The Court of the Pale Queen
The Court of the Pale Queen is a European-based court of vampires. Created to enact the will of the Children of the Nazarene in this region, it is made up of ancient vampires sent to dominate all others of their kind in Europe. Led by a designated queen at their head they have proven t obe patient & ruthless.
Structure
The Court of the Pale Queen is made up of an ancient female vampire Inanna-Enmessara (roughly translated as Lady of Heaven & God of the Underworld). She is the highest ranking member of the court with a revolving number of 'court officials'. These officials fulfil any number of roles that the Pale Queen sees fit, and regular examples include executioner, recruiter and keeper of the laws. These are always found and are high-ranking ancient vampires. If anything, these three positions are regularly filled. Any others are created as and when needed.
The Pale Queen has full authority in the region of Europe to recruit any & all vampires in the here. She lays down any laws they must follow and if they aren't part of or answer to the Court they must have very powerful backers to stop them being targeted & killed. She makes sure of this with the keeper of the law and the executioner. She always try to recruit more and this she works with the recruiter, who also supplies information & laws to any that has been turned. All must bow to them and the Children of the Nazarene who the Court represents.
The Court takes the killing of vampires by other vampires very seriously, and is an automatic death sentence by either being slow starvation or by being placed directly in the sun to burn to death. Those that hunt and/or kill vampires are mortal enemies to be killed too, usually violently and turning them is a sport of sorts to the Court. Non-lethal competition between vampire groups & clans are encouraged as long as no member is killed directly by another vampire.
Culture
Aggressive competition between those ruled by the Court is encouraged, and killing of vampires by vampires are serious infractions. Vampire hunter/killers are to be destroyed without mercy and the Court looks to convert those around them to the cause of vampirism. Any chance they get to spread their kind they will, and will happily infiltrate other organisations, especially mortal organisations, to turn a blind eye & direct the mortal members into accepting vampires as the rightful rulers of the world.
They have a deep hatred of religious orders and the Necrocult. The former due to their intolerance of undead, and the latter who views the world as theirs, while also attracting rogue vampires into their fold. A shadow war of sorts is constantly fought between the two with infiltration of either side is common. Misdirection and the supplying of corrupted death magic is common between them. Only in the direst circumstances will cause them to team up and work together peacefully.
They have little contact with the Feywild but so far have managed to infiltrate there due to Baobhan Sith elements. Yhe Baobhan Sith are in the process of trying to break free of the influence of Hags who use them as infiltration & terror troops claiming responsibility for creating this branch of the Sith. The exact beginnings of the Baobhan Sith are shrouded in myth and it is something the Court is slowly going to track down.
The Court has a regioinal commander in different regions who answer to the court. The purpose of this is enforce the will off the Court and to speed up the gathering of new recruits, slaves, and resources. The region can vary in size ranging from a large lowly populated area to a single city with hundreds if not thousands of mortal people. They view the mortals in these region as cattle fit only to be drained of blood for the vampire masters.
In all of this they answer only to the Children of the Nazarene, and on the rare occasions that the leaders (especially Dassem Luqman) sends a rule, law or objective to be enacted on, then they fo the best ot enact it. They are intensely loyal to the Elders as they are called, and many can trace themselves back to one of the original families of the Children. In that way when others are recruited into the organisation they are looked upon as being corrupted by their original mortal blood.
Assets
The Court of the Pale Queen has a massive underground city complex under the Carpathian Mountains where the majoirty of the vampires congregate. The Court itself sits here rarely leaving it unless by necessity, and at most only one maybe two members are away at any one time.
It is by invitation only that a vampire is allowed to come in, and usually at the behest of the rulling body of a certain family of ancient vampires. These shift over time due to the machinations of the Fullboods as they are know, since each family is made up of bloodthirsty aggressive predators. Many of them will have smaller groups allied to them placed in regions with a member appointed as a governer, who is usually a loyal family member. The highest ranking member answers to and regularly belongs to the Court of the Pale Queen.
