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I've decided to bring back Tooth & Claw, since it's a world that is very dear to me, and I've been looking for lots of input and ideas for it ever since I created it about two years ago. Most of the world is already pretty well planned out by me, so expect a lot of rules and backstory to go through in the following post (I did warn you), but there is still practically unlimited scope for character creation. As the Tooth & Claw lore is still being mapped out, feel free to add as much as you wish to the world - you're as free to roam and change the scenery as you wish to be.


TOOTH & CLAW
Red Heaven

The emergence of the Supernatural
Sometime before the turn of the millenium, mankind became aware that they were not strictly alone upon the planet. Nobody is sure of how it came to be known publicly, but at some point the hidden underworld of vampires, werewolves and deamons that have lived amonst humanity for thousands of years has finally been unveiled to the population of earth.
While immediate reactions were of horror and mass hysteria, world governments soon stepped forward to calm their people - some by promising to eradicate their supernatural infestations, others by denying it altogether. Some few, such as England and the USA, promised instead to form bonds with their new inhabitants, welcoming them within the population and hoping to maintain stability in living with them.
But unease still continues to spread amongst the people, both of the human and inhuman worlds, who refuse to trust and cooperate with eachother. In reaction to this, the governments set up a secret organization - the F.B.S.I (Feder Bureau of Supernatural Investigation) - a public organization made from both humans and inhumans whose task is to investigate and irradicate threats or acts of violence between and within both sides of the conflict.
But the F.B.S.I are easily corrupted, and not often possessing of the knowledge or insight needed to truly traverse both the known and the unknown. For those whom the F.B.S.I fails, there is however another, more secretive organization who are willing to take up their case - and they work in a small, run-down building in the back alleys of Manchester, England.


The City of Manchester, England
The epicentre of the Tooth & Claw Universe, Manchester is a thriving hub of supernatural activity. Not surprising, considering the 2.2 million people living in and around the city. With thriving nightlife and a rich history spanning since the turn of the first century, Manchester has slowly become one of the most supernaturally populated cities on the planet.
The F.B.S.I is focused almost centrally upon this city, with supernatural murders and crimes continually on the increase almost daily. But more importantly, this is the home of the story's titular protagonists: the Tooth & Claw Detective Agency.


Tooth & Claw
Based in an old, seemingly disused, building near the heart of the city, Tooth & Claw is made up of two paranormal investigators - the hedonistic, wine-drinking, chain-smoking vampire known as Sebastian Fallor, and his meat-loving, instinctive, comic-obsessessed werewolf partner Dominic Charlesworth - along with their human secretary, Jana. With their wide array of knowledge and superhuman skill, they are able to accept the risks that no one else dares to, and crack the cases no one else could.
The building in which they live is, in fact, a front to a large elevator shaft that leads down to a massive, underground bunker - built during the Cold War - that runs throughout Manchester. This bunker is now a warehouse/library, comprising the many texts, tomes and artifacts that Sebastian has gathered in his many centuries of life, and provide Tooth & Claw with the intellectual basis for their investigations. Many people, including operatives for the F.B.S.I have attempted to gain access to this vast array of knowledge, but have never made it past the elevator. While many members of the F.B.S.I call for Sebastian to make the contents of his library public, he maintains that the knowledge kept within them must forever stay out of the public eye.

((Still to come, races))

The Races of Tooth & Claw

I'll try and keep each race down to as minimal description as possible in order to save reading time. There are just certain rules about each in order to (1) prevent a certain race from being too boring or powerful and (2) to clarify certain rules about the world itself and the context of the story. So, here are the races that play the most important roles in Tooth & Claw:

Humans
- Humans vary depending on occupation, such as being a member of the F.B.S.I or any other kind of public or governmental organization, if they are a member of any.
- Physically, a human is generally weaker than all of the more magical or supernatural races, but that doesn't mean it is immpossible for them to compete, you just have to be more imaginative in your approach.
- A human cannot use magic or weild supernatural abilities (a human that does have such power would not be classed as human, but inhuman, and would fall into one of the races detailed below).
- Humans have access to limited technology.
- The strongest asset humans have is numbers and organization. Though they lack the powers of others, they have the organizational skills and manpower in order to match them, unlike the other races who are almost all completely divided.

