Bane of School Children Everywhere:
"Go look it up in the dictionary."
The plague may be gone from the world, eradicated by its own lethality, but it remains in history books, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and as a method for history teachers to torment their students. Following are some key phrases and terms related to the plague and the aftermath of it.
- Blood Rose (mark)
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The mark of the Blood Rose plague is also known as the Blood Rose. In plague victims, the initial bloom multiplies across the body until the entire body is covered in scarlet. In survivors, a few small marks remain upon the body, though the rest vanish. In the Fallen and many of the Lost, there is one single, large bloom somewhere upon the body.
In shape, it resembles are large, scarlet rose, complete with darker and lighter patches that differentiate petals from each other.
- Blood Rose (plague)
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Four centuries ago, a disease swept the world. Characterized by an initial brilliant scarlet "bloom" somewhere upon the body, which then rapidly multiplied to cover the body in scarlet, the disease was termed the Blood Rose for the way the victims resembled a rose bush in full bloom.
The plague itself was approximately 90% lethal, with survivors left permanently weakened and marked by several blooms somewhere upon their bodies. A tiny fraction of the population was left untouched by the disease, and the descendants of those few are the humans in the modern day.
The disease brought death slowly and painfully. The bacteria ate away at the underlying structure of the body, especially the bones and sinews, leaving the body with such fragile bones that the weight of gravity alone was enough to crush the chest cavity. No true cure could be found, though eventually a way was found to immunize people against it.
Survivors of the plague that were still healthy enough to sire or bear children found that the disease had left them in difficulty. Though they had the same fertility rate as the rest of humanity, of the children that survived birth, one in three ended up dying of the disease no matter what was done.
- The Celestial Covenant
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The laws that bind the Fallen together, and to some extent the Lost as well. They cover everything from the rights of the individual, to how Stars and Moons should interact, to even how a Moon and a Moon Chain should be structured. Every Fallen has a copy of the document, which is over thirty pages in length, and every Fallen had input into the document. Many Fallen have actually memorized the entire thing, and can repeat it back verbatim.
Some Lost, especially Pure Lost, have adopted the Celestial Covenant as well. While the Fallen don't discourage this, they can sometimes be slow to recognize the Lost as members of the same group. Usually, this is dependent upon the Fallen being called upon, with some Fallen treating Lost who adhere to the Celestial Covenant as just short-lived Fallen, while other Fallen treat all Lost, whether they adhere to the Celestial Covenant or not, as trash.
No matter the Fallen, when having to choose between helping a Lost they consider to be a close friend, and a Fallen they consider their worst enemy, all Fallen will choose to assist the other Fallen first, then the Lost.
- Curse of the Fallen
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The fact that all Fallen, and Lost as well, must "sunbathe like felines at every opportunity" (as one Fallen put it) or else suffer a dark neurosis until able to be in the sun again.
The neurosis can take as "innocent" an expression as obsession (though very rarely is the obsession a harmless one, the Lost and their obsession with keeping themselves in line aside) or as dark an expression as violent schizophrenia.
It is every Fallen's duty to pull other Fallen out of the Curse as soon as they realize one of them has fallen to it.
- Gatherings
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A Gathering is called once every five years and, unless a Fallen can give ample proof that getting to the Gathering is impossible, all Fallen are required to attend. A typical Gathering will last anywhere from a week to a month, though a few have lasted longer, and one notable Gathering lasted a full year.
In the pattern of the First Gathering, all Gatherings begin with a full rolecall, so that a list of Fallen, their current contact information, and place of residence may be compiled and handed out to each Fallen at the end of the Gathering. From there, there's a discussion of the Celestial Covenant, often covering the finer points and distinctions covered in the thirty page document. If there are any cases of violations that need to be tried before the entire Gathering, those cases are heard and tried, in order to get them out of the way.
After what many have termed the "politicking stage" is completed to everyone's relative satisfaction, the Gathering becomes much less structured and rigid. Here, then, comes the socializing stage. Parties, get-togethers, tours of the local area, competitions of any sort, and other miscellaneous social activities form and split as Fallen reacquaint themselves with each other, catch up, and otherwise learn how the rest have spent the past years.
