So I’ve been writing some trashy vampire fiction as stress-relief during finals, and it accidentally turned into a major world-building exercise and potential Novella and??? I dunno but I want to share some thoughts.
First, some universe specific things:
- Vampire cannot “turn” Others without significant effort and/or a specific ritual. being a bitten by a vamp is no more going to make you one or it;s thrall than being bitten by a st. Bernard is.
- Monsters and Cryptids explicitly exist, but most of the world’s governments deny that they do for… reasons. That I will get into later but probably have to do with tax law.
- The two main characters so far are Marion “Red Charlie” Charleston, a vampire turned back in 1890 who made his fortune during the prohibiton era doing aggravated bootlegging for Roy Olmstead, and Alex (Alexander Byron Chesterson Jr.) who is more or less Marion’s live-in tech sspport/tax shelter.
OK, so onto the worldbuilding
- Seattle is like, THE city to live in, if you want to be an Urban Cryptid
- If you’re a vamp, the weather means you can go outside during daytime fairly often, or emerge dramatically from the fog p much whenever.
- Not to mention a a high population of Vegans, which probably taste much less bitter due to the lack of dairy.
- If you’re a were-whatever, it’s literally a half-hour drive/ferry ride to some of the densest, most isolated forest in the US so you can go bananas during your shift.
- Aquatic or ocean based cryptid? PUGET SOUND IS RIGHT THERE. Just stay away from the Orcas, they’ll fuck you up.
- Bigfoots are the locals that complain about urbanization while getting fancy-ass coffee and exchange beard-grooming tips with the local hipsters.
- There is Werewolf/vampires-that-prefer-to-shift-into-wolves/Vamps-that-prefer-to-shift-into-bats/Werebat Discourse and it is INTENSE
- ok it’s not quite Seattle but THERE IS ABSOLUTELY A DRAGON ON MOUNT HOOD AND WE DO NOT FUCK WITH HER.
- There are Kelpies, but mostly out in the san juans and rich neighborhoods where people are less suspicious and better marbled. Most of the time though, they get into dumpsters and more than one Marion has run out of the house with a slipper at 2AM to keep them from knocking the garbage cans over.
- cryptid-only bars warded against humans, not out of safety concerns, but OH GOD HIPSTERS ARE SO ANNOYING.
- Forks is like, 2 hours away and everyone int he community HAAAAATES the twilight series- less about the interpretation of vampirism and were-persons, but OH GOD THAT’S NOT HOW RELATIONSHIPS WORK.
- DO NOT get them started on 50 shades, which takes place in seattle proper.
- Mothman has SO. MANY. BRIDGES. TO. HAUNT. and a part-time job as a cook at Dick’s Drive-In. She makes the best milkshakes.