Vampires
- Vampires possess high strength, agility, speed and intelligence.
- Vampires are immortal, but can only sustain their immortality by feeding regularly upon blood. The RDA is around 350ml per day (slightly less than an average can of Coke), but a vampire can store blood for when his body requires it. So if a vampire finds enough blood for several days, he will not have to feed again until those days are up.
- While many vampires still feed upon unsuspecting victims, there are many other, less sinister, ways to gain blood. Secretive organization hide trace amounts of blood in many public beverages, including Coca-Cola, various milkshakes, coffees, and almost all energy drinks and red wines. There are also many willing vampire fetishists who hang around nightclubs, willing to allow vampires to drink small amounts of blood from them every night.
- Vampires can feed on the blood of anything that contains blood, but only really like the taste of pure human blood. Werewolf blood is extremely heavy in iron and is far too bitter for most vampires, whilst demon blood is practically undigestable. Above all else, vampires enjoy the blood of vegetarians due to it's low iron content.
- A person only becomes a vampire if they are bitten by one and then drained of all of their blood. A person who is only partly drained can survive.
- Vampires have an accelerated healing factor, but using it drains upon their life energy. In order to replenish life energy, a vampire must drink more blood or, in extreme cases, hibernate.
- Vampires do not sleep, but after prolonged periods of activity may have to hibernate for an extended period of time. Depending on the energy required, they can sleep from a week to as long as several years.
- Vampires can not fly or turn into bats, but can glide through the air.
- Vampires are weakened by sunlight, but are not killed unless they are exposed to it for a long period of time. During exposure, a vampire is slightly weaker than an average human. It would take at least 6 minutes before the exposure kills a vampire, causing them to spontaneously combust and burn to death.
- Vampires cannot be killed by stakes to the heart any more than a by a bullet the heart. Both of them can hurt a vampire, but neither is strictly fatal.
- A vampire is weakened when he is in the presence of a large wooden cross, but not smaller or metallic crosses. The reason for this lies in the dormant memory of the vampire ancenstor, Vicis, who was crucified and left upon the cross for many years due to his immortality. The weakness is crippling to a vampire, stripping them of all their natural advantages, but is not fatal.
- Vampires cannot weild magic of any kind, though they have a higher resistance to it than normal beings.
- Vampires cannot have children: life cannot come from the dead.
- Vampires are fiercely individual and dislike working together.
- The individual powers of a vampire are determine by their given "Bloodline", determined by the Bloodline of vampire that bit them. These abilities and bloodlines are divided into thirteen parts, but I shall leave it up to you as to what they are and what the individual advantages and weaknesses of each are.

Werewolves
- Physically, werewolves are the most powerful race in the world. They are extremely quick, extremely agile, and strong enough to rip the doors off a car with their teeth.
- Werewolves lack intelligence, working instead purely on instinct. A werewolf is incapable of planning ahead, and will almost always rush into things. However, they still carry some knowledge from their human side depending on how experienced they are (for example, a werewolf will hardly ever attack a friend or loved one of it's human alter-ego).
- A werewolves senses are supernaturally sharp. In particular, smell, taste and hearing are heightened incredibly. A werewolf will often smell it's prey long before it sees them, and is easily capable of tracking their subsequent movements.
- When in human form, a werewolf regains all human characteristics, including intelligence. However, their senses are still much more finely tuned than an average human.
- A werewolf's transformation varies depending on the experience of the werewolf. At first, it is mostly involuntary, but over time a werewolf can control their transformation and even control their actions more when in a feral state. Werewolves can transform at any time, be in involuntary or by choice, even during the day and even if there is no full moon. However, as it is a primal urge, most werewolves are excited by the presence of the moon and thus will normally on transform at night. A werewolf's strength depends upon the state of the moon. At a full moon, werewolves are twice their normal power and are usually found in greater numbers. During a new moon, werewolves are significantly weaker.
- Most werewolves travel in packs, like regular wolves, due to fierce competition for food and a loose social structure. A werewolf pack is usually shown by scars in the flesh or blood-markings in the fur. A werewolf is not born into a pack, but is chosen by the pack itself. Werewolves are not territorial, believing that they have a right to be and hunt wherever they wish.
- Werewolves enjoy almost any kind of meat, with the only exception being vampire meat (due to it being dead and lacking in nutrients). In spite of this, werewolves will often attack vampires, in order to stop them from spreading and limiting their food supply.
- Werewolves are not killed by silver bullets, nor are silver bullets any more successful at hurting a werewolf than regular bullets. A werewolf can be killed by traditional means, it is just that it is incredibly hard. They do not react very much to pain, and their thick fur acts like a thin coat of armour. When a werewolf returns to human form, their wounds received while in werewolf form vanish.
- A werewolf is extremely vulnerable to magic.

