"Cultists walk among us"

The Shadow Vault, a neutral Knights of the Ebon Blade RP community, invites you to participate in an open campaign as either a Cult of the Damned character hiding in Stormwind City, or an Ebon Blade knight hunting them. This will be a long-running storyline playing out over the course of several months with a particular focus on mystery, intrigue, and paranoia.The gist:
A small group of desperate cultists hiding in Stormwind City has been inspired by a charismatic leader to launch an attack on the Knights of the Ebon Blade.OOC Secrecy is a big part of the fun of this plot, so beware of spoilers ahead, but we consider it information that is important to know if you would like to get involved!

IC Goals

  • Kidnap and confine death knights, starve them to madness, and then unleash them in Stormwind so that the resulting massacre wrecks the relationship between the Ebon Blade and Alliance. (This will never actually come to pass in the end because it would be a nightmare OOC, but this is their goal).

  • Establish a charity organization in Stormwind that can facilitate activity including fundraising and recruitment.

  • Gradually and subtly vilify the Ebon Blade via propaganda.

OOC Goals

  • Establish a non-guild community of Cult of the Damned RP characters that can experience character development and can 'safely' interact with some Knights of the Ebon Blade.

  • Maintain a balance where the Ebon Blade neither wipes the floor with the cultists nor looks incompetent. The death knights cannot freely harass innocent citizenry and Stormwind is a tricky place for cultists to hide. Metagaming will not be tolerated. We are not looking for 'winners' or 'losers', just roleplay.

  • OOC secrecy is part of the fun of this event, so it is recommended you prolong that as much as you can. However much you choose to do so is your choice. If you are making a new character as a cultist and have DK RP friends on bnet, consider going offline on Battle.net. This is not a requirement, just part of the fun. When we did this event ten years ago, false reports of innocent players were common! People would reach out to me OOC, convinced someone that was interacting with them was a cultist, but of course I would never give the game away. Eventually players will figure things out, but the longer you can keep it going the better!

  • Playing characters on both sides is perfectly fine, though it means you will miss out on the fun of playing a blind DK.

Cult of the Damned

"While the current members of the Cult of the Damned are zealous individuals wholly dedicated to their cause, most new recruits are shy and weak-willed people unsure of themselves. Unpopular, abused people, often considered failures in their careers or their lives in general, are ripe for the manipulation of the Scourge as they don't have much to hold onto in the first place."

The perpetrators are a small group of cultists, many of whom have been recently recruited from the citizenry.The relationship among the cultists is one of strife and camaraderie as we are operating in secret and have little means. Some of the recruits are even homeless given our use of a charity organization. This is not a sophisticated operation involving large numbers and will not involve any large-scale combat. The Knights of the Ebon Blade are terrifying to us which is the reason we are targeting them in the first place.If you choose to play with us on the cult side, your character can be an existing cultist, or can go through recruitment and induction IC. There is no guild or formal command structure in place for these characters but veteran cultists can take on mentorship roles for new inductees.While redshirts are acceptable, the intention is that cultists can be created for this conflict and also live through it.

Ebon Blade

Currently IC: Knights may be aware of propaganda spreading, but this is not the first time and they are accustomed to it.
Currently OOC: Knights standby. We are giving the Damned characters some time to get established.Knights of the Ebon Blade are being watched by the Damned and information is being gathered about them to determine the best targets for capture.Though information may be gathered about them, no death knights will be targeted or involved in this plot without their full OOC consent.Once kidnappings begin, they will be a way for death knights to explore RP related to starvation and the hunger, and to interact with the enemies that envy what they have.

Join In

This is an open event that requires no guild or community membership. We hope to create opportunities for roleplay for everyone regardless of your level of involvement. You might:

  • As a bystander, be exposed to propaganda and/or negative talk about the Ebon Blade.

  • Take action by contributing to discussion for/against the Ebon Blade's presence in Stormwind based on your character's beliefs.

  • Take action by reporting propaganda to the Ebon Blade, or reporting suspicious Ebon Blade activity to the Stormwind Guard or church.

  • Join the Cult of the Damned side on an existing or new character.

  • Join as a Knight of the Ebon Blade or ally thereof.

We primarily use The Shadow Vault's Discord to communicate though there are in-game communities as well. If you would like to join as a death knight hunting cultists, we would love a heads up as we can encourage cultists to target you (though we obviously won't tell you who it is!). If you would like to join as a cultist, please also let us know so that we can recruit you in-character. Please message or mail 'Mornal' in game, or alternatively 'Audreigh'.The Shadow Vault also has guilds on Moon Guard and Wyrmrest Accord. If you are interested in joining this or just networking for Ebon Blade RP unrelated to this event, you can find more info about us here.

Rules / Guidelines

  • This is primarily an Ebon Blade vs. Cult of the Damned event run to benefit those communities. Due to the vulnerable nature of the cultists, we have some OOC protections in place.

  • To monitor potential metagame (and get ahead of any potential drama), at least one of the event coordinators (Audreigh/Evelyne, Mornal, Bernord) must know the true nature of your character's involvement if you intend to take actions that affect the plot.

  • 'Infiltrating the cult' is not allowed. There is a lot of trust to facilitate something growing a lot faster than it would in reality. You should not be lying OOC to gain any 'benefit' IC. It would be too easy!

  • To the above point, attempts to be a hero and solve the cult problem are not allowed. A lot of effort has been put into this event and the intention is primarily to create RP for cultists and Ebon Blade. Outside allies are welcome to participate but both sides have an understanding that this is not about 'winning' or 'losing'.

Calls

The 'calls' are a series of calls to action for the citizens of Stormwind against the Ebon Blade. They are intended to be carefully constructed as disparaging to the Ebon Blade while not being outright disprovable. Rather than bring up the Scourge or the Cult of the Damned, the Calls only intend to bring down the Ebon Blade.These pamphlets are distributed en masse and you can feel free to say your character has found it lying around.

  • Please note: Calls are distributed by roleplayers with good intentions to help create conflict and interaction! If at any point you would like for us to never approach your character again, please contact 'Mornal' or 'Audreigh'.