Historical, Novel and Movie characters of Gothic Earth

Discussing Masque of the Red Death
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Lady Ligeia
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Post by Lady Ligeia »

Someone over at EnWorld is also working on Castlevania characters and monsters. You might want to incorporate them:

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=15575

He already has stats for most of the characters in the game, so that might save you some work there. :D
"Here then, at least," I shrieked aloud, "can I never --can I never be mistaken --these are the full, and the black, and the wild eyes --of my lost love --of the lady --of the LADY LIGEIA."

[i]--Edgar Allan Poe[/i], Ligeia
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Post by The Lesser Evil »

I think Freud would make an interesting character, with the involvement of hypnosis and the Nightmare Court in Gothic Earth, especially with the revelations of Dr. Dominiani and Illhousen's existences in Gothic Earth in the last campaign classics Dragon magazine.

Dr. Sigmund Freud
Physician/Intellectual/Analyst

Through out his career, Sigmund Freud was an influential and controversial figure in the field of the mind. By the 1890s, Freud had not yet developed his finished developing his elaborate theories underlying psychoanalysis. Freud’s early life was known for his considerable pursuit of things scholarly. In 1873, the young and intelligent Freud entered medical school in the University of Vienna. There he became inspired by several faculty members in the university and became heavily involved research there. Freud went after paying positions he could find, but he faced discrimination in a society that looked down on Jews. After becoming romantically enamored with Martha Bernays in 1882, he saw the gravity of the situation that he must face if he were to start a family with her financially independent of his parents. To this end, he entered the General Hospital seeking training to have his own private practice. There he focused on neurophysiology and came in contact with Theodore Maynert. Freud impressed him to the point that he supported Freud in going to work with Charcot in Paris in 1885. Freud had thus procured some impressive credentials, although Freud’s support of Charcot’s controversial theories of hysteria tainted his return to Vienna.
After his return, Freud made a living dealing with neurological disorders. It made itself apparent to Freud that he could not make enough money dealing with only typical neurological cases. He began to work with cases of hysteria, an uncommon thing to do in Vienna at this time. Freud discovered free association as a substitute for hypnosis in dealing with hysteria. Delving deeper into the minds of his patients, Freud found several strange tendencies. First of all, the physical symptoms of hysteria, thought to be the manifestation of buried pathogenic thoughts, seemed to be caused by clusters of pathological ideas rather than single ones. Secondly, despite conscious patient involvement, free association would often hit dead ends when the deepest ideas were about to become conscious. It appeared as if the connections had simply been removed from memory, unconsciously repressed. It was a seemingly contradictory duality of a person consciously being supportive of treatment but unconsciously resisting treatment. This conflict would highlight the beginning of the intrapsychic conflict involved in Freud’s later theories.
It soon became apparent to Freud that sexual childhood experiences were involved in many of the revealed thoughts. In 1896, Freud followed up on this with the publishing of his seduction theory of hysteria. He postulated that hysteria was the direct result of sexual abuse in childhood. The memories would lie dormant until puberty, and then become increasingly disturbing. In order to deal with these traumatic memories, people would convert them into physical symptoms as a defense mechanism. This would be done in order to avoid dealing directly with the mental torment. The medical establishment, perhaps not surprisingly, rejected Freud’s seduction theory, and Freud disavowed belief in it in 1897. However, although he thought the specifics of this theory was wrong. But his approach and therapy had apparently helped people, so perhaps the essence of his work was a step in the right direction. Later he would revise his theories of hysteria, but not until after dealing with a seemingly different topic: the interpretation of dreams.
In 1895, Freud began speculation about the nature of dreams. Fascinated by both his patients’ mentioning of them as well as what he was taught by Meynert as well as his own dreams, Freud began examining dreams by the use of free association. In his 1900 work The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud wrote that there were two layers of content in dreams. The manifest content was the obvious, surreal part of the dreams, while the latent content was the underlying meaning to the dreamer that became obvious only through therapy. The latent content seemed to actively attempt to avoid being discovered. Freud reached a conclusion that the emotional energy embedded in the latent content was dispersed by putting it in the form of more manageable manifest content. In here Freud later found the basis for a new hypothesis: the hidden content came from unresolved issues of wish fulfillment. That is, many of the mental symptoms were the result of deeply buried urges that lie repressed by societal expectations. Following his father’s death in 1896, Freud followed this up by putting his own dreams up to the test of free association. Freud found that the deviant urges that lie in his unconscious lied within many of his patients. He eventually theorized that almost anyone could share these hidden sexual complexes.
In 1905, Freud began a fire of controversy by publishing several of his theories on sexuality. He portrayed people as being born with deviant, primal sexual desires that are only brought under any sort of “control” after being consciously abandoned. These ideas directly contradicted the ideal of childhood being a time of innocence and freedom from perversion that would come later in life. The Oedipus complex would not be taken lightly. Despite the firestorm of controversy, Freud would build on his themes of the unconscious mind and repressed sexual urges and eventually publish in 1923 his famous theories on the id, the ego, and the superego. Psychoanalysis had made it.
Source: Pioneers of Psychology, by Raymond E. Fancher