Paladins
- An order established by heaven as way of maintaining order upon earth, without involving actual angels and thus breaking the tenuous treaty between heaven and earth. Their main objective is to control or eradicate the presence of deamons and, in some cases, vampires from the planet.
- Essentially humans, but with the backing of heaven. They have access to extremely advanced celestial technology and a wide knowledge of the occult and supernatural worlds.
- Chosen only from the "cream of the crop". They are made up exclusively of extremely wealthy public figures who have the money and influence necesarry to hide their actions and provide backing to the order.
- They are a secret organization, but are not afraid of making public displays.
- The unique weapons at their disposal include wing-shaped jetpacks, suits of armour capable of healing the body, various laser guns and sword built into their armour that work from a system known as the "Judgement" that detects the presence of deamonic energy and can only be activated within a certain distance of it (in order to prevent the weapons being turned on innocents), and perhaps their most dangerous weapons: metal sword containing traces of the Lance of Longinus, rendering them capable of killing any living thing on contact (only a few of these swords exist amongst the highest members of the Paladins, and are seldom ever used).
- Paladins are not necesarilly religious, not pure in Christian terms. They are simply chosen to do what they must do as the most capable people to do it.
- Paladins have little to no power against non-deamonic beings, such as werewolves, but are able to incapacitate them without fatal force (for example, by using a sonic-dog whistle that temporarilly disables a werewolf). A Paladin is forbidden to allow or cause innocents and non-deamons to die unless they gain permission through the "Judgement" system. Strictly speaking, Paladins can only kill vampires and deamons, but are allowed to hunt werewolves and other seemingly "evil" creatures, provided their methods are not fatal.
- Paladins are also in possession of the knowledge of healing, allowing them to heal the mortal bodies of others.

Mages
- Mages are humans who possess knowledge of magic in any of it's various forms, be it elemental, necromatical (death), holy or natural.
- There are no strict rules regarding mages, except that their powers are usually limited in some form. It is impossible to be able to wield all magic that exists, or for a human being to make themselves immortal.
- Mages can, however, live for up to several millenia depending on the type of magic they use.

Deamons
- Perhaps the most varied race in the world, they are comprised of literally millions of forms, shapes and powers. These include the succubi and incubi, devils, spirits and many other mythical monsters.
- Succubi (female) and Incubi (male) are deamons driven by sexual desire, but appear perfectly human. When in close proximity to a 'ubi of their opposing gender, it causes a sharp release of hormones, making them extremely... Ahem... Anxious?
- Deamons possess any number of abilities, but are generally resistant to dark magic. They are all, however, weak against holy magic and the technology wielded by the Paladins.
- Not all deamons are evil. Many of them have long since decided for themselves to live on earth as supernatural beings, and are in harmony with the many humans that live alongside them.
- Not all deamons come from hell, nor are the spawn of the devil. Some, for example, are Japanese spirits born of nature.


That's a basic outline of the most essential races of T&C, but if you feel like adding any more, please feel free to add them.

I want in.

any way you want us to outline our characters? or just discription in our own words of what we want our character to be bro?

Your character and how you define them is entirely up to you. I'll post a profile of Sebastian, the character I will be playing, a little later, but there's no real model for how you want to present your character.

alright, ive been looking forward to this

Name: Niko
Age:29
Race: Werewolf
Gender: Male
Occupation: werewolf, resturaunt chef
Power: near-complete mastery of his transformation
Bio: Dispises his wolf transformations, and tries to hide his condition from the outside world. In situations of serious danger, however, Niko is very quick to embrace his power. appearence: (human) medium length, jet black hair. about 6'2" in height. Usualy wears a black sport coat when not working in the resturaunt

Mico Zabitzu is the name, weapons production is the game. Once the premiere supplier of the FBSI's weapons, his company, SPAZ industries has decided to stop supplying the FBSI due to corruption. They supply Tooth and Claw every now and then, since past relations have started a bit of an alliance between the two. The SPAZ headquarters, outside of Manchester is where he lives. It is a complex about the size of a highschool, complete with weapon testing and storage facilities underground. all gaurded by unavailable, state of the art self animated weaponry.

Though he is a human, Mico spends most of his time as what most call a super hero, even given the name TEST. After stealing paladin technology from a murdered paladin. From the tech he had taken, Mico fabricated a suit that enables flight, healing of surface wounds, protects from some demonic abilities (ie, possession, mindcontrol, banishment to hell through means other than death) and enhanced strength. (not super truck lifting strength, but like hitting walls and ground at high speeds without getting hurt strength.) The only people who know who Mico is, is the twelve people who work at SPAZ, all who happen to be childhood friends; the androids that word at SPAZ, and the people at Tooth and Claw.

