golconda — mythical inner peace, the Beast truly tamed — is the alternative to Gehenna: salvation through enlightenment rather than apocalypse.
The Week of Nightmares (1999): The Ravnos Antediluvian Zapathasura briefly awoke in Bangladesh. Three ancient Ravnos (the Bodhisattvas) sacrificed themselves to help destroy him. Clan Ravnos was nearly annihilated. A devastating preview of full Gehenna.
The Camarilla was founded 1486. Its Inner Circle — one elder per founding Clan — established the Six Traditions. Princes govern cities. Archons and Justicars enforce law across cities. Conservative, hierarchical, and focused on survival.
The Sabbat emerged as a counter-movement. Practices Vaulderie, Paths of Enlightenment, and open Diablerie. Regent → Cardinals → Archbishops → Bishops → Packs. Believes Kindred are Gods among men who should rule openly and resist the Antediluvians rather than serve them.
The Anarch Movement dates to the 15th-century Anarch Revolt. Modern Anarchs range from idealists to nihilists to opportunists. The Free State of California (Los Angeles) is their greatest achievement — a region with no Prince. Governed by Barons.
Lucita de Aragón (Lasombra) — childe of Archbishop Moncada. Independent Anarch. One of the finest shadow-manipulators alive. Protagonist of Clan Novel: Lasombra trilogy.
Beckett (Gangrel) — Scholar archaeologist obsessed with Gehenna truth. Most well-travelled non-ancient Kindred. Author of Beckett's Jyhad Diary.
Hardestadt (Ventrue) — Camarilla founder. Widely suspected to have been killed and replaced by his own childe impersonating him.
Mithras (Ventrue, 4th Gen) — Ancient Prince of London for centuries. Operated openly during the Roman Empire.
Cities: Chicago (the definitive Kindred city; Menele the 5th-gen Brujah sleeps beneath it), Los Angeles (Anarch Free State), New York City (most contested), London (ancient Camarilla stronghold, home of Mithras), Vienna (Tremere Clan seat, Chantry of Seven Hills), Mexico City (largest Sabbat-controlled city).
From the Impergium to the edge of the Final Days — the complete mythology of the Garou.
The Impergium (~10,000–5,000 BCE) was a period when the Garou actively culled human populations — killing any settlement that grew "too large." This trauma is expressed today as the Delirium (species-level terror response to Crinos form). The Impergium ended when Garou acknowledged humanity as Gaia's chosen tool — but the damage was permanent.
The War of Rage was the Garou's unprovoked assault on the other Fera (Changing Breeds). The werebears, wereravens, werecrocodilians, and others were reduced to scattered remnants. This fractured Gaia's entire defensive network. The Croatan tribe — one of the three Pure Tribes — sacrificed itself entirely to seal a Wyrm entity during the colonisation of the Americas. Their loss echoes through the remaining Pure Tribes (Uktena, Wendigo) to this day.
Wyld — Primordial creation, chaos, infinite potential. Generates all new existence. Out of balance: formless madness.
Weaver — Order, pattern, structure. Takes the Wyld's raw creation and gives it form. Now catastrophically broken — obsessively crystallising everything into unchanging Pattern. The Weaver imprisoned the Wyrm in her Pattern Web, snapping her own balance. Modern technology, bureaucracy, and the Technocracy are her expressions. The Gauntlet thickens because of her.
Wyrm — Originally entropy and sacred transformation. Now insane. Imprisoned by the Weaver, it went mad. No longer transforms — corrupts, poisons, and devours. Agents: Pentex Corporation (global megacorp spreading Wyrm-corruption), Banes (corrupt spirits), and the Black Spiral Dancers (Garou corrupted into Wyrm-servants).
Garou enter the Umbra by "stepping sideways" — passing through the Gauntlet with a Gnosis roll. The Gauntlet's thickness varies: 3 at a powerful Caern, 9 at an airport or corporate HQ. The modern world thickens it everywhere.
Caerns are sacred sites where the Gauntlet is minimal and Gnosis flows freely. Each has a type (War, Wisdom, Healing) and a totem spirit. Defending Caerns is the central Garou duty.
The Ascension War, the fall of Horizon, and the battle for reality.
In ancient times, mages operated openly — shamans, priests, philosophers, and sorcerers who shaped early human civilisation were often genuinely Awakened. Before consensus reality solidified, vulgar magic was simply how the world worked.
The Order of Reason (predecessor to the Technocracy) rose in the late medieval period, arguing that a single, universal, rational model of reality would protect humanity from unchecked magical predation. They were not wrong. By the Renaissance, the Nine Mystick Traditions had formalised in opposition. The Council of Nine was founded — an uneasy alliance of incompatible worldviews that has been contentious ever since.
