Part Two: Fruits of Evil

The Future of the Red Death

There is hope that the qabals will triumph. Some precognitives have reported seeing visions of a new world free from the influence of the Red Death. They describe medical and psychological processes that can arrest or even cure many of the terrible diseases that have haunted humanity through the ages. Flashes of insight have been reported describing mysterious technologies that allow men and women from all over the world to exchange ideas and opinions openly and quickly, all uncorrupted by the magical energies of the Red Death.

If the heroes of the 1890s fail, then the inhabitants of Gothic Earth may well be doomed to an age of darkness and war more terrible than any before. Divinational magic used to snatch glimpses of the 20th century has shown horrible wars, cities suddenly consumed by fire, and obscene death camps. Clearly, this is an age in which the wonders of science have led to the most tyrannical and horrible of worlds.

Which of these futures is the true destiny of humanity?

Ñfrom A Guide to Gothic Earth

Early Modern Gothic Earth

As Gothic Earth finishes out the Industrial Age, the Red DeathÕs power waxes and wanes, reaching twin pinnacles in the two World Wars of the early 20th century.

The Kargatane is currently developing rules to bring Gothic Earth into the 1910s under the AD&D game system. As that project progresses, more information on WWI-era adventuring under the Alternity rules will become available.

Contemporary Gothic Earth

Within 50 years of the end of the classic Masque of the Red Death time period, Gothic Earth enters a new Progress Level: the Information Age. In PL 5, the power of the Red Death continues to spread, while new technologies (the computer chief among them) serve both its minions and its enemies. A contemporary Masque campaign takes place in the period from 1990-2010.

At the same time as developed nations experience unparalleled levels of peace and prosperity, much of the world continues to languish in the misery it has known for centuries. Eastern Europe still struggles with the chaos ensuing from the collapse of Communism. The region once united as Yugoslavia remains a battleground for clashing ethnic allegiances, as do many nations of Africa. Overpopulation in China and India continues to drive millions of people into starvation. While the Red DeathÕs maneuvers and minions may seem like the stuff of fairy tales to a wealthy suburbanite in the United States, they are a grim reality in much of the rest of the world.

Of course, the Red Death is no less active in modern information-age society than in the rest of the world; it simply works in unfamiliar guises. For centuries, the Red DeathÕs strength lay in its corruption of magic, twisting toward evil all who dared to call upon arcane energies for the sake of their own power. With the dawn of the 20th century, the Red DeathÕs tendrils of influence began to extend into modern technology as well. Following in the footsteps of the 18th-century genius madman Victor von Frankenstein, many scientists of the information age find their obsession with scientific knowledge drawing them ever deeper into the Red DeathÕs intricate web. Whenever science transgresses the boundaries of Nature—whether attempting to create life from harvested body parts, like Dr. Frankenstein, or from transplanted DNA, as experiments in cloning continue—the Red Death's influence is strongly felt. The products of such transgressions invariably bear the taint of evil, and while good may come of them for a time, the final result is always catastrophic.

At the same time, the Red DeathÕs influence has extended into all levels of affluent Western society. Where once benevolent governments and benign religious orders fought the Red Death under the watchful eye of good-aligned qabal members, now these are among the darkest pits of evil. Masquerading as pious zealots, puppets of the Red Death preach their masterÕs gospel of hatred and intolerance, advancing its secret agenda while posing as the forces of morality. Similarly, elected officials, charged with representing their constituents in the workings of government, use their position for personal advancement, accepting huge monetary gifts in exchange for abandoning all principle and ethical responsibility. Western civilization is rotting from the top down.

The effects of this rot are felt in suburban high schools and ghetto streets, as violence becomes a grim fact of reality. Some urban gang leaders are monstrous minions of the Red Death. The global drug trade is entirely controlled by creatures of evil, perhaps tracing back to nineteenth-century operations around Hong Kong (see "Mysterious Cities," in DRAGON Magazine #240). Middle-class kids playing with ouija boards or whispering "Bloody Mary" in darkened bathrooms are sometimes found by the ultimate evil, while less well-adjusted teenagers seek out the power the Red Death offers so willingly. The television is one of the Red Death's most effective tools for corrupting and recruiting the weak-willed: more than one minion began the descent into evil by answering the call of whispered voices coming from the television.

The information age brings computer users around the globe into instant communication with one another. The Internet (a primitive precursor to later Grids) serves as a wonderful tool for good, bringing even the poorer nations into contact with global culture by the end of the 20th century. Certain qabals, using high-level data encryption, may use the Internet to facilitate communication among their members. La Lumiere, described in The Gothic Earth Gazetteer, certainly falls into this category, while a new qabal relying almost completely on the Internet springs into existence in the beginning of the new millennium. At the same time, the Internet becomes home to all manner of criminals, including high-ranking followers of the Red Death. Easy access to information of all kinds allows terrorists to find bomb-making hints, skinheads to spread racist propaganda, and pedophiles to lure children into murderous liaisons—all to the greater glory of the Red Death.

Near-Future Gothic Earth

As Gothic Earth enters the Fusion Age (PL 6), new technological marvels reinforce humanity's misguided notion that science is its salvation.

Artificial Intelligence becomes a reality during this time period—yet another human attempt to create life. As with all such attempts, AIs are temperamental at best, insane at worst. Van Richten's Guide to the Created offers useful guidelines for describing the personalities of such artificial constructs.

The Far Future: Beyond Gothic Earth

With the development of gravity technology at PL 7, humanity begins to take its first tentative steps to the stars. Though technology has finally accomplished what magic never couldÑsundering the barrier between Gothic Earth and the wider universeÑhumankind can not so easily escape the clutches of the Red Death, for its minions and its ever-watchful eye follow them even into the depths of space.