Officially, the Gathering ends as soon as the first Fallen leaves for his or her home, but, unofficially, the Gathering continues full tilt until all Fallen drift back to their places to continue their lives
- The Fallen
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The Fallen are a subrace of humanity that came into existence during the Blood Rose plague four centuries ago. They are known carriers of the disease in a mutated form, where the disease coexists relatively peacefully with the human body. Every Fallen, somewhere on their body, has the signature mark of the plague - a large crimson flower-shaped mark from which the plague gained its name. Seemingly immortal, they are stronger and faster than regular humans, able to withstand trials that would have many humans dead.
In exchange for this, Fallen are infertile amongst themselves, and very rarely produce offspring with humans, which are a twisted half-breed race called the Lost. According to Kyran, there are only about 832 Fallen remaining alive in the world.
Fallen have nearly the same dietary requirements that humans do, though they have an enhanced requirement for sun in their daily lives in order to keep them healthy and on an even mental keel. Fallen who are denied the sun for extended periods of time undergo a personality shift to a much darker, neurotic personality, though they revert as soon as they're able to enjoy the sun once more.
The name "Fallen" was coined for them by several religious groups at the time, who saw the plague as the devil's work, and decided that those who lived in coexistence with the plague were, by extension, beings fallen from the grace of the Lord, like the angels cast from heaven in the devil's wake. Lending weight to that was their enhanced, "inhuman" abilities, that put them outside of the realm of man and into the realm of the supernatural for many.
This connotation has faded with time, and now merely refers to the fact that they're a failed, if long lived, branch of evolution, being as they are unable to reproduce amongst themselves.
Fallen have a distinct society, which sets them apart from the humans around them. Lone wolves are called Stars, groups are called Moons, and a group of groups is called a Moon Chain.
The basis for the society is known as Celestial Covenant, a document of laws written by and for the Fallen.
- Fallen History
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The history of the Fallen begins with the children of survivors who lived into their teenage years. Free of the threat of the disease (for any who lived to be thirteen were through the danger zone), they discovered that they had acquired another enemy, crueler and more deadly than the disease could ever be:
Humanity itself.
In the midst of sickness and uncertainty, those who lived with the Blood Rose mark upon their bodies neither sickened nor died. No matter what life threw at them, they pulled through with barely a scratch, seemingly immortal and invulnerable.
Except to the seething jealousy and rage of the humans around them. An unknown number of Fallen simply vanished, presumed dead, during this time, and many others retreated to isolated locals, often banding together with other Fallen that they met on the way. This was the genesis of the Celestial Covenant.
A collection of four Fallen - Eli, Luna, Kyran, and Gale - sent out the call to the world, utilizing the Brothers and Sisters of the monastery they were raised in to track down every Fallen left alive. It is to those four that the creation of the Celestial Covenant is attributed, and despite the Covenant proclaiming that all Fallen are equal, those four are treated with more respect than any other.
Forty years later, a small group of researchers approached The Four, curious as the full extent of their abilities. Several years of experimentation and debate later, the group of researchers published the results of their analysis in a paper, as well as in the form of a series of Tests that any Fallen or Lost could take. These Tests eventually became the benchmark by which the Lost measure themselves against their Fallen ancestors.
Nearly a century after the creation of the Covenant, a researcher, curious about the fact that none of the Fallen seemed to be aging, began to investigate what changes the Blood Rose had wrought on the Fallen. The results, published nearly a decade later, were earth-shaking: the Fallen were functionally immortal. Unaffected by disease or old age, the only way for a Fallen to die was to be killed, and even that might be difficult, based on how swiftly Fallen tended to heal from injuries.
The ripple of this research was felt greatest in the Fallen community. Some, unable to face the concept of watching loved ones die while they stayed the same, or those already on edge from childhood trauma, committed suicide. Approximately half of the surviving Fallen ended their lives soon after the research was published, pushing their numbers to under one thousand.
