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To those who are seeing me for the first time, my name is Vlad III Tepes, lord of Castlevania in Everglade. I come to you with a message for the residents of Everglade. Congratulations on surviving the rule of the buffoon tyrant. For too long the residents of this city have been misunderstood, their wishes ignored, and the laws of an ignorant, close-minded fool have been imposed on them.

I have seen first hand the issues this idiot's policies have inflicted on the populous. Refugees seeking asylum in Castlevania from the tyrant and his policies has never been higher than in the time since the ban on necromancy was put into law. Even when the people opposed this move, the tyrant fool remained steadfast in his ignorance.

So people of Everglade, I urge you, rise up against this fool, cast him down and select a more worthy leader. I have lived among you for quite some time now, and am one of you. I am no stranger to the dark arts and I am myself open about my status as one of the undead. It is time Everglade's will be returned to its people, not closed-minded bigots that refuse to understand.

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I can tell you from experience, most murder victims don't want a second chance at life. They just want their killer caught so they can move on. It's a reward.

Sure, necromancy can be used to talk to the dead, but mediums don't have to do a ritual to do it. There's too much risk involved, too much chance for the necromancer to control the undead. Ghosts are people, too. What you're suggesting is way too close to slavery for my taste, and that's coming from a former ghost.

It's not black and white, but it's way too dark gray to let happen without regulation.

That is their prerogative, however I should assume being able to divine the culprit would be far more useful than attempting to piece together what happened after the fact.

As for animating a skeleton, there is no spirit involved with that. It is simply instilling a rudimentary intelligence linked to the caster of the spell in order to accomplish a goal. It is no more binding a soul to something against their will than using the devices we communicate through. The dead are not using their bodies anymore, and they could still serve a common goal.

Banning and regulation are two very different things, however. Should I be elected, I would be more than happy to hear propositions on regulating the practice rather than banning it wholesale.

And I plan on talking to Ted about doing just that: regulating. I don't think that needs a change in management.

Especially if that change comes in the form of a guy who thinks he needs to live apart from the city he's promising to protect.

Considering how closely he holds his narrow-minded faith, convincing him to do anything but condemn the undead as anything other than unholy abominations seems a herculean task.

And yet I do not live apart from the city. My castle exists in this space simply out of necessity. I am bound to it as it is to me. When I arrived without it, I could not function in the form you see now. I am every bit a resident of Everglade as any who live outside the gate that houses my castle. Moreso than your "esteemed" guardian.

Sure, maybe, for someone who never tried.

And how's that? Because you're a vampire?

My status as a vampire only adds to the level of inconspicuousness I am able to achieve. I spend the vast majority of my time outside my castle, among the people of Everglade. The majority of the time, none recognize me specifically because I do not wish to receive special treatment.

[As if to demonstrate what he means, for a brief moment, his face appears to age nearly a hundred years, taking on the appearance of a grizzled old man, before returning to normal in the blink of an eye.]

However, your superior seems to prefer Fayren or the other cities over this one. In fact, I believe the only reason he ran for the office last time was to spite me, and only won by a margin of one or two votes. This time, I believe that the city deserves someone who knows its people, rather than some galavanting twit forcing his own ignorant ideations on an unwilling public.

Hey, Ted means well. And he does care about the people of this city. I've seen it. If he didn't, he wouldn't be fighting so hard to keep his job. Spiting someone else getting it only gets you so far.

Speaking for the perspective of the recently deceased, what you you do to regulate necromancy, 'cause it needs it.

The only intent I've been able to glean from him is the love of his own voice.

For one, the binding of souls to objects - be they remains or other objects - would be strictly prohibited. However, the animation of remains to perform a task, or the upkeep of enchantments or charms that keep those that have already been bound to a body and wish to keep that body would be allowed. Such practices have had to be conducted within the safety of my castle's walls, where the guardian's power ends.

I've worked with him. He gives a shit.

[He raises an eyebrow at that.]

So...reanimating a corpse is okay because you've had to do it?

He certainly does a good job of fooling everyone else.

