The Paris Chronicle, subtitled Paris by Night, is a background Vampire: The Masquerade chronicle designed and written to take place concurrently with the Chicago Chronicle, Milan Chronicle, New York Chronicle, Stockholm Chronicle and DC Chronicle. It is played via live scenes, asynchronous posts and chats, and miscellaneous other writing, with its events informing the behavior and goals of characters involved in other games.
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Theme
The themes of Paris by Night revolve around the largely political and social conflicts in one of the oldest and most traditional Camarilla cities in Europe, where change comes slowly (if it ever comes at all) and elders have held sway for untold centuries.
Themes explored in this game include:
| The Gilded Cage Learning to live in this world is learning to live within a shell: a crustacean hiding in a transparent white world. |
Characters must contend with a world that traps them in ancient rules and laws at every turn and uses joy and love as levers for control. |
| The King is Dead Let us sit and tell sad stories of the deaths of kings for within the hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples there Death holds patient court. |
The elders who have held power here for generations have begun to disappear and even die, leaving the characters to try to navigate a world much too far above their heads. |
| Making Our Own Destiny Destiny is choice, not chance; not a thing to be waited for: a thing to be pursued. |
Characters struggle to choose their own futures and destinies apart from the paths chosen for them by their powerful elders. |
Plot
The Domain of Paris, France, under the control of the Toreador Prince François Villon, is the central location and power bloc around which events of the game revolve.
Politics
As one of the major strongholds of the Camarilla in Europe, the city of Paris is strictly controlled and immensely powerful, banning all non-Camarilla vampires from its Domain and ruthlessly controlling not only the city itself but in practice most of the country of France. After a checkered history of impersonation, unwise love affairs, and aggressive cleansing purges of all unauthorized vampires, the Prince vanished mysteriously some years ago, leaving the city's leadership in distress and its borders undefended. Although the Seneschal and Primogen Council have chosen to consider the Prince to simply be busy for the moment and likely to return, rumors of his possible death (especially in light of the equally explosive deaths of his fellow Toreador Elders Julian Augustine and Octavius Sage to the south) have thrown his clan and city into uncertainty and caused a scramble for influence as Elders who haven't been able to think about climbing the ladder in centuries suddenly realize that this may be their moment.
The most recent news to come out of Paris was the assassination of Octavius Sage by Jean Claude Danut, who claimed to also have killed his daughter Maeve Glaistig until she surfaced in Washington, DC a year later. In the meantime, the city has looked northwards for new allies, solidifying an impending marriage alliance between Toreador elder Anne d'Arpajon and Ivar Ragnarsson, Brujah Prince of the city of Stockholm, a union intended to prevent Ventrue and Tremere takeovers and allow both clans to look to expansionist possibilities across the ocean.
Social & Supernatural Plots
Social plots are complex and often rely on the established alliances and relationships among the vampires in residence. Among other things, the Prince was severely humiliated by the revelation that his lover Alexis Sorokin was a Ravnos in disguise as a Toreador in order to rob him, the arrival of Casper Iversson as an ambassador from Stockholm resulted in emotional dramas as he began a relationship with his sire's intended, and the mysteries surrounding the death of the Black Rose and Jean Claude's part in it have seen him exiled from the city once again.
Paris is home to a thriving community of mortal Mages, many of whom guard ancient sites and lines of power that have been known to them since before the Roman empire; frequently, their behind-the-scenes influence causes unforeseen wrinkles in the political machinations of the undead who know very little about them. Similarly, a large and ancient group of Silver Fang werewolves controls much of shapeshifter society on the continent from the city, while ancient Arthurian fae creatures continue to haunt their magical homes and the ghosts of the many wars fought on its soil churn with their own secret dramas.
Players
| Alexander Bosch Andres Lund Casper Iversson |
Anne Myers Ginevra Bianchi Maeve Glaistig |
Annie Triplett Claudia Danut Jacque Beaumont Jean Claude Danut Richard Montague Rosalina de Leon |
| John McIntosh Dominic Vaughn Pieter Van Reise |
Karla Artis Mila Kross |
Rob Fowler Octavius Sage |