The Ravens Nest

The Nocturneverse, Against All Odds, Tabletop & Politics

“Oh hear the Symphony of The Damned

A song of blood on trembling hands

Through veins of night, it calls my name

a flame that burns but feels the same

Oh, sing with me,

The lost, the torn

In shadows deep,

We’re reborn…”

-Nocturnal Shadows

“Symphony of The Damned”

Yes, the lyrics are mine and the AI did a decent job on the song, I think. Personally, I’d love to hear Dreamkid do a cover of it. I think he could totally pull it off. Anyway, if you’ve been following me on social media, you may have seen me raging out at politicians and those trying to pressure the rest of us as though it still works.

I won’t apologize. For now, I’m letting my Shadow have a bit of fun. There’s nothing more satisfying than hitting people with a heavy dose of reality with a side of piss and vinegar.

Something occurred to me, The Nocturneverse is a shared universe. One I opened up to any and all to come to your own table, play out a character and, write a story about it set in the same universe that and I kinda accidentally created. I say accidentally because none of this shit was planned. RK was supposed to run an actual game of Vampire: The Requiem. I’d be playing Draven. I’d have a few songs as supplemental material and somehow, this dude totally saw what I did as an establishing shot for Draven and popped in William War-Howl and his band, Lightning Bolt. Not gonna lie, feels like we just decided to wrap each other in our twenty page backstories and make it your problem too.

So far, looks to me like you’re enjoying it. Cool. Thanks for stopping by. I really appreciate it. I mean that. Fuck your political/social stance if you’re here and enjoying this, that’s fine. I’m good with that.

…still standing by you fucking off if you celebrate someone’s death. Anyone’s.

Listen, while I’m on the subject here, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but politics barely if ever plays a role in the lives of these characters. I’m talking about the real-world shit we see that looks like it’s mismanaged WCW circa Y2K…might as well get familiar with pro-wrestling and how it actually works, peeps because that’s what you’re seeing right now.

It’s making money though so, there’s no way this shit’s getting cancelled.

Hey, you with the hair that changes color when you sweat, you’re welcome in here too. No bullshit. Got one simple rule: Don’t Be A Fucking Prick.

Listen, breaks down like this, you wanna play Beast and set it in The Nocturneverse? Go right ahead. It’s your table, what the fuck am I gonna be able to do about it? Nada. Zip. As long as you’re playing from nWoD (or Chronicles of Darkness if you must) or Night Shift, I could give a fuck what comes out of your game. Understand, we might not be doing any cross-overs…that should relieve you. Also, we’re using nWoD because the lore is fuckin’ intense as hell. That world, it don’t change. It’s our world, sure but what you and I do day to day, it’s all a veneer because these stories are about the shit that, we’ve been told, ain’t supposed to exist like that. It’s about that dark underworld. They have to co-exist without treading one into the other. Vampires try not to reveal they exist. Werewolves are doing much the same, Prometheans are operating like something out of The Incredible Hulk…Lou Ferrigno/Bill Bixby…the real thing, you got Changelings (fae folk) going out there imitating real people, you got paranormal investigations, people doing actual magic with dangerous as hell consequences and Hunters that know it all exists, and it’s their curse to know that these things exist. There are also other things in that World of Darkness that can get you after you’ve heard that bump in the night…THAT is the world it’s about. In that world, those beings are concerned with only one thing, staying alive and possibly thriving. It’s a world where the monsters exist and you get to embody that. Yanno what? Fuck it, if you’re playing ShadowCity or Thousand Year Old Vampire and you want to set that fucker into the Nocturneverse, well shit the bed and go for it.

I did!

Why are you still welcome when it’s clear we’re never gonna agree? Because I don’t give a shit what you do at your table. You’re going by your own rules there, bud. Did you have fun? Okay then that’s all that makes a shit. Now, can you take your notes and turn that shit into a story that will weave a very clear picture of what’s going on in the life of your character in this world of holy fuck it’s darkness. If you can handle that, do that, great. Post. Let us know. We’ll pop it into the table of contents after we have a look and read it. It’s called maturity. You put differences aside and come together where you have solid common ground.

Listen, readers, it’s like this see, RK and I, we differ. No shit the guy leans more left than I do but we have common ground…like this shit right here.

He has differences of opinion with me, big ones on things like politics and The Rippaverse.

Thing we have in common? These games and we’ve found some points where we politically agree and agree in comics too.

That’s fuckin’ life! We built on that shit. We did a weekly podcast on YouTube.

My initial opinion of losing my VtR and nWoD books was “meh, no biggie” but RK was like, “… … … …ARE YOU FUCKED?!” and we proceeded to have a conversation where he convinced me to just have a look. Well fuck it, bucko, I’ve spent $20 on eBay on far worse…don’t ask.

Anywhoozles I give this thing another look, do some digging and I can’t take my character, the first ever Daughter of Cacophany because that was the clan his sire was from, also female but it gave his voice hypnotic powers. I played a character different from Draven at the beginning of his career. He was a rock star and he acted like it. Unlife was a party and we ain’t goin’ down ‘til the sun comes up, get what I mean?

