The Founding of New Valencia

New Valencia (current pop: about 150,000) began as a Vampire colony. It formed after economist and Vampire Thomas Malthus (1766 -1834), in a secret seventh volume of his famous The Principles of Population, predicted that vampires would overrun all of humankind if left unchecked. Malthus suggested that his fellow Vampires live in collective, voluntary isolation from the rest of the human population and obey strict rules on how to feed and who they turn into Vampires. These rules were intended to prevent the entire planet from being overpopulated by Vampires, who would then run out of humans to harvest. This noble and difficult decision led to the founding of New Valencia, a separate society of Vampires.

New Valencia hides its true character from the rest of the world. Once a secret trading outpost of a colonial trading company, over time it drew an increasingly sophisticated  boundary between itself and the human world. When the Pacific coast came to be settled by humans, the Vampires of New Valencia created a charter that forbade preying on humankind and the town government provided blood to its citizens through secret raids.

The Shadow of Xelco

That charter has come under incredible pressure with the rise of Xelco, a multinational corporation based in New Valencia that does regular business with the human world. Xelco even employs humans as scientists, as guards, and as the workers who take care of maintenance functions throughout the city. To a passing tourist wandering the empty daylight streets, however, the truth of New Valencia’s history is still a secret. While architecturally attractive, it’s an unwelcoming city–expensive, with no hotels or available real estate–so ignorant human tourists rarely stay beyond a day visit.

The Supply of Hema

New Valencia centers on an uneasy arrangement. Xelco maintains the city of New Valencia and offers a steady supply of “hema” (synthetic blood) to Vampire citizens. Those citizens, in exchange, agree to live peacefully within the city limits. But this arrangement, along with most traditional arrangements within the city, is in decay. Hema is not enough to sustain a healthy Vampire, and Xelco is suspiciously secretive about the process by which it makes this thin and unsatisfying form of nourishment. Xelco produces several Vampire pharmaceuticals — ranging from restorative medicines to Sunset, a drug that allows Vampires to survive daylight. The company maintains a massive corporate headquarters in the city center, and rumors abound that secret research facilities are hidden elsewhere in New Valencia.

The Four Houses

Vampire society is organized into bloodlines — long threads of connection that can span hundreds (if not thousands) of years. New Valencia is home to several long lineages of Vampires, and over time those lineages have become houses. More recently, younger (i.e. newly turned) vampires have also formed gangs, which represent youthful rebellion. Each house descends from a culturally specific group that represents an aspect of Vampire life:

House Cosca: Pleasure
House Gaiana: History
House DuArc: War and Peace
House Zakone: Technology

And finally, those without any house at all:

The White Crows: Rebellion

Vampires who reject the Houses, the treaty with Xelco, the taking of Sunset and Hema (which they consider a betrayal of true Vampire nature), and live dangerously on the fringes of New Valencia, in a crumbling part of the city called the Narrows.

Modern Decadence

Once upon a time, Vampires lived a stately and aristocratic life: full of courtly manners, formal institutions, and the inviolable covenant that one does not drink human blood. But that era is over, and now nightclubs and other manifestations of rebellion have grown from the ruins, along with a new culture of violence and artistic expression, and a black market for human blood. The edges of this isolated society are fraying, and young vampires can sense that just beyond the city’s borders there is an endless supply of intoxicating human blood to consume. Vampires are here to learn to survive, rise through the ranks of their house, form alliances, cut through the stale propaganda of Xelco, and get their hands on human blood however they can.