The Reckoning (1997, Revised-era metaplot): Nephandi assaulted and destroyed Horizon — the Traditions' Umbral stronghold — scattering and devastating the Council. M20 steps back from this endpoint, treating all eras as equally valid for play.
Nephandi — Mages whose Avatars have been inverted. They serve the Wyrm, alien Outer Lords in the Deep Umbra, or the abstract principle of Oblivion. Goal: dissolution of the Tellurian — the end of everything. Both Traditions and Technocracy agree they must be destroyed.
Marauders — Awakened mages driven entirely mad. Their Avatars have shattered. They continuously and unconsciously rewrite reality around themselves. Not malevolent — simply catastrophically insane. Encounters are reality-bending disasters.
Oracles — Mages who have achieved Ascension. Transcendent beings of near-omnipotent will. No longer inhabit the physical world in any normal sense. Appear only cryptically, apparently unable or unwilling to directly intervene.
Every human carries an Avatar — a higher spiritual self. Mages are those whose Avatar has burned through the mortal shell in the Awakening — a shattering, irreversible revelation that reality is malleable and subject to Will. Always deeply personal. Always different.
Avatar Types: Dynamic (change and creation), Pattern (structure and order), Primordial (dissolution and return to basics). Type influences magical style and philosophical orientation.
Arete (1–10) — The mage's overall enlightened will. Determines the dice pool for all magical actions. Advancing Arete requires profound in-game experiences and meaningful sacrifice — it cannot simply be purchased with experience points.
Ascension (the endgame) — Full union with the Avatar, perfect understanding of Paradigm, transcendence of physical limitation. What Ascension actually means is one of Mage's great unresolvable questions — different Traditions give fundamentally incompatible answers.
The Imbued, the Messengers, and the war no one asked for.
A mortal witnesses something undeniably supernatural — a vampire feeding, a werewolf killing, a mage reshaping reality — and instead of the normal human response (denial, forgetting, madness), the Messengers intervene. Visions flood the hunter. Power flows through them. In a moment of terrible clarity, they see the world as it actually is.
The Imbuing cannot be reversed. The hunter can never forget what they now know. The Messengers continue to communicate only through visions, compulsions, and the Edges they grant. The hunter has been drafted into a war they didn't choose, armed with weapons they don't fully understand, against enemies older, stronger, and better organised. They are expendable soldiers in a war they barely understand — and the Messengers never explain themselves fully.
The Messengers' true nature is one of Hunter's great deliberately unresolved mysteries. Multiple interpretations are supported by canon:
What the game makes clear: the Messengers cannot (or will not) directly intervene. They appear to be experimenting. Hunters are their instrument. Instruments are expendable.
Edges are the supernatural powers granted by the Messengers, organised by Creed: Vengeance (Avenger), Defense (Defender), Innocence (Innocent), Judgment (Judge), Martyrdom (Martyr), Redemption (Redeemer). Rated 1–5. Range from perceiving the supernatural to actively harming monsters to protecting bystanders.
The Vigil is the ongoing commitment to keep fighting — a sacred duty and psychological need. Unlike the Garou's grand cosmic war or the Kindred's eternal politics, the Hunter's fight is deeply personal, triggered by witnessing the supernatural harm someone they cared about.
The Arcanum is a mortal scholarly society that studies the supernatural without the Imbuing. Ancient, cautious, information-focused. They know far more than most hunters but are far less capable of direct action. True Faith is a non-Imbued power available to mortals of genuine, absolute belief — capable of harming vampires and repelling supernatural evil. It is real, rare, and unpredictable.
The most celebrated crossover. Tremere himself was the founder of the Order of Hermes' House Tremere — a genuine mage. Seeking immortality in the 10th century, his Order diableried the Salubri Antediluvian Saulot, transforming themselves into vampires. This crime against both supernatural orders defines Tremere's place in WoD: universally despised, politically powerful, and uniquely vulnerable to anyone with a grudge from either side of the supernatural divide.
Fundamentally incompatible. Vampires register as Wyrm-tainted to Garou spiritual senses — the Beast within is a Wyrm-aligned spirit. Most Garou kill vampires on sight. Vampires find werewolves extravagantly dangerous animals. Cooperation against greater threats (Nephandi, major Wyrm entities) happens but trust never comes easily.
Mages are potentially the most powerful WoD entities individually but crippled by Paradox and mortal bodies. Garou see mages as "Namebreakers" — violators of Gaia's natural order. Hunters with sufficient experience sometimes encounter mages and must decide whether they're threats.
