◊ Sunset Over Benevolence

[Victoria]

Sunset Over Benevolence is an original fantasy/horror roleplay that takes place in an alternate universe, about a society based roughly upon a mix of sixteenth through eighteenth century New Englanders and ancient pagans.

The isolated village of Benevolence rests in a beautiful valley bordered by hills to the southeast and thick woods to the northwest. Everything grows there, and a hearty crop is enjoyed each year. Newcomers are scarce and viewed with suspicion, generations of families live tight-packed, and superstition runs rampant. All aspects of life, from planting to marriages, have a specific time and manner recommended by the village elders in accordance with the arrangement of stars and planets. All is calm and constant.

Despite the quiet, peaceful nature of the village, the inhabitants live in fear. As long as anyone can remember the village has been plagued by what they call the Gewin, a mysterious race of monsters who slaughter any unlucky traveler caught in the woods at night. Little is known about them, but lore says that they are the wolves of the forest, cursed humans condemned to live in guilt and hiding as mere beasts during the day and thirst for the blood of their former race at night. Under the moon, they are said to be gloriously beautiful creatures whose allure draws all who see them, but deadly for their deep and horrific thirst.

The Gewin have extraordinary strength and agility, and heightened senses that would make the nighttime hours unavoidably fatal for the villagers but for one factor: the Guardians. Although the villagers of Benevolence do not know how, they know from experience that the Guardians are what keep the Gewin from entering the village. And what are the Guardians? Cats. The whole village, thus, is quite populated with cats. Each cat is well-cared for and carefully named, treated with great respect, and every cat (amazingly, the cat population has just barely exceeded that of the humans) is known by name to every villager. The cats are allowed to choose their own homes, as every door is open to them; some choose to wander and change locations often, while some choose to attach themselves to a particular home or person.

The bravest and able of the young men take shifts, alongside many cats, in wooden towers built at the edge of the forest in order to watch for the Gewin. Although occosionally deaths occur in the dark hours of the night – in which bloodless humans are found the next morning beside their mangled Guardians, in the stillness of a quiet home – mostly the Gewin are kept at bay. The village, although fearful, continues to live and to thrive.

The secrets that lie beneath this strange phenomenon are deep and frightful. Two opposing sides fight for the lives of the villagers, the Guardians and the Gewin, neither knowing their exact origins except from long-kept legends of old. Still they war, and the villagers caught in between remain largely in ignorance.