In the three centuries that followed, the number of Fallen slowly decreased due to accidents, the rare incidence of murders, and a scattering of suicides. Lacking the ability to bear children of their own, the Fallen can only watch as their numbers slowly diminish over time.
- The Four
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"The Four" are Kyran, Luna, Gale, and Eli. Generally credited with the creation of the Celestial Covenant, along with Fallen society in general, The Four are looked upon with great respect and no little amount of awe by the rest of Fallen society (and a large amount of awe by the Lost). Because of this, The Four have used both their power and position to alter descriptions of them in the histories, along with erasing their images from all records.
Time and a restless habit of changing locales has erased much of the link between The Four and their past, at least in human and Lost society.
- The Fractured Lost
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The Fractured Lost aren't really Lost in the same vein as Original or Pure Lost. Fractured Lost are not born as Lost, but instead are humans who have become infected with the Blood Rose disease and become changed by the contact. A small "bud" will appear somewhere on their body, but it will never open up into an entire bloom like on either Fallen, Original Lost, or Pure Lost. They are the true degenerates of the Lost, often in pain and tormented by ghostly "visions" that rarely let them be, often dark fantasies that show the Fractured Lost every repressed or hidden emotion and desire in their hearts.
The Fractured are insane, pure and simple. In the normal way of things, if they don't end up killing themselves, either a Fallen or a Pure Lost will take it upon themselves to remove the Fractured from existence.
Fractured Lost are essentially humans that the disease is trying to integrate with, as the only living remnants of the Blood Rose disease are the remnants that require a human host to survive. Because of this, Fractured Lost see very little enhancement to their abilities, though they can gain small superhuman benefits, notably strength, not long before the disease inevitably kills them.
If left to themselves, Fractured Lost can have a lifespan between 20 to 50 years after infection.
- The Lost
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There are three distinct varieties of Lost, though the Fallen make little to no distinction between the three varieties. Fallen often treat Lost with disdain, though pity or treating Lost like little children is not an unknown either. Very few Fallen view the Lost as anything more than pawns or, more common, a mar upon their name.
The three distinctions are Original Lost, Pure Lost, and Fractured Lost.
- Moon
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A Moon is similar to a wolf-pack, with all the hierarchy, backbiting, and pack-solidity that wolves show in the wild. While this is true, the hierarchy tends to be much more fluid than in wolf-packs -- the leader one decade might be the follower the next, all dependent upon personal whim.
Many Moons are no larger than four or five individuals, though some are quite large. Also, while many Moons are made up of just Fallen, there do exist Moons that are led by Fallen and contain many Lost. It is exceedingly rare to see a Lost leading a Moon with Fallen in it, though it has happened before.
Moons take their names from the Star name of the current leader. So, Snow Star Eli Delacroix leads the Snow Moon.
- Moon Chain
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Literally a Moon of Moons, a super-pack often made up of anywhere from four to eight Moons, the leader of each constituent Moon being the members of the higher order Moon. There are no known Moon Chains in existence, though the Celestial Covenant makes note of their potential existence and how to go about creating one.
- Original Lost
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The Original Lost are the result of mixed Fallen and Human lineage, usually with a Human mother and a Fallen father. They have a much smaller Blood Rose mark somewhere upon their bodies, though no study has been made to ascertain exactly in which form or to what extent the plague is manifested in them. Though stronger and generally faster than humans, the Original Lost are nothing compared to Fallen, exhibiting merely an enhanced humanlike ability.
Their dietary requirements are stricter than either of their parent lineages, many of them requiring an extremely high concentration of protein to stay healthy. Somewhere in the crossing between human and Fallen, many of the offspring showed a tendency towards albinism, either in part or in full, leaving the Lost in a precarious position. They require sun like their Fallen parent, but are often incapable of staying out in it long enough to keep on an even mental keel. As a result, many Original Lost walk a fine line between health and neurosis, and some even see the obsessive tendency of them to watch themselves as an expression, if a rather harmless one, of that neurosis. Many of the Original Lost who've been overcome by their darker personality resort to blood-drinking in place of eating large amounts of meat.