The most notorious crossover character. A Kinfolk who stole Garou skins to become a werewolf, then became a Ghoul and independent mage. A cautionary tale about crossover power creep. White Wolf killed him and had his soul soulforged into an ashtray in the Underworld. His resurrection as a normal werewolf is an optional arc in the W20 adventure "Skinner."
All WoD game lines share the Umbra, Tellurian, and Triat. From Mage's perspective, the Gauntlet is a magical barrier through the Spirit Sphere. From Werewolf's, it's the membrane between worlds. From Vampire's, it's barely relevant — but elders with sufficient Occult may be aware. The Shadowlands (Wraith's setting) interpenetrate both physical and Umbral worlds. The Dreaming (Changeling's realm) touches and diverges from the Umbra in complicated ways.
Shared Cosmology · All Game Lines
The metaphysical architecture underlying every horror — from the Triat to the Tellurian.
Primordial creation, chaos, and infinite potential. Generates all new existence. Out of balance: formless madness and dissolution. Its realm is the deep, primal Umbral wilderness.
Order, pattern, and structure. Now catastrophically broken — obsessively crystallising everything into unchanging Pattern. Technology and bureaucracy are her expressions. She trapped the Wyrm, breaking the balance of all things.
Originally entropy and sacred transformation. Now insane, imprisoned by the Weaver. No longer transforms — corrupts, poisons, devours. The great existential threat of the World of Darkness.
The Tellurian is the complete structure of existence — the physical world, all spirit worlds, the Underworld, the Dreaming, and everything between. In Mage cosmology, the Tellurian is the sum total of what is and could be. The Tapestry is its physical expression — all Patterns (matter, energy, spirit, mind, time, space) woven together into the fabric of reality.
The barrier between the physical world and the spiritual Umbra. Strength varies by location: weakest at sacred sites, Caerns, and old wilderness; thickest in hyper-urban, technological environments. Thicker in the modern age than at any previous point — a direct result of the Technocracy's success in establishing consensus materialism.
Closest to the physical world: the Penumbra — the spirit-shadow of physical locations. Further in: the Middle Umbra with distinct Realms (Battleground, Atrocity Realm, Digital Web, Aetherial Realm, Wolfhome). At the edge: the Deep Umbra — beyond the Membrane, where alien entities exist in the space between star systems. Below: the Shadowlands — the realm of the dead.
Quintessence is the raw energy of magic — the fundamental substrate of reality as understood by Mage. Every magical action costs Quintessence. Nodes are places where it accumulates naturally. Garou call the equivalent energy Gnosis. The Tapestry is the sum of all Patterns woven together — and magick is the art of pulling threads and rearranging them according to the mage's will.
Historical Settings · Dark Ages Line
When the Masquerade was thinner and the world was stranger — historical World of Darkness settings.
Originally Vampire: The Dark Ages (1996), revised 2002. Set in 1230 CE — medieval Europe at the height of feudal splendour and spiritual terror.
Before the Masquerade's full establishment, Kindred interacted far more openly with the mortal world — serving as feudal lords, court advisors, and Church patrons. The Inquisition was not yet the institutionalised force it would become, though genuine witch-hunters with True Faith made the nights dangerous. The Crusades opened trade and predation routes that Kindred exploited ruthlessly.
High Clans (powerful, prestigious): Brujah (as scholar-lords), Cappadocian, Gangrel, Lasombra, Toreador (Troubadours), Tremere (newly vampiric), Tzimisce, Ventrue.
Low Clans (marginalised, feared): Assamites, Followers of Set, Giovanni (rising), Malkavian, Nosferatu, Ravnos, Salubri (still extant — Tremere hasn't finished their genocide yet).
Roads replace modern Paths of Enlightenment. More communal and culturally embedded: Road of Heaven (Christian piety), Road of the Beast (animalism), Road of Bones (death-study), Road of Sin (hedonism), Road of Kings (lordship and leadership), and others.
The Mongol Invasion (1241) disrupts Tzimisce and Assamite territories. The Crusades function as vampire political theatre — every faction exploits the chaos. The Tremere Clan is insecure and new, not yet the political force it will become. The Giovanni are beginning their long plot against the Cappadocians. The Black Death (1347–1351) has not yet struck — but its seeds are being sown by supernatural forces.
The medieval Garou world and 19th-century America — two eras of the Garou's long war.
Same 1230 CE period as Dark Ages: Vampire. The Gauntlet is thinner, Caerns more numerous, the Umbra more accessible. The Apocalypse is a distant prophecy rather than immediate reality. The Croatan still exist in the Americas. The Garou Nation is at a higher-water mark. Yet the seeds of future disaster are already being sown: the Order of Reason's precursors begin their work, Eastern Church and Western Church conflict disrupts the spirit world, and the first great Wyrm-taint incidents appear in the East.
