#purpose of identifying the weapon’s owner if perhaps it needs to be returned to family. but what if revali doesnt have anyone he considers

[junietuesday]

you know how tulin has his parents’ feathers on his quiver? and you know how the great eagle bow has that scrap of blue fabric on it? what if……its bc revali considers the other champions his family

[expressandadmirable]

Velvet Noir faction: the Mishpacha

From the Settings section of our design document: “It is 1928. In the City, the morality movement and conservatives have won. Anyone not born a straight, white male is looked down upon as some inferior ‘other’. While there are still pockets of defences, places where people can be themselves, those pockets are few and far between. The soaring stock market has given rich, white capitalism its heyday and the Morality Movement has turned traditional religion into a weapon. But most people depend on money from the city for survival, making escape an impossible dream.”

For our full design document, the rest of the factions and event information, head over to the Entropic Endeavors website.

* * *

The Shtetl. Once muttered with a disparaging sneer by the rich Gentile bankers and robber barons who passed outside its borders, “The Shtetl” has become widely accepted as the semi-official title for the Jewish quarter of the City. Densely packed and raucous, its alleys and boulevards are full to bursting with shops, newspaper stands, theatres, synagogues, bakeries and kosher butchers, surrounded on all sides by a mixture of garment factories and tenement buildings. Though the majority of the Shtetl’s residents are poor Ashkenazim, newly resettled from eastern Europe, tensions have increased with the influx of wealthier German, Sephardi and other Jews exiled from other parts of the City. Nevertheless, spirits in the Shtetl are high, symbolized by the scraps of rainbow fabric and ribbon pinned to overcoats and hats or tucked into shop windows. Every resident knows that no matter how dark the world outside the eruv gets, they are protected by their Mishpacha.

Initially founded by a motley group of orphans living in the B’not Miryam Orphan Asylum, the Mishpacha (“Family”, specifically, extended family) has since opened its membership to any Jew who may wish to join its ranks. They have even accepted a few goyim into the fold, though these recruits are generally subjected to much more stringent vetting processes. Particularly welcoming to those who feel society’s judgment on multiple axes, most of the members are queer, disabled or otherwise considered “undesirable” by the City at large. The Mishpacha’s sole purpose is to protect the Jews of the Shtetl, by any means necessary. Regardless of gender, sexuality, ability, language or belief in the Almighty, all Jews are family. Over time, a few differing streams of thought have developed regarding this primary mission: some believe they are beholden only to Jews, while others insist their purview extends to all the City’s outcasts who have found safety within the Shtetl. So far, this difference of opinion has not grown into an all-out schism, though group leaders watch one another with caution.

Operating primarily out of the upper floors of Yeshiva Aqedah and the back room of Bialek’s Deli, the Mishpacha has its hands in nearly every aspect of life in the Shtetl. They hold a variety of classes at the Yeshiva in the evenings for those who work during the day, and offer subsidized meals through Bialek’s for those who cannot afford them. Members are frequently called upon to mediate disputes of all types, from business owners to quarrelling spouses, and operate as de facto law enforcement in the absence of help from the City. Due to the protection the Mishpacha provides the Shtetl, its illegal activities -- primarily bootlegging and counterfeiting government documents -- are largely ignored by civilian community leaders.

Despite its benevolent enterprises, the Mishpacha will not hesitate to use force if needed. The Shtetl has seen more than one corrupt factory disappear in what was later identified as a carefully controlled blaze, and abusive parents have been known to return to their homes with a black eye matching the one they’d given their child the week before. When justice is carried out in this way, individual members of the Mishpacha rarely take credit. Instead, these incidents are known as “visitations from the Lion of Judah,” and no further explanation is needed.

The one commandment the Mishpacha respects above all else is “Lo Tirtzach” -- “thou shalt not kill”. Members frequently resort to violence to achieve their goals, but murder is strictly prohibited and any combat engagements must be carried out non-lethally. This is pragmatic as well as spiritual, as any evidence of blood on the Mishpacha’s hands could bring the full weight of the City crashing down on the Shtetl. Anyone known to have violated this rule may be summarily dismissed from the Mishpacha. However, if an enemy sustains an injury during an altercation and later dies of their wounds, it does not fall under the Mishpacha’s definition of murder.

* * *

Play a Member of the Mishpacha if…

You want to protect and defend those who have come to you for shelter -- at any cost

You seek to better the lives of your community through education and activism

You have a fierce, perhaps overdeveloped, sense of justice and have no qualms about being called a vigilante