Promethean: The Created

Geist preview for July 5
You are codially invited...
Posted: 2009-07-05

Gatherings
In an old cemetery on the outskirts of town, two dozen men and women come together to dance and drink and honor the departed. Deep below the city, below the subway lines, below the sewers, they gather before a door that is not a door. Things come to them, things that were, perhaps, once living men, which offer dreadful power in exchange for the scent of a single fresh-cut rose. As an invisible “locked-room” serial killer claims his seventh victim, two rival gangs set aside their grudges and their Glocks, meeting under a flag of truce to share information about how to stop him. Some like to call them Flesh Fairs, a term laded with the usual amount of double meaning that Sin-Eater culture revels in: they’re gatherings of those who know death but still have material bodies, but they’re also often opportunities to indulge in the pleasures of the flesh.

Apart from the Twilight Network, gatherings of the Bound are usually the largest-scale interactions Sin-Eaters have with others of their own kind. Bringing together multiple krewes, sometimes even from multiple cities, gatherings can be anything from riotous, orgiastic parties to tense negotiations between rivals who might otherwise shoot each other on sight. It can be a place for a Sin-Eater to gain contacts, information, or even traded mementos — or it can simply be a place for her to let her geist have free rein, to sample the remembered pleasures of an earthly existence.

In keeping with the lack of an extensive, overarching “Sin-Eater culture,” there is no single accepted standard for the protocols of a gathering. About the only rule that is (usually) enforced is that grudges are to be left at the door — rival krewes are expected to behave themselves and take any serious disagreements outside. In some parts of the world, this admonition is taken very seriously: in the Phillipines, for example, all of the Bound are considered brothers when a gathering is called, and even krewes in the midst of an ongoing blood feud are expected to buy each other drinks and share a few laughs. In other regions, things are less cordial: throughout the United States, the best you’re likely to see is rivals taking anything more violent than raised voices out back. Beyond that, the rules and etiquette of a gathering are as fluid and flexible as trends among the mortals. What’s considered proper and expected at one gathering might be utterly gauche and taboo a few months later or a few miles down the road.

Calling a Gathering
There’s no uniform custom regarding who can call for a gathering, though in most cases few Sin-Eaters will pay much attention to an invite from anyone less than the leader of a krewe — and even then, how many will bother to show up depends largely on how influential and respected that krewe leader is. It’s not just a measure of size or raw, supernatural power; even a small, upstart krewe can build up a reputation for putting on a truly epic gathering, which will make a lot more Sin-Eaters sit up and pay attention when it’s time for a wake (q.v.). That reputation can carry over to requests for more somber gatherings as well, so it’s a worthwhile reputation to cultivate.

The traditional way to announce a gathering is to put it out on the Twilight Network and let the word spread, though krewes that are on good terms with their neighbors are increasingly likely to forego the formality and just make a few phone calls. In most of the world, an “open” announcement (that is, a Twilight Network message announcing a gathering) is considered to be an invitation to anyone who sees it — denying access to someone who found the invitation in good faith is considered tacky in the extreme, not to mention a blatant insult. That rule sometimes extends even to non-Sin-Eaters: usually, the Twilight Network code keeps the riff-raff out, but if an ordinary mortal (or even another supernatural being) manages to recognize and decipher the hidden message, they’re considered invited. How strictly that custom is held to depends on the nature of the gathering: if it’s just the Bound getting together to blow off steam and have a good time, the outsiders are usually let in to attend one of the weirdest parties of their lives. War councils and the like typically turn away thrill-seekers at the door, for their own safety as much as the secrecy of the Sin-Eater community.

Gatherings are typically announced anywhere from a week to a month in advance to be sure that most Sin-Eaters in the area have a chance to see the invitation. Especially urgent matters, like a renegade geist racking up a body count or a necromancer picking off Sin-Eaters for some nefarious occult purpose, might have a shorter “lead time,” and some large, regular gatherings are announced as much as a year in advance.

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