The whole point for me was to make a character like Michael from The Lost Boys, in way over his head and doesn’t realize it for the people who enjoyed that rock n’ roll edge. That’s the vibe I was going for. If RK hadn’t stuck with me on that, wouldn’t have even been a thing.

So when I say Don’t Be A Fucking Prick, it means exercise a bit of maturity. We’re sharing what we create with you. If you want to join in, fine but be cool, leave the actual real world with Donald Trump, Barack Obama, The Bushes and The Clintons outside of the World of Darkness.

In this World of Darkness, the characters are powerful and able to do things to directly influence the larger world around them, this is key…without being detected. The monsters in this world have a tense peace with the mundane world around them and it’s in their best interest to keep things in a mystique, if you will. In our actual world of darkness, not so much.

The bottom line on it is this: We’re trying to get the hell away from being us for awhile, be something else, be someone else, roll some dice and have some damn fun.

If that’s why you came, then you’re in the right place.

If not then get familiar with the hereafter.

If you’re not here after what we’re here after, we’ll be here after you’re gone. It’s that simple. That’s the biggest sentiment I can push for wanting to join; Be Cool.

No one in this world is as bad or good as they seem. In fact, I have some ideas for Thrasamund some of you are probably not going to like but that’s beside the point. That idea may get ground to dust with a dice roll. That’s right, the dice are deciding a lot of these outcomes. What was just supposed to be a fun and light-hearted romp through Sheffield at night turned into something way darker and deeper.

You think Draven is looking around wondering what Keir Starmer thinks? He’s too busy trying to get to a Battle of The Bands in Detroit in one piece and the possibility that he might not make it at all is real. Depends on the dice and how they roll.

Let me tell you, Draven’s influence is limited when it comes to his own kind, and here’s the only real parallel, So Is Ours.

None of this is gonna be NYT Best-Seller and, in all likelihood, never will and I’m not doing it for that. I’m doing it because it’s fun.

If you’re not here for that then best thing to do is go find something that is fun for you.

Not for nothin’ but I’m seriously considering a complete shutdown of all social media except to promote The Nocturneverse. Mainly because it goes back to something Tom MacDonald said in his song, Sheeple;

“If they can’t convince you
they’ll confuse you
they want you dumb or dead
they divided you by race
religion, income and sex…”

-Tom MacDonald “Sheeple”

This has never been more true than now.

Shit, look at Twitter right now. If ever it were a complete and total cesspit, it is now. Now, everyone is ready to start kicking someone’s ass, including me.

Don’t even get me started on the Tribal War in the Middle East that is as old as my character, Udo Bruckheimer, a vampire just over two thousand years old. Everyone’s choosing a side in that for some reason or another and you have a war on three Abrahamic fronts.

If ever you wanted to unite many of them, tell them I’m polytheist and that should jumpstart them into locking arms for a little while.

Before anyone accuses me of being an “islamaphobe” I have this to offer. Any phobia is irrational. Sort of like the paralyzing fear of clowns and little people, which are actually real but don’t actually cause any real harm, the word implies that any fears or concerns may be unwarranted and irrational.

Okay so what rationale did this college freshman have? Our concerns aren’t unfounded or irrational. He was ready, willing and able to kill people because they either didn’t go along to get along with what he thought. Because we won’t willingly convert immediately, he was ready to kill. Can you live with that? I don’t think we can. He was planning to flee to Turkey and join ISIS, allegedly, and while he hasn’t been convicted yet, that’s looking like perhaps a plea deal is in his future and, no, I didn’t break out the runes, tarot cards or oracle for that.

This happened not far at all from me…

We have a president that, yeah, I voted for him and in the 11 months he’s been in office, he’s taken my cautious optimism down to just caution. I keep my head on a swivel and all my senses open these days.

Here, I don’t have to. You don’t either. That’s where all of this unravels. Listen, I’m not gonna sit here and worry about how much porn you watch, how much weed you smoke, etc. I just ask that you do it on your own dime, keep it to yourself, be polite and don’t be a complete nutbag and that is not too much to ask. Think of it as a shared virtual table and if you’re gonna sit at that table then you’re gonna need to be cool.

If you don’t play well with others, that’s cool. You can still join. Solo that shit, make a tangential link and let’s see how it does.

Bottom Line: The entire planet is one big shitshow. As a great and wise man once said;

“Everybody’s walkin’

but nobody’s talkin’

It looks a lot better from here…”

-Ozzy Osbourne “I Don’t Wanna Stop”

And that’s it. This is our world away from the seething, smattering of shitshow clowns running around in offices designed for midwits, fuckoffs and skeevy little beasts that want only control over you. You get to tell them to fuck off because the world in which we play can be a hell of a lot darker and you never know…might count as training if you spend enough time with us.

There’s no scheduling conflict to be had.

If you find we’re too “problematic” then don’t bother.

If you find that this isn’t your thing, alright.

If you find that you don’t have the attention span for it or the time, we get that.

But, make no mistake, we’re playing horror.

It will be without apologies.

Know what you’re getting into.