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\section{Heaven, Hell \& Highlanders}

Having read the Sabbat Storytellers Guide, I decided that the whole
Demon thing was getting out of hand. \WW\ were getting too much like
T\$R, where demons could be killed with no thought, they were Evil
(tm) and deserved to die.

Not in my \wod.

I thought back to the great work of chet at efi dot com (Chet Erez), who wrote
a great piece on Demons when the mailing list was still at maths.ufl.  I
really loved Hanks highlander rules so I decided to add Highlanders to
my game, too. Initially as NPCs, but much later as a PC. I had an idea
about merging the two ideas.



\subsection{Background}


Lucy's hand automatically went into her coat as the sudden pain shot
through her head. Another of her kind was close by. The familiar feel of
her sword set her alarmed mind at ease, somewhat. A thrill of excitement
shot through her. At last she would know. 200 years of fighting
and taking heads, she had to know. Why? Why we must kill.

The man sat quietly on an upturned bin, warming his hands by the flames
leaping from the 44 gallon drum.  Lucy chuckled as she approached the
man. I have problems with modern fashion, but this is ridiculous, she
thought to herself. The man was dressed in a musty old blanket or cloak,
hard to say from this angle.  The man smiled, his face beautiful,
unmarred by imperfection, he was beautiful. His eyes glowed with the
knowledge and experiance of many lifetimes. His lips parted displaying
his stained teeth. Lucy smiled back, poor dental hygiene and fashion
sense, no-ones perfect. If that's from his mortal days, then maybe he
is as old as he says.

"Take a seat young Lucy" his deep voice whispered. The type of voice
that lulled weaker people into making mistakes Lucy thought, or the type
of voice of a saint. The man raised his arms, showing her the dirty
clothes under the cloak. No sword, she thought. "I am not armed", Lucy
loosened her coat, something nagged in her mind, and his reassurance did
nothing to set her a peace. Something nagged at her thoughts.

"Nicolai", she said, nodding in recognition.

"You seek answers then? A reason for your existence, the Gathering,
the Prize?"

"Yes, will you tell me?". Lucy stirred, still uneasy, sensing more
here than was obvious.

He paused, looked into the fire. After an age, he turned to face her
and smiled, his stained teeth appearing again. "It is difficult for
me like this, but I shall."



\subsubsection{Planes}

"Our universe can been imagined as a number of spheres of different
sizes, inside each other. Each of these spheres is separated from the
next by barriers. I shall tell you of the ones I know of.



\subsubsection{Center of the Earth}

"Space is an illusion. The crust of this world forms the barrier to
the first of the spheres that is known of. Once the surface is penetrated
and the spirit boundary crossed, it leads to the Old Worlds. The
worlds inhabited by the Old Gods, the Heavens."

Lucy's brain almost made her laugh, but some small part of her 
killed the laugh before it escaped.

"Prime real estate are the Lighted Lands. It is here that the Quintessence
is formed, welling up from the spring of life and flooding the Lighted Lands.
Some Quintessence slips through the barrier onto the Earth, powering
the Mages, Caerns and all supernatural things, including your body, my
Child. Quintessence is the only power. Paradoxically, Quiuntessence
becomes expetecally more powerful, the further you take it from its
source and rarer."

"So God lives there, in the Lighted Lands?"

"Maybe. Maybe all the Gods, my dear. The power of belief. Enough people
believe and the spiritual Quintessence forms in the outer lands. Once
people believe in the unchanging land, it takes form here. A land
waiting to be filled, once filled, that God has form."

"How do..", Lucy interrupted.

"All in good time my dear. Pray, let me continue." The man said with
a smile and a small shake of his head. A smile that asked, how many
times have I heard that question?

"The Lighted Lands is where the Quintessence is, it is where the power
is, it is where one may carve out your own heaven. Or it was until
those damned Mages perverted the Way of things, stealing the idea for
themselves."

"What about Hell?"

"All the unchanging lands were here, Hells, Heavens of all the
beliefs. They surge with belief and fade as their cultures die.
With the power of the One True God beliefs of the present, the Heavens
surged ahead and the Hells have been driven to the Outer realms."

"I don't.." Lucy started before being quieted by a raised finger.

"...understand?", he finished with a smile. Lucy's tensions eased and
she laughed her rich laugh.

\subsubsection{Earth}

"Earth, encloses the Heavens. In the past, it lay flat, on top, but I
digress. Some Quintessence ends up here, appearing in Holy Ground that
Immortals may not fight on. Here it is used by those awakened to its
purpose, to shape the world. Foolishly, most believe that it is the
Earth that is the Source, but now, my dear, you know better than they."

"Because the Quintessence may be gained on Earth without travel to the
Lighted Lands, many creatures seek to raid this world for its power.
Power they can use in the worlds outside ours."