It is on a case-by-case basis. For instance, a case that was brought up in my own world. A young woman, barely out of her teens, was slain by a jealous lover. A single poison-tipped arrow piercing her back. When I raised her to ascertain the identity of the one that slew her, she begged me to not undo the spell I had cast. She said that without the income she had been making cleaning for a minor lord within my land, her lame brother would die a slow and agonizing death from starvation, unable to move on his own. I warned her that if the spell were not recast every fortnight that she would lose her mind. Still she pleaded with me.

Were I to deny her request, not only would I have created a soul with a strong attachment to the living world with an unresolved desire that would linger in anguish and despair for centuries, but I would also have condemned her brother to a fate worse than death.

Are you saying that I should have truly damned her soul to wandering the world, lamenting that she could not provide for her brother?

...all I'm saying is that kind of power...messes with stuff. Who are you to say who's supposed to live and die? No one. You're not God. That's his job.

When you mess with stuff like that...haven't you ever heard of the Butterfly Effect?

The vast majority of the undead - myself included - are very staunch atheists. One can only take being hunted down for simply existing, branded as unholy abominations against some aloof uncaring old man lounging among the clouds before resenting all that he stands for.

The notion that a the flapping of a butterfly's wings can cause hurricanes on the other side of the planet? While scientifically preposterous, even if we were to buy into such a philosophy, that would only serve to paralyze people in the now. A butterfly cannot sustain itself without the use of its wings, nor does it know that doing so would cause others discomfort. It simply acts in such a way as to sustain its existence. That is the natural order of things, and the undead should not be set apart from it out of fear of what might be. The future is not set in stone, and can only be influenced moment by moment. To allow fear to paralyze you, you become stagnant, and that is when decay and entropy sink their teeth into you, something the undead are all too familiar with.

It's not fear. You talk about the natural order of things. In nature, dead things stay dead. Ghosts move on, or they turn into demons, and then they start eating souls. That isn't natural.

"Undead" isn't "natural", either.

[A sort of dangerous look creeps into Dracula's features.]

Magic is every bit a part of the natural world as science. There are things beyond mortal understanding, but it is all natural. There does not exist a single thing that isn't natural. Mortals cannot create from nothing, only rearrange what is already there, and are themselves part of the natural world.

Claiming that some are "unnatural" is a mantra that many have rose to power on the backs of. They did not understand, or were threatened by the mere existence of something, deemed it unnatural and incited others to violence against it. It is the excuse of those in power to justify sending others to fight and kill on their behalf people or beings whose only crime was existing in such a state that they did not ask for.

Look. I hear you, alright. Sure, magic's a part of nature or whatever, and if you use it properly, nobody gets hurt. Guns work like that. Guns can't hurt people. They're just guns. You put that gun in the hand of a madman, and suddenly you have a murder on your hands. Murder is wrong, and the law doesn't let you do it without punishment.

Necromancy is just as volatile as a weapon, and it needs to be regulated, just like firearms. We're not saying you can't do it because we don't understand what necromancy does, how it works, or what it's capable of. The fact that we do is why the laws exist. It's power over life and death, for Christ's sake. You don't let that run without some sort of moderation. It's too damned powerful, and way too damned easy to abuse.

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what_is_a_man - 2015-12-17 05:33 (UTC) - Expand

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whatsbackup - 2015-12-17 07:16 (UTC) - Expand

Ted will never go for regulating necromancy. He's very stubborn about it.

This isn't a dictatorship. He can compromise, or maybe being a politician isn't the best thing for him, after all.

I actually kind of agree with you.

But he's told me before in no uncertain terms he'd prefer to be replaced than to bend that policy.

I'll have a talk with him.

I'd rather fight with him over restrictions than deal with the vampire.

Well it's not just Vlad and Ted anymore.

Fai seems to have some good ideas.

...true.

Hey, I'm not going to lie, here. Part of the reason I'd like Ted to stay in power is I get to keep my job. It might not be much, but I kind of just showed up.

Well besides our individual votes, the election is largely out of our hands either way.

I'm still campaigning for Ted, but if he loses well.

It might no be the worst thing, is all I'm saying.

As long as he doesn't lose to Vlad.

But yeah, Ted's got my vote.

(ooc: Would you like to thread such a talk? I'd be down.)

(ooc: I would love to!)

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WOW THANKS FOR THE VOTES OF CONFIDENCE GUYS

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