Most are Halfbloods or Lowbloods, those that are not born but turned instead, and these outnumber the families by the hundreds. Slaves and mortal servants outnumber them by the tens of hundreds if not more. Most make up a fighting force when needed but fill many daily jobs ranging from sewage specialists to carpenters, stone masons, miners and the like found in regular societies aboveground.
Some of these are are loyal to the Court as well, and are chosen to represent it and act on their behalf in mortal society, especially in acts of infiltration, misdirection, intelligence gathering and sabotage. They are given little leeway and depending on how severly they fail if they do, the punishments are severe.
The Court has pretty much carte blanche to do as they see fit to bring down the empires of Europe, and to push the spread of vampirism thorughout the whole of Europe. They have agents sprinkled about in all the courts of the major players, and look to bring them under the sway of the Court of the Pale Queen. Money & wealth & power, material resources in general, magic & magic items, all are held in abundance and used in place of brute force where possible before the vampire's kiss is used, or a visit in the middle of the night.
The Court also has the backing of the dreaded Children of the Night, and can call on them when they are lacking any type of resource, something the latter is readily willing to do if it not squandered on futile interal squabbles or exposure of either group.
History
Only recently has the Court of the Pale Queen been set up. The vampire purebloods that spread out of the Middle East into Europe millennia ago had been disorganised & in constant competition with each other for far too long. Most of the vampire strains had been diluted in the process with the mixing of the gift of vampirism with mortals for far too long and it disgusted the ruling families & clans of the ancients.
Seeing an opportunity to prove himself again, Dassem Luqman stepped in. Speacking to the families of the ancients in their hidden lairs in the Mddle East, he presuaded them that a ruling councl should be set up to govern the European bloodlines. Stating that one of his rivals, Inanna-Enmessara, would make a fine choice to lead the Court. When doing so, he could get her removed from the local politics while she makes a name for herself in the process. Luqman's idea was to let her gain from it politically but away from the central seat of plwer of vampirekind, and if she failed her life would be forfeit. To her credit, Inanna accepted knowing there stakes were high one one hand but she had so much to gain at the same time.
Thus she travelled to the Carpathian Mountains to the oldest city of vampires in all of Europe. It's name unrecorded, it did not matter, as if she succeeded it would be named after her. Bringing three ancient vampire families and their closest retainers & servants as well as her own, she quickly whipped the local nine families into shape in less than a year. Purges took place throughtout the whole of society removing the truly corrupt and degenerate, Inanna replaced them with the best of the best while laying down that no vampire is to move against another vampire. She also enforced the rule that their kind was to remain in the shadows away from prying eyes and only through a strict heirarchy & meritocracy could they survive.
Pushing for the inclusion of many types of vampires, at least at lower levels, it helped that the Court could call on many different talents to say the mortal empires and sow discord. This was to begin immediately allowing for their own agents to step in where possible to act as a potential solution, all the while twisting everything to favour the Court, and their allies. Europe was to be taken, when it was ripe for vampiric domination, and this is only the true beginning.
Dassem Luqman, after taking an interest in Europe in general, and the Frankish Empire in particular, knows it will be a long time coming. Potentially taking centuries or longer, he knows that the Court of the Pale Queen can succeed, and if not, then it won't be him staked in the back...
In darkness and blood we rule
"I've been there, in Europe. Such a vibrant realm, especially the Frankish Empire. So many faces, and some not even from this world of ours. We need it brought to heel, and our own people at the top. At least whispering in the ear of those at the top....
Such a prize would be worthy indeed. What with myself engineering it, and Inanna leading it. Perfect for controlling from the old city too. Almost inpenetrable that old place, and hte numbers of mortals t oboth feasr on, and cnquer the rest of the world all for us.
After all that is why I approached you all, the Elder heads of the families & clans. Only by working together can we do this. So, I ask for you consent to carry out this audatiious plan. And so I will wait for each of you to respond in kind."
Dassem Luqman, at a council meeting of the Vampire Elders. late 800 A.D.
Founding Date
801 A.D.
Type
Secret, Brotherhood
Ruling Organization
Founders
Parent Organization
Location
Related Species
I like the imagery in this and how you've structured the piece. I can picture the Court.
Though you never want to meet them... lol