Doran Patrick is my primary character in Chicago. He's a former soldier who served in Vietnam, was wounded and sent home, then was saved from the fates of many wounded vets by a vampire woman looking to expand her influence. Now he works for a security firm under the control of one of the vampire masters, though he's low enough on the totem pole that he is often overlooked by the high ups.
He's good at what he does, which is bodyguard service. He's paid well enough that he isn't required to take that many jobs. He drives a brand new BMW SUV/sport coupe decked out with all the best gadgets. All black, leather seats and polished mahogany. He carries a gun, listens to classical music and jazz, and while not a brain he enjoys reading D. H. Lawrence, Jane Austen and Shakespeare.
He's also a dhampyr. That means he's a vampire, but he's a daywalker. And not a daywalker like the half-turned vamps waiting to be fully embraced, but instead a type of lesser vampire that is its own species. Trying to explain the differences between the three can get sketchy because there are so many similarities. Suffice it to say that dhampyrs aren't undead like vampires. They're the product of a virus that forces them to feed like vampires and which was, according to some accounts, created long ago by vampires looking for servants who could protect their lairs during the day. The virus gives them strength and speed, though not as much as "true" vampires, and usually not as much as half-turned vamps, but they can supercharge their abilities for a short time by drawing on the virus' power. The more heavily they draw on their powers the more they need to feed. This is sort of true for the true vampires as well except with the dhampyr it happens far more quickly.
Anyway, so the vampire woman who infected him with the virus and turned him into a dhampyr was killed and Doran escaped to be on his own. Decades later he was taken in by another vampire, this one named Kean McCormick. Doran was taken into this vampire's coterie, their circle of blood feeders and surrogate family. The relationships between vampires and their coteries was complicated and varied widely. Also, coteries were often made up of a number of vampires as well as half vamps, mortals, and sometimes even other types of supernaturals. Kean and his consort Athena treated their coterie basically as their children.
Kean's story is a largely hidden one, even to the coterie. What is now known about the vampire is that he is far more powerful than anyone suspected. After the relationship between Athena and Kean grew sour, the woman went to H. G. Loomis, one of the vampire masters, and betrayed her former lover. The resulting fallout was horrific and spawned many stories. Kean revealed that rather than a vampire of under a century as he'd pretended, he was far more powerful than any of the masters. He also had gifts beyond the ken of younger vampires and which included a talent for magic. Kean instructed Doran, in secret, and Doran is thus both a vampire and a practitioner, though he keeps that second part secret.
Whatever Kean did scared the vampire masters enough that even after the man disappeared and the coterie was considered dissolved, no one messed with them. The phantom of the vampires reputation was enough to shroud them. Some members of the coterie are still close, though they are only the humans, and then Doran. None of them know Doran is anything more than another human who was getting the benefits of a periodic taste of powerful vampire blood. None of them know he's a dhampyr. He wants to keep it that way.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
My World: Chicago and its Vampires
Chicago is a city rich in life and wonderful in its cultural diversity. While not the kind of international city that is New York, Chicago is still huge, rich, and a lot of fun. It can also be dangerous. Within my stories it is a place largely free of the Old World supernatural nations, a place where Europe holds little influence and where monsters who originated there evolve into Americans.
Principle to the supernatural political landscape in Chicago are the vampires. In Chicago these monsters are ruled by a handful of powerful masters, though none are much more than a century old, and the organized syndicates of minions under them. As is true in other cities, the supernatural powers are involved in crime, and in a city with a noted history of organized crime activity it is no surprise that the vampires resemble organized crime gangs as well as having their fingers in those of the mortals.
Chicago is too large a city to be ruled entirely by one species of supernatural creature, however. While the vampires do hold a large part of the downtown, the near north, and pretty much all the way up through Evanston, there are other influences within the city that provide some balance.
For one, the organized vampire masters have conflict with the vampire gangs that hunt in the poorest areas of the city. Many of these vampires are minorities and hunt in their old home turf. They keep low profiles because they have to. They know that when things get to bad, the masters may unite their forces and purge the South Side and the West Side of their kind.
There are also some significant demons in the city. These creatures are less often the center of supernatural power webs, instead preferring to play in mortal affairs. That doesn't make them easy prey for the masters, though.
Two groups are noticeably missing. The Covenant and the presence of a werewolf pack. This is for two reasons. First because despite not being a recognized nation among the major powers, the Chicago vampire masters have become a significant enough power to deter the mages. There is a safehouse in the north end of the city, but the practitioners in the area work hard to stay out of the way of the vampires. Werewolves, on the other hand, would thrive in the natural environment of the region as well as the urban environment of Chicago except that the vampire masters have a policy of extermination toward the lycan species. They allow the less organized types of lycanthropes, such as the various cat species, but wolves are expressly forbidden.
Something unique to Chicago is the absence of activity in the Shadow. There is in fact a shadow city, however almost no one goes there. It is a broken and ruined place. Large parts of it are haunted. The land itself is barren. The reasons for this are not fully known, but it is known for sure that a battle between divine and demonic forces went on in the shadow city and it helped tear large areas of it apart.
The absence of the Shadow makes a difference in the saturation of supernatural power on the mortal side of the Border. It means vampires who would largely retreat to the Shadow instead live wholly among humans. Demons, fey and practitioners of all stripes must move among mortals as well. This diversity of supernatural life makes the policing the city all that much more important and makes the streets far more dangerous.
Principle to the supernatural political landscape in Chicago are the vampires. In Chicago these monsters are ruled by a handful of powerful masters, though none are much more than a century old, and the organized syndicates of minions under them. As is true in other cities, the supernatural powers are involved in crime, and in a city with a noted history of organized crime activity it is no surprise that the vampires resemble organized crime gangs as well as having their fingers in those of the mortals.
Chicago is too large a city to be ruled entirely by one species of supernatural creature, however. While the vampires do hold a large part of the downtown, the near north, and pretty much all the way up through Evanston, there are other influences within the city that provide some balance.
For one, the organized vampire masters have conflict with the vampire gangs that hunt in the poorest areas of the city. Many of these vampires are minorities and hunt in their old home turf. They keep low profiles because they have to. They know that when things get to bad, the masters may unite their forces and purge the South Side and the West Side of their kind.
There are also some significant demons in the city. These creatures are less often the center of supernatural power webs, instead preferring to play in mortal affairs. That doesn't make them easy prey for the masters, though.
Two groups are noticeably missing. The Covenant and the presence of a werewolf pack. This is for two reasons. First because despite not being a recognized nation among the major powers, the Chicago vampire masters have become a significant enough power to deter the mages. There is a safehouse in the north end of the city, but the practitioners in the area work hard to stay out of the way of the vampires. Werewolves, on the other hand, would thrive in the natural environment of the region as well as the urban environment of Chicago except that the vampire masters have a policy of extermination toward the lycan species. They allow the less organized types of lycanthropes, such as the various cat species, but wolves are expressly forbidden.
Something unique to Chicago is the absence of activity in the Shadow. There is in fact a shadow city, however almost no one goes there. It is a broken and ruined place. Large parts of it are haunted. The land itself is barren. The reasons for this are not fully known, but it is known for sure that a battle between divine and demonic forces went on in the shadow city and it helped tear large areas of it apart.
The absence of the Shadow makes a difference in the saturation of supernatural power on the mortal side of the Border. It means vampires who would largely retreat to the Shadow instead live wholly among humans. Demons, fey and practitioners of all stripes must move among mortals as well. This diversity of supernatural life makes the policing the city all that much more important and makes the streets far more dangerous.
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