Set in 1881 post-Civil War America. The Pure Tribes (Uktena, Wendigo) face European Garou Tribes as westward expansion devours Native American sacred lands and Caerns. A setting of grief, displacement, and desperate last stands. The Croatan's sacrifice echoes everywhere. One of the most emotionally powerful WoD historical settings — the Apocalypse is not cosmic here but intensely human and political.
Set in 1493 CE — the Renaissance. The Order of Reason formally declares war on the Traditions. Columbus's "discovery" of the Americas signals the assault on New World magical traditions. The Traditions will ultimately lose this war — the Sorcerers Crusade shows the opening moves. Bittersweet and historically rich. Uses different mechanics (Houses of the Order of Hermes, Sahajiya, Wu-Keng, etc.) reflecting the pre-Tradition-unification magical world.
Set in 1886 London. Gaslit gothic. Kindred navigate industrialisation and the scientific revolution (a Technocratic advance) while maintaining the Masquerade through fog and propriety. Jack the Ripper, Oscar Wilde, and the gaslit streets of London provide backdrop for ancient blood games. Kindred structures begin approaching their modern form.
Set in 1230 CE. The unified Tradition structure does not yet exist — instead, disparate magical lineages operate independently: Order of Hermes in its prime, Christian thaumaturges, Islamic scholars, Norse vitkar, Celtic druids. The Consensus is looser, meaning less Paradox but also less protection from the worst abuses of power. Uses Pillars rather than Spheres, reflecting the era's different magical paradigm.
Mortal inquisitors with True Faith hunting the supernatural — a precursor in spirit to Hunter: The Reckoning. Reveals that not all Inquisitors were wrong about the supernatural. Some of them were fighting real monsters, with real divine power, and winning.
Ogre Popennang Productions · Bruva Alfabusa
Created under Paradox Interactive's Dark Pack Agreement — extraordinary fan works that brought the World of Darkness to a new generation.
"Big-D and his sons tour a Norfolk ghost trail, stumbling headfirst into a World of Darkness."— Hunter: The Parenting, Episode 1 Description
Created by Bruva Alfabusa and team (Ogre Popennang Productions) — spiritual successor to If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device (Warhammer 40K fan series). After Games Workshop's 2021 zero-tolerance policy ended TTS, Alfabusa chose WoD specifically because Paradox Interactive's Dark Pack Agreement explicitly welcomes fan creativity.
Set in the latter half of 2006 in Norfolk, UK. A Camarilla vampire clan has moved into Norfolk. Big-D and his family are the primary opposition.
Two formats: fully animated episodes + audio dramas published between episodes. First episode: December 18, 2021. Planned: 15 animated episodes total.
Remarkably accurate to WoD canon: correct Camarilla/Sabbat political structures, Tremere clan dynamics, and Hunter: The Reckoning mechanics. Features Black Shuck (lupus-born Garou with folkloric roots in Norfolk legend), the Prince of Norfolk (6th-gen Ventrue obsessed with Boudica and Iron Age Iceni), and the Regent of Great Yarmouth as antagonists. The Binham Priory tunnel network features as a location with genuine archaeological grounding.
Watch on YouTube ↗ Patreon ↗A Mage: The Ascension actual-play podcast by the same Ogre Popennang Productions team, set in the same WoD continuity as Hunter: The Parenting — but in Norfolk, Virginia (the naming is deliberately parallel to UK Norfolk). Storyteller: SpeakerD — also the writer for HTP. Published to Spotify from September 2023.
Each player character was introduced through their own individual "Awakening" episode — four separate, deeply personal accounts of how each mage discovered their power. Appropriate to Mage's core ethos: every Awakening is unique and irreversible.
Explicitly set in the same WoD continuity as Hunter: The Parenting, allowing future crossover possibilities between the Norfolk UK hunters and the Norfolk Virginia mages — a rich narrative possibility the series has begun to explore.
Listen on Spotify ↗Paradox Interactive's Dark Pack Agreement is the fan content policy that makes both projects possible. Unlike Games Workshop's zero-tolerance policy that ended TTS, Paradox explicitly encourages fan creativity: non-commercial fan animations, audio dramas, actual plays, fan fiction, and artwork set in the WoD universe are all permitted under the Agreement's guidelines (no commercial exploitation, no harmful misrepresentation of the setting's themes, include the Dark Pack disclaimer).
Paradox has actively promoted fan projects like Hunter: The Parenting on their official social media — treating fan creators as community ambassadors rather than IP threats. Alfabusa has cited the Dark Pack Agreement directly as a primary reason for choosing World of Darkness: not just that it fit narratively, but that Paradox actively wanted his team's creativity in their universe.