Velvet Underground
From Changeling Venue
PLEASE SEE OOC NOTES FOR ESTABLISHING TIES WITH THE VELVET UNDERGROUND
Quote: We're gonna make you an offer you can't refuse, and you're not going to refuse it because we control what you desire.
Contents |
Overview
If the courtiers of the four Courts could be considered the legitimate authorities within freeholds, then it follows that there must exist societies that hold power through less legitimate means. Like any society, the changeling world has its underworld with its denizens of thieves, rogues, knaves and other bastards.
The Velvet Underground is exactly that, a network of organized crime amongst the lost, a type of Faerie Mafia. In a world where even the most average seeming person is bent towards the gratification and fulfillment of vice and self-interest, then it is not only a commercially viable operation, but a legitimate method to protect invested interests in sources of mortal glamour by creating non-mystical ties to their organization. Whether these ties are those of fear and wrath (through racketeering) or those of desire and sorrow (through addiction).
This is what it means to be a member of the Velvet Underground, to become highly attuned to your own Vice, and learn to use it against other people. For the Velveteens recognize that, as creatures half Fae, changelings have a much closer tie to Vice than most ordinary mortal. So, rather than try to achieve balance between their mortal and faerie natures, they recognize that of the two sides of the coin, the fae is clearly the more powerful of the two, and so exalt this half for their own purpose and agendas. In dedicating themselves to their Vice, they not only become more in tune with it (supposedly developing some level of control and mastery over it), but also learn how to manipulate other people’s Vice for their own purposes. This is their trade and purpose, they are traders in Vice, and not just mundane Vices, but they seek to capture the dreams and memories of Vice, as part of a doctrine of enlightened self-interest. Typically, the members of the Velvet Underground maintain close ties with the Goblin Markets, having a reasonable knowledge of where to find them, when to find them, and the best methods of trade with them. What the Velveteens must have bargained away for such preferential treatment is unknown to most changelings, but whatever it thought to be incredibly seductive.
Membership into the Velvet Underground is not simply a matter of allegiance to their ways. It is a sacrifice of something quintessentially human in exchange for a few measures of power. The Velveteens have lost their affinity with the human compass of ethics, a changeling places their human psyche into a crucible of dreams and surrenders part of their mortality to their faerie nature. This crucible is not a metaphor, it is a Token that the Velveteens use to capture the most noble part of her.
Methods of Transaction
The mainstay of all Velveteen activity is corruption and exploitation. Though much of this is motivated by desire of power and influence, a good portion more is derived from an internal urge within these Fae to bring others to their side. They don’t merely profit from corruption and exploitation, they positively thrive from it. They exalt in it and revel in its pleasure. It’s all about dealing of the Vice. Find the target’s desires and try to corrupt them into losing their own Morality. When first stepping on this slippery slope a Fae will quickly find herself falling into predatory habits becoming increasingly callous towards their fellow human being. As their morality drops, their ties to the mortal world erode. A sense of callous bearing towards humanity as a whole steals over them, making them bitter and twisted entities with little empathy for the creatures that they have become. Little more than objects and methods to their agendas. Indeed, the cultivation of emotional abuse for glamour harvesting, while not prolific, is one of the less reputable methods that the Velvet Underground has as a reputation. Not a day goes by where the desire for the raw emotions of mortals grows ever stronger.
Beyond that, the Velveteen members have a well earned reputation for drug running; they pride themselves on harvesting particularly exquisite and intense emotional memories with Oneiromancy. Unsurprisingly, a number of their slaves end up as mindless drones (though even these hapless and rudderless masses can have their uses in the service of the changeling). A changeling is hard pressed to find a more potent concoction than that offered by the Velveteen. Though the implication of such a brew is well known, many are still willing to take it if they themselves are not directly party to its crime. This is just the way the Velveteen like it, by accustomising their clientele with potent drugs they hope to foster dependencies, needs, desires… bring out the addiction of Glamour to a new threshold that drives them to extremes.
It should also be noted that the Velvet Underground members, though lacking in empathy for humanity, are not averse to using human agents of their agendas. It is not uncommon for its members to be partisan to mortal crime syndicates as much as their own. Exploiting mortals for power can be just as rewarding for these changelings as exploiting changelings themselves. The Velveteen merely prefers to target changelings from some sense of similarity towards the other changelings. Like breeds like they say.
Network
The Web of Desire is an international trading consortium for objects, triffles, Tokens, favors and all manner of things and desires. Membership almost always requires some form of connection to the Goblin Markets, as these are the primary sources of goods for trade upon the network.