The Original Lost have a lifespan of anywhere between 100 and 150 years.
- Pure Lost
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The Pure Lost are the result of Original Lost breeding with Original Lost. Relatively rare because of the lack of fertility amongst the Lost, Pure Lost share many features with the Fallen and, indeed, are often indistinguishable from Fallen to a human. Their Blood Rose mark is nearly as large as that of a Fallen, their strength and speed is nearly equivalent to their Fallen brethren, and their lifespan is long enough to make them look immortal to some humans.
Pure Lost, though, are often deficient in many ways. Every Pure Lost is a true albino, their pale blue eyes extremely photosensitive and their bone white skin sensitive enough to limit their exposure to the sun. As a group, the Pure Lost are of a darker, often crueler variety than their Original Lost parents or their Fallen grandparents. Perhaps because of their strange kinship with their Fallen grandparents, the Pure Lost have adopted many of the Fallen ideals and rules, thus putting a rein upon their actions that makes them, as a group, more honorable and trustworthy than their Original Lost kin, despite their darker bent.
Their diet consists mostly of meat, augmented by blood that is commonly animal in origin, or willingly donated by specific individuals that the Pure Lost knows. Though the Original Lost are the ones that everyone talks about when they refer to "another vampire death", the Pure Lost are the ones that everyone points to when they talk about vampires. This distinction is lost to most humans, and also to many Fallen as well, and is the one thing that the Pure Lost truly hate about the Original Lost.
Pure Lost have a lifespan of anywhere from 200 to 250 years.
- Star
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A Star is a lone wolf of the Fallen, those who exist outside of any authority beyond the Celestial Covenant. Every Fallen has a Star name that they took not long after the Celestial Covenant was created, and in formal situations amongst the Fallen, everyone will refer to each other by their Star name, no matter whether the Fallen is in a Moon or not.
- The Tenants of the Covenant
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No Fallen may infringe upon the freedom of another Fallen, unless doing so would save the other's life.
No Fallen may purposely harm another Fallen, unless doing so would prevent greater harm from occurring.
All Fallen should respect the wishes of other Fallen around them. In short: never infringe upon another's territory without permission, never harm those another Fallen has laid claim to, and always keep others in mind while acting.
Every Fallen's voice deserves to be heard. Human rank has no meaning. We are all equals in this world.
Assist your brothers and sisters whenever possible when dealing with humans. We are the few amongst many.
Never lie to your fellow Fallen, and try not to lie to Lost or Humans. Lies hurt us all in the end.
Every Fallen may move into any rank in our society. A Star may become part of a Moon. A member of a Moon may become a Star. The follower may become the leader, the leader the follower. We are timeless -- let our actions reflect this, let us remain unbound from the time-fearing power-mongering of the humans around us.
Moons may not force their will upon Stars, and vice versa.
The leader of the Moon is the ultimate authority within the Moon. Give that leader your respect, and do not undermine them in front of outsiders, especially humans.
Depending upon the severity of the offense, anywhere from a full gathering of Fallen to just the Fallen in the area may be called to decide upon the fate of the offender.
- The Tests
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Developed by researchers with the help of Eli, Luna, Kyran, and Gale, The Tests (officially titled "Blood Rose Strengths and Aptitudes Tests" but always referred to simple as The Tests) were created to measure raw skill and potential in varying areas ranging from speed, agility, strength, dexterity, endurance, puzzle solving skills, and others. Each entrant is tested in all areas and assigned scores in those areas, as well as an overall score.
All Fallen permitted themselves to be tested once and their numbers put on record, but it is a rare Fallen who has been tested more than that once. Many Fallen see the tests as another attempt by humans to categorize them, and thus "scores" mean very little to the Fallen.
The Lost, on the other hand, are tested nearly from the day they're born, and a record kept of how their scores fluctuate over time. To the Lost, The Tests offer a badge of honor, and it's not uncommon for a Lost to back down from a confrontation if their opponent scored higher than they did in The Tests. Most Lost pecking order revolves around The Tests and the scores achieved in them.