birth of venus
𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦﹗
IN THE MIDST OF A WAR,
DRAG YOUR CITIES TO THE SEA.
WELCOME TO LAZARUS CITY.
HOME OF THE STRANGE & UNUSUAL.
01. INTRO
02. PREMISE
03. SPECIES
04. RULES
SYNOPSIS.
WHAT IS LAZARUS CITY?
"THE CITY IS LAWLESS. THE CITY IS HOME. THE CITY IS SALVATION. THE CITY IS IN RUINS. THE CITY IS A BITCH."
Lazarus City is a ghost; a name that’s familiar, something that sits on the tip of your tongue, but you can’t quite place where you heard it. Maybe from a stranger on the street mention it, maybe it was somewhere you passed through on a road trip, or maybe it’s fictional, from a movie that you saw a while back. To most mortals, Lazarus City does not exist.
Until it does.
In this world, supernatural races and kinds exist and hide in plain sight, unknown to most of humankind and using their abilities or the aids of magic users to exist in relatively secret safety. Depending on what you are exactly, life can be abysmal; ruled by fear and spent in hiding. A life forged from pain and suffering is not a life lived at all. Those who are weary of hiding in the shadows and margins of society go to Lazarus City to build something for themselves.
The City is a salvation for these supernatural kinds; or at least, it used to be described as such. Once upon a time, Lazarus City was a place for supernatural species to live in harmony and without fear of persecution or death. You could walk down the street in broad daylight and see vampires, banshees, ghouls, wizards, werewolves, anything your mind could dream of, living in peace and freely going about their lives. Humans live in Lazarus City too, that’s a given. Plenty of mortals have supernatural lovers and families, inter-species breeding is becoming more common every day. But the city itself is protected by a strong magical glamour and charm; any human that leaves the city will have their memory wiped of its existence, making it a secret shared between non-human species.
A place that was once meant to be an oasis for weary souls is now a wasteland.
CURRENTLY.
What was once a shelter from the rest of the world has been corrupted by the follies of mortal men. Despite prayers for cleansing rain and churches on street corners, Lazarus City became a sinful place. Once you step through the glamour's barrier and enter the city, the neon lights reflect against the wet street pavements, illuminating a night full of possibilities. Each major supernatural species seems to have its own faction within Lazarus, some handling production of illegal substances and distribution, others being the city's arms dealers, informants, you name it. Violence, gambling, drugs, and money rule the streets. The strongest of the city lulled themselves into a false sense of safety; dead monsterkind in the streets wasn't exactly a shocking occurrence anymore.
It began with a dead fae, a few lowly hybrids and shifters, nothing to bat an eye at. Worries began to arise, but everybody came to the same conclusion as always; the city is ruthless, death happens, and we must continue living. But when major players of the opposing gangs are found dead, chaos breaks loose. Lazarus City is now engaged in a gang war of biblical proportions, those on top scrambling to find who killed their own, easily accusing their enemies of murder.
What happens now is anybody's game. It's a dog eat dog world.
SPECIES & LORE.
Within Lazarus City, there exists a certain set caste or class system that extends beyond human and superhuman - and each one has their own typical type of job they take on as a result of societal expectation. Humans are, of course, just human. You can find them in every corner of LC. Some humans live in fear of the supernatural and some happily coexist. The killing of a human, even accidentally by way of overfeeding by a vampire beau for instance, is treated exactly like a regular murder… for what it’s worth to the city’s corrupt, strictly human police force.
Below you will find a list of species within Lazarus City, ranked by most affluent to least affluent. Humans are not included as they operate in their own separate ways. Remember that there are always exceptions to the rules, but it would be highly unusual to find a werewolf CEO and a vampire pit fighter.
VAMPIRES: An ancient, undead race. Hypothesized to be the oldest supernatural race next to demons, the “Father” vampire was made by a curse laid down upon Old Gods in ancient times - and driven by his megalomaniacal insanity, his desire to raise an army led to the siring of hundreds of fledglings - and of those fledglings broken away, they created fledglings of their own. While not necessarily the most populous of races within Lazarus City, they definitely hold the most influence and boast some of the oldest and most consistent residents. There is currently one main vampire clan in LC - the Ambrose Family, forming a mafia that oversees most criminal operations within the town. Not all vampires choose to be affiliated and instead skulk in the shadows as independents. Vampires can only bear biological children with humans, and the result of the pairing will likely be a hybrid child that will continue to grow until they drink the blood of either their parent vampire or another.
