Promethean: The Created

Reasons to Gather
Geist Preview for July 7
Posted: 2009-07-07

Most regions with any kind of Sin-Eater presence hold wakes on most major holidays, with the largest and most extravagant coming, unsurprisingly, on the Day of the Dead. (The massive festival on the Day of the Dead is actually a fairly recent invention, at least outside of Latin America, dating from the mid-twentieth century. Other cultures hold similar wakes during analogous holidays, such as the Japanese Bon festival or the Nepali “Cow Pilgrimage.”) Most communities also hold a wake when a prominent celebrity dies, particularly unexpectedly. The Sin-Eaters of the UK supposedly held a wake that stretched across the entire nation and lasted for nearly a month when Princess Diana died, a gathering rivaled only by the New York wakes for John and Robert Kennedy.

Beyond these major events, individual krewes host wakes to celebrate major victories, induct new members, or just because they feel like it. Local traditions play a roll as well; one New York krewe whose members operate a sports bar offer free drinks to anyone “touched by death” after any losing Yankees game. In New Orleans, the Mardi Gras wake dwarfs even the Day of the Dead celebration.

Convocations and markets are held less frequently, and usually only by the larger and more prominent krewes in the area. It takes a fair bit of muscle to provide security to keep rabble-rousers in-line and make sure the merchants stay honest, to say nothing of the clout to get people to show up for a gathering without the promise of booze and music. When a smaller krewe needs such a gathering called, they typically find a contact in a more influential krewe to call the gathering on their behalf. Some krewes have built themselves a thriving enterprise around this practice, akin to the old Roman system of patronage. These krewes might also serve as the overseers of the local Twilight Network, giving them yet more ability to monopolize the ability to request a gathering.

War-councils are the rarest gatherings of all (and if they’re not, it might be time to consider moving), and the reasons to call them are fairly self-explanatory. Because they come up so rarely, when one is called it’s usually written off as a panic attack on the part of some haples newbies unless it comes from one of the most powerful local krewes. Even getting to the point of a war council could be a chronicle in itself, as a krewe must first discover the threat, then figure out who has the influence to actually call a war council, and finally to convince them of the need to call one.

Snip

Convocations: For the most part, Sin-Eaters do what they do on their own time and in their own way. There’s no overseeing council making sure Sin-Eaters are laying the dead to rest (and even if there were, it would quickly run into opposition from Sin-Eaters of different Archetypes), and thus Sin-Eaters don’t usually concern themselves overmuch with how their fellows use their gifts outside of extraordinary circumstances. Sometimes, though, a threat arises that’s too big for one Sin-Eater, or even one krewe, to deal with. Sometimes there’s a mystery that can’t be solved by the smaller groups, and so a gathering is called. These convocations are usually to deal with a specific issue, whether it’s one outside a krewe’s means to deal with alone or an issue so large it affects the whole of the local Bound population, but sometimes a convocation is called just to share general news and information that might be relevant.

Convocations are usually much more staid than wakes, and funeral etiquette typically applies: be quiet, respectful, and somber. Withholding information at a convocation, particularly information that might be relevant to the issue at hand, is a surefire way to get on the shit list of every krewe present. Some might even track you down and educate you after the gathering is over.

If wakes resemble wild celebrations of life, convocations are more likely to resemble more solemn funerary practices. The Bound typically forego the more extreme fashions in favor of sober, conservative suits and dresses that make them easily mistaken for a funeral party. If one of the Sin-Eaters hosting the convocation owns a mortuary (a not-uncommon occurrence), the convocation might be held there; otherwise any place with a suitably somber resonance of death can serve: museums dedicated to funerary practices or mass killings, hospital chapels (at odd hours to minimize the risks of patients or their families turning up), or even the site of a particularly noteworthy death (like the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre or Ground Zero). An altar is usually laid out for ofrendas, as is the norm when the Bound gather, but offerings are expected to be more somber and respectful: burned money, a loaf of pan de muerto, a votive candle, or the like.

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