\subsubsection{The Gauntlet}

"The Gauntlet or barrier, seals the world from the spiritual realms on
the other side." The mans face twisted in a sneer, "This Gauntlet,
erected between this world and the next like a fence to starve the life
on one side, while on the other side, the cows grow fat and lazy on the
green grass." Anger flashed onto his face.

He stopped for a time, looking into the fire. Calmness returned to
his face and a deep sadness cried out to Lucy from the fire light in
his eyes.


\subsubsection{Shadows of Earth}

"Just after the Gauntlet is the Shadow worlds of the Earth. Shadows of
life and death. This is where your friend the werewolf disappear to when
we first met, the Living Shadow. This land overlays the Earth, but does
not. Every spirit in the Earth Realm has a shadow here. Here, the spirit
of the land has form and the form has only spirit. Spirits on the Earth
are visible."


\subsubsection{Deep Umbra}

"Outside this is the true spirit realm, the soul realm. Here and further
on, reality is liquid and Quintessence gives one Real power. Power to do
anything.  Power limited only by your mind."

"Ah, here be Dragons.", he smiled, fondly. "I suppose that this must be
Hell. This is the lands of possibility, of change and freewill. Where
anything is possible. Some would call it Hell, but to others it is a
land of unlimited possibilities. Heaven to those who want freedom. A
land that slowly darkens as the Quintessence is denied from it, while
the Lighted Lands grow bloated on this unused power."

"It's funny isn't it. The lands that need the Quintessence, the Deep
Umbra, doesn't have it. Instead, it is hoarded in the Lighted Lands,
where nothing changes and they don't need it." 



\subsubsection{\label{highlanders}Highlanders}

"Tell me about us. Where do we fit in?" 

He turned, looking into the distance for a second. "Of course, my
child. Let me digress a touch more."

Lucy closed her eyes and lowered her head. Even after 200 years,
patience came slowly.

"As I said, the Lighted Lands is where all the static heavens reside.
Your peoples Heaven and Hell, Lucy. The Christian one, or at least one
form of it. Heaven and Hell. Heaven formed with the belief of the
people and Hell because people believe in that too. Hell is little
more than a one way gateway to the starved Deep Realms, now."

"Not long ago, to me anyway, soon after the formation of the Gauntlet by
the Humans, Heaven and Hell, the Inner and the Outer fought over the
Quintessence of the Earth. Hell to grab the power before it was fully
strangled from their grasp, and Heaven to strangle their eternal
enemy once and for all."

"Not all in the Heavens fought. The Elder angels thought it was better
to leave the Earth, corrupt and foul as it was, on its own, they had the
Quintessence as the Mages call it. Younger angels strode into battle for
their Earth. The battle was joined, the Heavens with the power and
the Hells throwing all their power into this final push."

"And?" Lucy demanded.

"Well, the Hells retreated, routed once and for all to behind the
Gauntlet, nolonger physically able to visit the Earth. Left to starve to
nothing, while the human Mages slice more and more of their Umbra off
for this outer space. Drying more and more into boring mundane areas of
gas and stars. Forced to scratch what they could from the spirit energy
of dark human emotions in the Shadow lands."

"So heaven won?", Lucy asked?

"No, their is always a price. The `One True God' has not appeared since.
Some angels argue He was killed, although most consider that unlikely,
as heaven still continues. The elder say He was disappointed in the
Younger ones who fought. The younger say the elder ones betrayed Him.
Some say he is disappointed with both and waits a messenger, a new angel
to show the others the way. Others say he took..."

"Thats it isnt it? One of us is the Messanger!" Lucy interupted forcefully.
This felt right!

"Think of a scale of Demons and Angels, on one side is Him, ruler of
unchanging, the other is the Devil, ruler of the flux. Two rulers of the
two things that need no rulers or can not be ruled."

Not to be put off, Lucy continued, "The prize! Thats what it is!"

Ignoring her, he continued, "Between the two, near the middle, the
creatures are weak and very similar, almost the same creature, actually.
Creatures with no physical form, creatures that tempt and cajole actions
from their human pets. Have you ever considered what happens when an
angel falls or a devil rises?"

Lucy looked down and kicked a piece of broken glass with her shoe.  As
she did, the hairs rose on the back of Lucy's neck.  "Exactly in the
middle, are the Highlanders, immortal spirits, who have left their
Heaven or Hell.  Cast to the Earth, where they are born clean, from all
memory. Here they live, existing until their life ends, where upon they
are judged and sent to their reward. Evil ones, cause suffering on
Earth, feeding the demons and when they die, they are given realms to
rule. The good on the other hand are accepted into heaven, ready to
serve as angels for a God that may be dead." His eyes turned to her,
full of trust and sencerity, with a smile of pure evil.

Lucy shifted her weight to allow her to leap to her feet. "I get
the feeling you are going to be rewarded by the devils!" She felt a
trap. Her eyes watched him for any sign of betrayal, any move.