(Suit: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/129/3789 ... 4e7b_m.jpg)
(Mico: http://www.rinconportatil.net/imagenes/ ... s/reav.jpg)

(I know it's Iron Man-ish, and that the pic is of iron man, but hey, I think it can fit in the story. and thought I should throw this out there he's like 29)

Name: Shadow Chaos
Age: unknown
Race: Vampire
Gender: Male
Occupation: He is a multi millionar and owner of severiel companies
Power: Telekentic(more in depth in the story), and vampiric powers
Bio: Shadow is the head member of the Chaos clan he has been around for a long while, he still appears to be young. He is very smart and talented. He helps out SPAZ every now and then. He is good friends with the owner and a sponser of the companie, he also supplies econamic aid for tooth and claw
appearence: http://asapf.files.wordpress.com/2007/0 ... at_cat.jpg

Some great ideas so far, and some cool sounding characters to boot.

Here's a quick runthrough of heaven and hell, since both are extremely important to this particular story.

Heaven
Established by a paranormal superbeing, sometimes referred to as God, Heaven is not quite the place people imagine it to be. Instead of being a place of rest in the afterlife, it is more like the central core of the universe - a factory from which all the Universe was created and grew from. It was from here that the mass conduction of energy was drawn and spread, shaped to the will of God's plan, before settling and forming the countless galaxies and worlds we see today.
Visually, Heaven is a place that appears like a super-futuristic utopia. Celestial technology, as it is known, runs throughout the entire world, powering it's various needs. At it's heart is a super-computer capable of producing the energy required for a Big Bang, and surrounding that a series of smaller systems designed to develop and maintain the energy as it passes through them, allowing them to be processed and used by the countless worlds within our universe.
It was around 2,000 years ago that the superbeing, God, went missing from Heaven - leaving his second in command, Metatron, in control of the universe. It is unknown as to how this came to be, but regardless Metatron is now in control of the Universe; a job he believes is not best suited for him. Metatron has since then ruled with an apathetic fist, unable to understand the role he has been given, nor the significance of the universe itself.

Hell
Satan, or Lucifer, Beelzebub, El Diablo, Malebolgia, Samael, North Star or any of his countless many other names, is a superbeing similar to God. Their origin is unknown, but Satan and God both seemed to of entered out universe at the same time and with the same goal. At some point during this time, the two had a creative disagreement, and Satan, being the lesser talented of the two, was cast out of Heaven and banned from taking part in the creation process. Satan drifted through the Universe until he found a world just shy of God's reach, where he could influence fate and will as much as he pleased. That planet is currently known as Earth.
Satan built the massive city of Hell far beneath the surface of earth, wrapped away in portals and pockets of spacetime, and from here began construction of an army that would allow him back into Heaven. It is because of this that Deamons, Vampires and Werewolves exist on Earth, and why Earth is such a central battleground for this warring forces.
Unfortunately for Satan, he'd underestimated God's ability. No matter how many beings Satan created, he was no match for God's single greatest creation - Metatron. It is often said that the countless billions of Deamons at Satan's disposal would fall before Metatron in the blink of an eye, and Satan is thus stuck in an endless limbo.

The Pact
Once Hell had been established on Earth, God was quick to call for Satan's removal. Instead, Satan offered God a Pact. That the surface of Earth, and the life upon it, is fair game for both Heaven and Hell, and that both must compete for the spirits of the people of Earth. The two also agreed that no angels from either side should be allowed upon the planet, nor are the angels allowed to harm eachother. Instead, they were to battle using only their own abilities at either crafting or shaping life. The breaking of any of these rules means the dawn of all-out war between both sides.

Woo hoo, this seems like fun. I think I'll enjoy this.

Name: Roy "Lightning" Volt
Gender: Male
Age: He appears to be 22, but is actually 79. He keeps himself looking and feeling young using elemental magics
Race: Mage
Magic Type: Elemental
Appearance: Roy

Roy is an old and wise mage, though he keeps his appearance young with elemental magics, taking nutrients most people can't get straight from the earth herself. Roy is a freelance Vampire hunter specialist. Wherever vampires can be found, Roy is usually right behind them. He has come into contact with Tooth & Claw on a few occasions, helping out with an especially strong vampire.