Dross
OOC Note: Dross is not yet sanctioned for play
Dross is a substance that is created by further refining Oddments. It has gone by a number of other names over the years and is popularly referred to as Faerie Dust by the unenlightened mortals. Dross is the province of the Velvet Underground. To create Dross, they must take an assortment of oddments and imbue them with Glamour. The mixture is then crumbled into fine dust.
Dross carries with it the mote of Glamour that was imbued into it. Dross can be consumed giving the imbiber a rush of Glamour. In mortals this gives them a strange psychotropic high for a short period of time, but unlike any mundane narcotic they have tried. A changeling who imbibes the Dross takes into herself the mote of Glamour she just consumed. She is too used to the addictive nature of Glamour to be affected that strongly.
A number of changelings have taken to the practice of storing spare Glamour within Dross. While this may be reasonable for emergency supplies, it is not an economic method of storing since changelings require working with the Velvet Underground to acquire Dross. The fact that other changelings, Fae and mortals can consume Dross does sometimes mean that the versatility of Dross is worth the cost of its making.
One place where Dross is more commonly found is within the Goblin Markets, since Dross is a commodity that the Gobs seem happy to trade in.
Any time a character who has imbibed Dross receives a chance to do so again, the mortal rolls Resolve + Composure. A single success allows the character to resist the temptation. The more one gives in, the harder it is to exercise self-control. Faerie creatures, who are somewhat accustomed to Glamour already add their Wyrd to this roll.
Each time a character gives in to the yearning for Dross, subsequent attempts to resist temptation suffer a cumulative –1 die penalty on the Resolve + Composure roll. Eventually, the character's Resolve + Composure dice pool drops to zero and a chance roll is all that's left. At that point, the character is completely addicted. Not only does he have very little chance to resist the craving, he doesn't want to. A derangement is imposed instantly if the player makes a dramatic failure on a Resolve + Composure roll to resist the temptation of Dross.
Addicted characters often become obsessed with other drug consumption, thinking that they might gain some measure of the same rush they once felt. They also frequently grow obsessively dependent on any Velveteen who supplies their Dross, becoming willing to do anything — anything! — for another fix. Many Velveteen exploit such addiction, but doing so carries its own risks. Obsession can take many strange forms. One addict may simply allow themselves to become bound to the service of the changeling supplier in hopes for their occasional fixes; others will attempt to subjugate the changeling and farm them for his Dross.
If a character can resist the lure of Dross, a +1 die bonus is gained to subsequent attempts to deny the cravings. The character can beat her nascent addiction if the player ever scores an exceptional success on a Resolve + Composure roll. It’s as if the character never tasted Dross at all. If she imbibes Dross again, however, she feels the cravings once more.
When a character falls short of complete addiction, the cravings for Dross can fade with time, as long as the character avoids temptation. For each year in which a character stays away from any exposure to Dross, one die is added to Resolve + Composure pools to avoid temptation.
A character never really beats the desire, however, until the player scores an exceptional success on the Resolve + Composure roll.
Mien: Dross is seemingly composed of fine and white crystals (far finer than most anything a mortal has seen) and seems to have gentle flecks of color hidden throughout it. It looks like a drug, it has the same texture as a drug-powder.
Drawback: This is not so much a Token as a Trifle, each measure of Dross must be manufactured with an equivalent measure of Glamour.
Fae Familia
A list of known members in the Velvet Underground.
Godparents
Members who are in charge of regional areas. The formal title is Faerie Godfather or Faerie Godmother.
- Elijah Reve - Rumoured Faerie Godfather of the South West, USA.
- Malic Stitch - Rumoured Faerie Godfather of the Southeast, USA.
- Valentine - Rumoured Faerie Godfather of the Eastern Coast, Australia.
- Tobias Soultongue - Rumoured Faerie Godfather of the North East, USA.
The Cards
Members who are in charge of a specific purview. The formal title is Knave/Ace/Deuce or similar of (purview). Answerable only to the Godparents.
- Minister Kruhy - Ace of Diamonds, It's always important to keep an ace up your sleeve.
- Bianca Snow - Rumoured Queen of Diamonds, Las Vegas, NV, USA. CEO of Winterbourne Ventures, Inc.
- Krampus - Deuce of Deception
The Soldiers of Sin
Members who do the dirty deeds.
Registrations of Interest
OOC Note: If you want to tie your char in some way but don't know how there are two options, either e-mail me at this address or put your link in the space below, including a potential direction you want to take it.
