Beyond the books

[ChewyGranola]

So I'm curious what factions and/or supernatural types, if any, people use that are either not in any of the books or briefly mentioned. I know there are some write-ups of a few interesting things on the Resources page, so that's helpful. I'm more interested in learning how/why one would use non-canon things and groups, and how it went? Any favorites you have used in games in the past?

[bobjob]

I turned the Shen (the demon monkey chimps from Blood Rites) into an oriental Fairy Court that lost out during the Fairy War. The shen that showed up in Blood Rites were guardian fae remnants of the court. In my story, one of the Shen nobles sided with the Seelie and when the Shen fell, she was taken in by Titania. I created a mythology for the Shen that played into my story and came across well with my players. The group was just as surprised to find out that the Shen lady who has been a stalwart ally was orchestrating a lot of the attacks against her in bids for more power and a possible resurgence of the Shen with her at the lead.

I also created the Amber Court (a very minor type of vampire/ghoul) for my very first story. I made that court small in numbers and they gained their powers from a chunk of Amber (that replaces their heart) containing the spirit of hunger. As such it wasn't a type of vampirism that could be easily spread but could be passed on to others if there was a spare Heart of Amber for some reason (think the Coins).  They didn't get to play too prominent a part since I never had a chance to convene more than the original one in our city, but I was planning on sending the party against several of them in a story that included the Shen lady. It just never materialized.

[Ulfgeir]

In the campaign I play in, we have a genie of the Brass court.

We also have two emmissaries of power. One is working for Ferrovax (allegedly his son), the other works for The White Lotus Society (which was run by another dragon)

/Ulfgeir

[derogatory]

Our campaign happened in Orlando, so naturally we had the Lich Walt Disney, Freeholding Lord, and all his retainers. There was a bit of intrigue going on, and sides got mixed, so we ended up getting our asses handed to us by creatures roughly Mickey-, Donald-, and Goofy-shaped. Disney was a serious regional powerhouse with lots of influence with the Fey and the Council.

As a result, I think my favorite factions are contextual. Dig into the lore of the predominant ethnicity in your city, and see where the cards fall.

[Hick Jr]

I've done the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, an angel of the Host, an emissary of Ares, a person with the Curse of Little Red Riding Hood, at least a dozen Sponsored Magics with characters to back them up, volcano-dwelling fire elementals, children of the animikii(Thunderbirds), actual human skinwalkers, orcs, a Dragon scion, a half-knowledge elemental, a Touhou-inspired yatagarasu scion, the Mad Hatter as a cross between Dream of the Endless and a Warden, various technomancers and cyborgs, a Graveyard Book-esque boy who was raised by ghosts, an Anansi Boys-esque scion of Tiger, an alchemist-homunculus who was a cross between Cyborg and Edward Elric, a Summer changeling/priest inspired by Melisandre, the Halloween Knight, a bibliomancer, and probably some other stuff i'm missing.

[blackstaff67]

We've got a Son Ares, Daughter of Diana, Spring and Autumn Knight, and I plan on introducing the Combine from C.J.Carella's Witchcraft soon. 

[UmbraLux]

I created the OSV (Ordo Sinistra Vivendi; aka Order of the Left Hand Path) for use in my game.  They were a group of immortality seekers.  Methods didn't matter to them, just results. 

[umdshaman]

Spring and Autumn Knight

Curiousity; were you able to explain the Spring and Autumn's purview without rewriting or making them a subset of Summer and Winter?

[blackstaff67]

Curiousity; were you able to explain the Spring and Autumn's purview without rewriting or making them a subset of Summer and Winter?

Spring and Autumn serve as transitional phases or passages; summer cannot gradually turn into winter without autumn.  Autumn is rather all about the proper ending of things in their time.  Spring...ah, spring.  Rebirth.  We'll be getting into spring rather soon, I believe, and then I can post more about it.

[Leeder]

We have a version of the Jade Court of vampires. It is a coalition of mages (wizards, sorcerers, focused practitioners... anybody who have a bit of magic, but not general Minor talents), who were infested with something evil. During a day, JCVs function like an ordinary humans - like they were before the infestation. The best pretenders managed to remain uncovered and work to lure other Gifted into traps. But after the dusk JCVs gain Inhuman (or even stronger) stats, magic resistance and vulnerability to Jade.

Their best weapon is a conspiracy. They are almost undetectable during a day, and very dangerous during a night. Ancient JCVs are extremely dangerous: they feed on magic. Actually, JCVs have two ways of dealing with their victims: eating and embracing.

Eating means killing helpless or immobilized mage by winning a mental battle during a night. The mage does not gain an opportunity to cast a Death curse, because the vampire devours his victim's magic ability and assimilate it. If the vampire had full wizard's abilities, and the victim had the same, the vampire gains Refinement. If the vampire had full wizard abilities, but the victim was only a focused practitioner, the vampire gains only boost in the victim's field. But if the vampire was a focused practitioner, and the victim was a wizard... the vampire became a wizard instead. So, through time, JCVs can be very powerful.

Instead of eating mages, JCVs can make them JCVs. To do so, after winning the mental combat, JCV must give the victim's powers back to their original host. But the powers are already corrupted, infested with a spirit of the Hungry Dead. The High Concept of the victim immidiately changes in order to represent his vampirehood, and he became a monster.

Jade Court Vampires became the greatest threat for my campaign, because it's events take place in Vancouver, British Columbia, and there are a lot of practitioners and Chineese and very few wizards. PCs gathered a lot of allies and have made a lot of bad contracts to bring an army to the vampire's doorstep. The outcome of the final battle is not defined... until our next session.

[Mr. Ghostbuster]

In the last game I played there was a unique character with an interesting back story. He had a spirit of the Nevernever in his head (think something like Lash) who was teaching him magic. He was then taken by the Red Court, who infected him with the bloodthirst. He was on the verge of turning when the spirit in his head intervened. The spirit managed to kill the hunger demon but it resulted in her being permanently bonded to the character's soul. He didn't turn into a vampire but he did turn into...something. He has strength and speed similar to the Red Court but none of their weaknesses.

[PirateJack]

I will be very disappointed if he wasn't named Blade.