The World Bible
The World
When the end of the world came, it was neither quick nor remotely merciful. The world took decades to die, and worse still, God was a no-show on the apocalypse's VIP guest list. But we are not telling a story about the end of the world. This is a story about what happens once the end has come, gone, and the world still keeps on turning.
What Is Requiem by Night?
Requiem by Night is a homebrewed World of Darkness roleplay sim set in the year 200 TE (2278 CE) — two centuries after the apocalyptic events known collectively as the Sundering. It combines the tone of the New World of Darkness with the splat mechanics of the 20th Anniversary Old World of Darkness editions, merged into a world entirely its own.
This is not a setting about being the biggest, most powerful creature of the night. It is about surviving in a ravaged world — navigating the politics of a walled city built on ruins, hiding what you are from the humans who outnumber you a thousand to one, and finding meaning in the aftermath of everything that once mattered being gone.
The Calendar System
| Designation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| CE — Common Era | The old world calendar, still used by human historians for events before the Sundering. 2278 CE is the current year by this count. |
| TE — Third Era | The standard calendar used across the Basilican League. Year 0 TE marks Eshtarra's Ascension and the Initialization of the God-Machine (2078 CE). The current year is 200 TE. |
| Before CE | Referred to as the First Era. Covers all pre-Common Era history. |
Quick conversion: CE year minus 2078 equals TE year.
The State of the World
The world humanity once knew is gone. The oceans rose and swallowed coastlines. Nuclear fire and decades of geological catastrophe reshaped continents. What remains is dangerous, strange, and beautiful in its broken way.
Humanity has survived — barely. The global population is estimated at no more than 50 million souls, less than one percent of what it was before the War of Ruination. Eight out of every ten humans alive today live inside one of the fifteen Basilicas — walled city-state metropolises built around anomalous obelisks called Reality Anchors that keep the worst of the post-Sundering chaos at bay.
Between one Basilica and the next, the land is wild and unspeakably dangerous. Wyrdstorms sweep across the open world. Anomalies warp reality without warning. Even so, there are those born outside the Basilicas who sell everything they have for a chance to live inside those walls.
What Humanity Believes
Modern humanity looks back on the Old World with a mixture of awed deference and utter disgust. Most human historians mark the beginning of the end as the Crash of '47, when the RedDawn Supervirus destroyed global stock markets and triggered a depression beyond anything seen before. What followed was the War of Ruination — the world's first and last nuclear conflict — and then the Sundering itself.
Humanity does not know that the supernatural world exists inside the Basilica walls. They believe it exists only beyond them, in the dangerous outside. Supernaturals hide to survive. This fiction is called the Veil, and it is the most important rule in Basilica Purgatory.
What the Supernaturals Know
The supernatural community knows the Sundering was not merely human hubris. Ancient forces beyond human imagining stirred in the final decades before the end. Caine walked out of history and into Oblivion, nearly taking all vampirekind with him. Gaia died, and with her, all her shapechanging children became literal animals for a decade. The Dreaming cracked open. And then, in the darkest moment, the God-Machine initialized and the long work of rebuilding began.
Wyrdstorms & Reality Anchors
Wyrdstorms — misspelled "Weirdstorms" by most humans — are one of the most persistent and dangerous legacies of the Sundering: manifestations of raw creative energy from the Dreaming, seeping through rifts in reality. To human eyes, a Wyrdstorm looks like an incandescent storm front, constantly shifting color — bright technicolor auroras appearing where they have no business being. Technology fails in a Wyrdstorm, often explosively, and radio signals are warped and scattered — the leading cause of why long-range communication is nearly impossible.
Within a Wyrdstorm, bubbles of warped reality called change circles form at random, swapping material, fusing creatures together, or producing beings that do not belong in this reality at all.
Reality Anchors are the reason the Basilicas exist — ancient obelisks of unknown origin, smooth black metal with no seams, found among the ruins of major Old World cities. They stabilize reality around them, deflecting Wyrdstorms and weakening anomalies within their field. Each Anchor also absorbs a specific radio frequency and rebroadcasts the frequencies of all other Anchors, making them the only reliable means of long-range communication in the post-Sundering world.
The Veil
The Veil is the central social contract of Basilica Purgatory: the shared fiction — maintained by supernaturals, enforced by the Veil Keepers, and backed by the God-Machine's Consensus — that all supernatural beings exist only beyond the Basilica walls.
Supernaturals who violate the Veil do not merely risk social consequences. They risk the God-Machine noticing. And the God-Machine's response is never proportionate, and never gentle.
The Splats: An Overview
Full character creation information for each is in the Character Creation Guide.
Vampire (Lilum). When Caine walked into Oblivion, Lilith intervened and gave every vampire a choice. Those who accepted rebirth through her covenant became the Lilum — still vampiric in nature, but tied to the Dark Mother rather than the First Murderer. The old Camarilla, Sabbat, and Anarch exist only in historical accounts; in modern nights, Vampires organize through the Factions. The six common bloodlines are Ventrue, Toreador, Malkavian, Gangrel, Nosferatu, and True Brujah.
Werewolf (Garou). When Gaia the Elder died, every Garou not sheltered in a spiritual realm was erased from existence. Eshtarra's ascension as Gaia the Younger remade them as the Gaian Shifters — servants bound to cleanse the world's spiritual contamination. They carry no silver bane; their bane is obsidian. The six surviving tribes are Black Furies, Fianna, Get of Fenris, Glass Walkers, Silent Striders, and Children of Eshtarra.
Lost. The Great Wyrdstorm cracked the gates to Arcadia and the Dreaming open. What remains are three distinct peoples: the Lost (playable), the Dreamborne (rare, playable), and the Wyrd-born (Storyteller-controlled). The six seemings are Beasts, Darklings, Elementals, Fairest, Ogres, and Wizened.
Hellion. The Hungry Dead — those who have died, endured the Thousand Hells, and returned changed. Not vampires, though both are undead. Hellions walk a Dharma path and manage the balance between their Ego and their Shadow.
Sorcerers. Awakened magic died with the Mages. Sorcerers survived because their magic was always smaller in scale and more rigid — a "paint by numbers" practice that bureaucracy could legislate. The six schools are Artificers, Augurs, Druids, Ossians, Wayfarers, and Fury Shapers.
Psychics. Psychic ability can emerge in any human born inside the Basilica — and it is a liability, not a gift, since the general population mistakes it for Awakened magic. Every Psychic learns to mask their ability as Sorcerer-style practice.
Humans. The majority of Basilica Purgatory. They run the city, staff its institutions, and outnumber every supernatural type combined. Human characters choose a Profession. Half-Damned are humans with one foot in the supernatural world: Kinfolk, Ghouls, Projectors, and Dhampir.
Hunters. In Basilica Purgatory, Hunters don't hunt supernaturals to destroy them — they exist to maintain balance and keep the Veil intact.
Continue to: The Glossary · The Timeline · The Factions