Name: Duama Cross
Gender / Age: male / 515
Race: Incubus
Powers: Hydromancy, demon physiology, and soul abortion/recall(able to recall the memories of any soul he devorurs. Soul must either be willing or severly weakened to be absorbe effectively, able to absorb human souls with only slight effort)
Occupation: stealth, infilitration and interrigation specialist of Tooth & Claw, resturaunt manager in charge of...ahem...customer service, Ubi duties.
Personality: Though known to change forms for his job, Duama is always given away to his friends by his comically sardonic sense of humor. Duama is no actor, but is prone to fall into the emotions of the souls he absorbs, granting him perfect stealth and infiltration. Always one to keep others guessing he is always inciting actions for better(or worse >.>) for the sake of his own amusement. Duama has changed his form many times, but remains in his chosen form due to the memories and fondness tied to it.
Appearance: http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f284/Xwizit1/la.jpg
Quick Background: Succubus and Incubus(who have the ability of shapeshifting) are bound by demonic law to stay in one form most of the time. The Ubi live by their law somewhat loosely as of late, those however that brake cardinal rules, are banished to hell in pilgrimage of their redemption.

(gomen Vera-chan, I thought since we're of the same race I'd use the same intro form as you. ^^)

Nice to see people are looking forward to this one. I'll be starting the actual thread today, so get ready for it!

Anyway, here at last is Sebastian's character sheet:

Name: Sebastian Reginald Charles William Shakespeare Amadeus Fallor VII ("Seb" for short).
Gender: Male.
Age: Unknown. Assumed between 500-1000 years.
Race: Vampire.
Powers: Vampiric abilities, as well as extremely enhanced night vision, ability to move seamlessly through shadows, ability to enter and influence weakened minds, and "the eye of Judas" which allows him to "read" the souls of those who own them.
Personality: Hedonistic to the point of recklessness, Sebastian will never be caught without a glass of wine or a cigarette in his hand. He fancies himself as an intellectual, and his life's work (a book he entitled "the Otherworld Itinerary") is considered by him to be a masterpiece of epic proportions. Nobody has yet agreed with him on this because he has not finished the book since he started it, over three hundred years ago. Sebastian is fundamentally good-hearted, though he is not afraid to become more inhuman should the job demand it. He has a naturally inquisitive nature and is an expert at physiology, psychology and forensics, making him the invaluable brain of the Tooth & Claw agency.
Background: Little is known about Sebastian's past, except that he is the last remaining of the extremely rare thirteenth bloodline. He claims to of been responsible for many of the events that have shaped history, including writing Hamlet, Beethoven's fifth symphony and assassinating Archduke Franz Ferdinand. However, these claims have yet to be proven. He was born with servere photophobia, which prevented his eyes from working properly in light areas, and forced his family to keep him in the dark at all times. When he became a vampire at an unknown age, this sensitivity to light heightened, forcing him to at all times wear sunglasses or else he is practically blind. He is the founder of the Tooth & Claw agency, though it was never made clear as to when he founded it.
Appearace: Short (around 5'7") and extremely skinny. His hair is completely black, thick and messy, and his skin is slightly pale and pock-marked with stubble. He always wears his thick, black sunglasses, and keeps a spare pair and an extra emergency lens handy. He is always also in a black suit and black shoes, with a crumpled white shirt underneith.

Name: Shianne
Age: 17
Race: Werewolf
Gender: Female
Occupation: Part time librarian and high school student
Power: Shi's powers are still weak, but get stronger with each moon.
Human Appearance: http://tn3-2.deviantart.com/fs8/300W/i/ ... uma_lc.jpg
Werewolf Appearance: http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa85 ... rewolf.jpg
Clan mark: http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j196/ ... 1212538782
Bio: Shianne was taken into one of the upper werewolf clans when her mother died. She bears the mark of the clan, and stays on her own, only returning to the clan on full moons. She wasn't treated the best during school, but never let it stop her, and plans to go to college after she graduates. She is a senior in school and has a few acquaintances, but no one to really call a friend. Shi is usually found either in her house reading, in the library on the corner, or relaxing by the pond in the park.

Just thought I'd post a picture of the guy who is basically the main inspiration behind Sebastian's appearance and general hedonistic attitude: Dylan Moran.

If you've never heard of him, I suggest you look up some of his stand up comedy on YouTube. Or to get an idea of the type of character that inspired Sebastian, check out Dylan Moran's performance in the Channel 4 sitcom "Black Books" on YouTube (the whole concept of Tooth & Claw was actually inspired by the opening of one of the episodes in the first series - see if you can find it).





Well, Sebastian's sunglasses are a litle bit more stylish, but still...