Forbidden Lore: As Sigmund Freud delves ever deeper into the unconscious mind, he becomes entangled in many mysteries and conspiracies. Mental entities, but no less real than physical beings, exist within the human mind, beings of consciousness and unconscious, given form in the dreams and wishes created by mortals.
Freud is not simply a “good” dreamer by coincidence. Midway through his research into dreams, he comes into contact with the famed Dr. Illhousen, who joins him in research on dreams and madness. Dr. Freud eventually learns how to dream-walk, and this serves as a source for inspiration for his work. Unfortunately, this has also brought Freud to the attention of the Nightmare Court, with Hypnos in particular.
Freud has also come to the attention of one Dr. Declaud Heinfroth, who has similar interests in the field of mental illness. They have recently began engaging in correspondence. Unfortunately, Freud does not yet know of Heinfroth’s true nature or purposes.
And perhaps the most dangerous things Freud will face are the beings represented by the id, ego, and superego. These are more than just theoretical concepts or mental mechanisms, they are the remnants of primordial forces of pure chaos, neutrality, and law that existed at the beginning of time. As such, they have lied dormant even long before the Red Death entered Gothic Earth. It is unclear what effect their release to the common consciousness would have, but it is likely it will be a monumental one.
abe
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Post by abe »

how about ronald mcdonald,just because he is new dosn't mean he couldn't igsist in gothic earth(not writen about sure,but just the same)
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Post by Charney »

I was wondering: for Masque characters, what system did most people used here? The d20 modern class system, d20 Masque rules or something else?
I've just got an idea for a character but I don't know how to stat him in the least (unless it was in 7th sea rules).
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Post by Blake_Alexander »

Charney wrote:I was wondering: for Masque characters, what system did most people used here? The d20 modern class system, d20 Masque rules or something else?
I've just got an idea for a character but I don't know how to stat him in the least (unless it was in 7th sea rules).
For my campaigns I use D20 Masque rules, but I'm familiar enough with d20 Modern that I could easily refer to those rules as well.
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Post by William Blackmoor »

I use d20 Masque rules.
Don't know d20 modern and dislike the idea of converting MotRD to these rules. 8)
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Post by Charney »

And the masque rules, do they work better with the massive errata that was compiled?
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Lady Ligeia
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Post by Lady Ligeia »

I think the new True20 system would make a good fit as well.
"Here then, at least," I shrieked aloud, "can I never --can I never be mistaken --these are the full, and the black, and the wild eyes --of my lost love --of the lady --of the LADY LIGEIA."

[i]--Edgar Allan Poe[/i], Ligeia
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Charney
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Post by Charney »

Lady Ligeia wrote:I think the new True20 system would make a good fit as well.
What's this system? I never heard of it.
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Lady Ligeia
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Post by Lady Ligeia »

It's a new d20 spawn from Green Ronin.

http://true20.com/

It's due out next week. It's gotten rid of classes in favor of three generic roles. The three roles are Adept (magic), Expert (skill), and Warrior (combat). Instead of class abilities, you select feats from either a general list, or a role-specific list.

It's also done away with hit points, using a "Toughness save" similar to what is found in Mutants and Masterminds. Armor adds to toughness rather than defense, and defense scales with level.

(Those are the big changes, check out the forums for more! :))
"Here then, at least," I shrieked aloud, "can I never --can I never be mistaken --these are the full, and the black, and the wild eyes --of my lost love --of the lady --of the LADY LIGEIA."

[i]--Edgar Allan Poe[/i], Ligeia
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Post by Pandion »

Thought I'd add something to the conversation. Read 'The Devil in the White City" for a better description of Holmes.

Herman Mudgett aka H.H Holmes (NE)
Psychotic Criminal/Murderer

As a child Herman was fascinated with the skeletons hanging in his Vermont doctor’s office. To meet him then one wouldn’t think very much. He was a loner with little in the way of charisma or personal magnetism. In his early 20’s this seems to have changed. The Red Death sensed his jealousy of those men who had it all and sent an envoy to make a deal. For the very simple price of a few murders, Mudgett could become the ladies man he always dreamt of becoming.

The deal was struck and the fine gentleman named H.H. Holmes was born. He moved to Chicago to try out his new powers and quickly became a man of means by 1892. This also was the year he began construction of what was to become the “Horror Castle”. Secret rooms were plentiful, one with an air-tight gas chamber and another in the basement with an operating table and surgeon’s utensils. An adjacent kiln was used to dispose of the bodies down to the bones. All told over 20 people, mostly women who had come to Chicago for the World’s Fair in 1893, vanished. The only evidence of their demise being the articulated skeletons hanging in the local medical colleges supplied by Mr. Holmes.

All things must end and the Red Death is a fickle master. Mr. Holmes began to have more investigators come by his mansion searching for lost loved ones. His powers of persuasion slowly abandoned him so by 1894 it was time to leave Chicago. The Red Death wasn’t completely finished with him yet. The Pinkertons had gotten wind of the murders and eventually caught up with Holmes in Philadelphia where he was arrested. In his cell Holmes feels abandoned by his master and writes a manuscript detailing his life and the deal which was made in his youth. The question remains as to whether it will ever be understood by anyone other than the lunatic whom the guards protect for his own safety?
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Post by Blake_Alexander »

Pandion wrote:Thought I'd add something to the conversation. Read 'The Devil in the White City" for a better description of Holmes.
Holmes is definitely an interesing historical figure, especially given the story of his curse of vengence that plagued the headlines for years following his execution. I considered writing an article for Quote the Raven on Holmes and his curse, but settled on another subject, since I wasn't sure I could do H.H. Holmes justice with the time I had at my disposal.
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Post by Pandion »

Yeah there's alot about Holmes that can't be fit into a short thread like this. I was a little surprised the authors of the MotRD book didn't use him when they wrote about the main baddies. Perhaps it was because he got caught? :wink:

Another historical figure I haven't seen in this thread yet is Madame Blavatsky. As a founder of the Theosophist Society she'd make a great NPC in any Gothic Earth campaign.
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Post by Fido »

Someone should so Sherlock Holmes and Scotland Yard. :)
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Post by The Wannabe »

Mary Poppins.....Nanny Mcphee.....any relation to Isolde of the Carnival, I wonder?
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