DEMONS & ANGELS: Ageless beings, their origins are based in religious magics and superstition. Since it is impossible to truly tell even now which religions are “true”, or if they simply all are - there are many different subsets of demons. Some claim to hail from Christian ideology (such as the typical “demon”), while some claim to originate from Shinto ideology (such as the “Oni”). Each demon comes with their own subset of powers, but there are a few common shared traits. For instance, demons in their true form are genderless and appearances vary by folklore - but when walking among humans it is generally expected of them to choose some sort of typical human form, and in turn some prefer certain traits and pronouns. Due to the mystical and somewhat unknown quality of demons, they can bear “biological” children with any race and can either be the “mother” or “father” of the child depending on their whims. The resulting child will likely be a hybrid of the mother or father race and somewhat less powerful than a true demon. Lazarus City was once home to various angels or those alike, but as the city fell deep into sin, they were driven away. Angels left a long, long time ago, but left behind half-breed children. Half-angel residents are somewhat rare, never easy to find.
WITCHES & WARLOCKS: Generally humans with a certain magical gift, witches are the apothecaries, healers and dealers of Lazarus City. They generally specialize in spells and potions, with a select few opting for protective wards. Witches are commissioned frequently by humans to whip up remedies for ailments that produce far faster results than regular pharmaceuticals do. Some specialize in their own particular area of magic while others are simply fine being a jack-of-all-trades with herbs. Some opt to practice more infernal magic for darker ends. Many operate within covens. Female-aligned witches are usually known as witches while male-aligned witches are usually known as warlocks. Nonbinary or agender witches just go with whatever they’re most comfortable with.
WEREWOLVES: The most prominent of the shifter species, werewolves are renowned and feared for their strength and ferocity. Usually hired as muscle by the vampire crime families, independent werewolves are often security guards, bouncers or pit fighters. They are also apt to manual labor jobs. Werewolves are well known for their ferocity in wolf form, and so many humans and lesser (physically) powerful species tend to stay away from known members. Of course, werewolves tend to stay within packs of their own; made up of the typical Alpha-Omega structure, and as such wolf packs have their own sort-of underground organized crime organizations as well. They’ve taken lately to strong-arming the human police force to look the other way when caught in illicit acts. Werewolves can produce biological children with any race except demons and vampires, and the resulting hybrid typically takes more after the wolf parent - including their temperament and ability to shift forms.
GENERAL MAGIC USERS/UNCATEGORIZED SPECIES: Fae, mermaids, other shifters, other magic users that are generally too few and unorganized to properly take count of. Some of them work with the supernatural crime families, some of them just make their way in regular human professions. Each individual species has their own particular lore and preferences, lifespan and rituals. Go crazy, go stupid - but try not to make them too OP.
HELLO & RULES.
Hello and welcome to Lazarus City's interest check! If you couldn't tell already, this is a supernatural/monsterkind roleplay focused on a city entrenched in sin, violence, organized crime, and mystery. My name is Venus and I'm GM'ing this alongside my amazing (and extremely talented) co-GM's,
PRETTY HATE MACHINE.
and
erzulie
! Thank you to both of y'all for writing up some of the awesome lore listed in the species tab.
This will be an open-world type of roleplay focused in Lazarus City, where members can choose to be whatever species they like (including human!) and exploring how their character will navigate the chaotic city and all of its secrets. The main plot will focus on the current murders and subsequent gang war, but chances for character arcs and mini-plots will be explored as well! If this piques your curiosity, please be sure to read the rules and express your interest down below.
— 01. Of course, please follow all RPN rules. Drama, bullying, or bigotry of any kind will not be tolerated, I always intend for my group roleplays to be safe spaces to all. This roleplay is strictly 18+, and will contain and explore themes of violence, drug usage, murder, horror, really all of the things you'd expect from organized crime. Trigger and content warnings will be enforced.
— 02. Please know that literacy is a must. This will be what most would consider a "literate to advanced" roleplay, where we expect good grammar, literacy, engaging writing, and 400+ word count multi-paragraph replies. No one liners.
— 03. Once the roleplay has started, please be able to post once or twice a week, but also keep in mind we'd really like folks who are happy to chat OOC and contribute to plot discussions and such! There will be a Discord server made for easy OOC chatting, keep that in mind.
— 04. This is not first come first served! There will be an application process, and once applications close, we will be considering which characters will fit best for this plot. Please only use realistic face claims for your characters. No anime or cartoon-ish face claims.
coded by weldherwings.
click the title.
click the title.
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