"Not at all.", his glance lifted and focused behind Lucy. She dove to
her feet and spun around. Out of the shadows, a dark shape lunged toward
her. Her hand thrust into her coat, grabbing her sword. With a scream,
all her strength went into pulling it clear of the sheath.

Lucy's small form was flung to the right as the blinding pain of the
sword cut deep into the left side of her chest. She fell to her knees,
feeling smashed ribs cut into her chest. Her face crushed up into a
twisted grimace of pain as she watched her sword clank to the ground as
all power left her body. Her assailant picked it up, kicked her to the
ground and drove it through her back, into the damp dirt in one powerful
stroke. Lucy let out a wimper as she gasped for breath.

The old man lay down next to her. "I could not harm you, child. Not in
this possessed mortal body, I use a Highlander for that." The body shook
and a ghostly shape rose from it, forming into a semi-translucent face
with perfect white teeth and pure white skin. "Harming you is young
Trent's job."

It drifted towards her assailant. "Nice stroke Trent, you learn quickly.
Kill them both, and try to draw it out this time, I'm hungry from taking
that stupid mortal over."

"Was all that true, Master?"

"Do you really care?", replied the translucent presence, his lips parted
in a smile, showing its perfect teeth.

Trent shook his head, chuckled once and picked a burning piece
of wood from the fire in the drum, a smile on his face.

It drifted to in front of Lucy's face. "Thats what my kind love about
you `Highlanders', you can take so much, and its so nourishing." A smile
appeared on its beautiful face, an angelic, trustworthy smile, practiced
over endless years. Lucy closed her eyes, and prayed, but needless to
say, God didn't answer.









\subsection{Rules}

I am using Hank Driskel and Dodgers second edition rules on
Highlanders. The Highlander rules do not have a lot of background
material, so I decided to make some and merge it with the Demons
stuff as well as maybe rehack the Umbra.

I am also using the rules for Demons by chet at efi dot com (Chet Erez).
A cool, cool, idea and a must read. It exemplifies the \wod\ ideas.
These types of demons really fit the \wod\ idea. I recomend that
anyone toss the \WW\ ones and use these instead.


\subsubsection{Where to look}

The Highlander rules may be found at the following sites (as of  XX
date). A great translation from film to game.

\begin{itemize}
\item Highlander: http://www.rdt.monash.edu.au/~korg/level/vamp/vamp.html

\item Highlander: Lots and lots of places. Popular and great. (Anyone one want to
send me a printed copy of the Postscript version? Our printers too
stoopid).

\item Demons: http://www.rdt.monash.edu.au/~korg/level/vamp/net/demons


\item Demons: Various other places, although its old, its from the origional
vampire mailing list.

\end{itemize}



\subsubsection{Demons}

I threw out \WW\ demons from \cite{ww:sgtts}.  I did not like the, well,
munchkin like way they were presented.  Something Evil that people could
fight and kill with a clean conscience. Bad for no reason. I used
\cite{net:demons} by {XXXX name me} who wrote an excelent system for
demons.

This system for demons had them as entities, much like Wraiths (in the
\WW\ product years later). They live in a sort of separate world
and do their work by subtle manipulations of people. Brilliant work,
a must read. I decided that these were the demons in my game.


\subsubsection{Highlanders}

I loved the Highlander conversion, it made them accessable for the
\wod. I wanted them in, but how did they fit in? Well now you know.
:-)

I selected Highlanders as the mid point between Devils and Angels. A
sort of neutral form that was neither good not evil, but had its
memories wiped clean upon fall (or rise) to this state.

Obviously the demons are keen to get Highlanders on side, because they
can offer the Highlander real power on their fall into `Hell' because
they can actually cause suffering on Earth directly, allowing the demons
to feed.  This explained Evil Highlanders like Kurgan and Slane (XXX
check me!), and also why one has goody-goody Highlanders like Connor and
Remeriez.  Note that only weak angels and devils at the edge of their
realm have any chance to make this change, imagine a sliding scale, from
-10 to 10, with Highlanders at 0 (or -0.001 to 0.001).

\subsubsection{Notes on Backgound}

After the battle mentioned above, the Elder angels took over the
running of Heaven. They took a more conservative attitude and stopped
all the radical changed the younger angels were causing.

Disgusted, the some of the radical elements Fell to Earth, to take
up the fight. Weaker Demons also started to Rise to match them and
compete for the Prize. The Prize is rumored to be the Keys to Earth,
and if some are correct, the Keys to Heaven and Hell as well or even
the ability to tip the eternal battle. Or maybe it's to become the
messenger to God or the Devil?

This is all weakly defined, so you can define (or massacre it) as you
go. But who says this is correct? Maybe you should just ignore all this
and watch your back.