World of Darkness επιγραφή

I just totally love the storytelling of World of Darkness books, such as Vampire the Masquerade and so on. And I love their epigraphs. So this blog is dedicated to them.

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When green buds hang in the elm like dust And sprinkle the lime like rain, Forth I wander, forth I must, And drink of life again. Forth I must by hedgerow bowers To look at the leaves uncurled, And stand in the fields where cuckoo-flowers Are lying about the world. — A. E. Housman

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A rat crept softly through the vegetation Dragging its slimy belly on the bank While I was fishing in the dull canal On a winter evening round behind the gashouse Musing upon the king my brother's wreck And on the king my father's death before him

T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

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Inspiration for Vampire the Masquerade

Taken from the 2nd edition of Vampire the Masquerade (1992).

Movies

Near Dark, Vamp, The Hunger, Nosferatu, Dracula (original talkie), Dracula (Coppola’s), Lost Boys, Blue Velvet, Dangerous Liaisons, Rear Window, Casablanca, Alien, Aliens, Blade Runner, Highlander (but not II).

Music

The Cure, U2, New Order, Morrisey, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The The, XTC, Gypsy Kings, Philip Glass, Public Enemy, Sisters of Mercy, The Clash, The Doors, Jane's Addiction, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sting, L7, Prince, Midnight Oil, REM, Pink Floyd, Mike Oldfield, Placido Domingo, Enrico Caruso

Novels

Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damned, The Body Thief, Anne Rice; 

Dracula, Bram Stroker; 

I Am Legend, Richard Matheson; 

Those Who Haunt the Night, Barbra Hambly; 

Some of Your Blood, Theodore Sturgeon; 

The Vampire Tapestry, Suzy McKee Charnas; 

The Hunger, Whitley Streiber; 

The Delicate Dependency, Michael Talbot; 

The Light at the End, John Skipp and Craig Spector; 

Lost Souls, Poppy Z. Brite; 

Sandman, Neil Gaiman; 

Time Enough for Love, Robert Heinlein; 

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Games

Scruples, Illuminati, Cosmic Encounter, Call of Cthulhu, Ars Magica, Runequest, Pendragon, Shadowrun, Gurps Horror, Corps

Thinkers

Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, Milan Kundera, Herman Hesse, Albert Camus, P.B.Shelly, Mercea Eliade, and (of course) Vaclav Havel

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What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth - whether it existed before or not

John Keats

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Emotional numbing, mass addictions, low self-esteem, depression, apathy, anomie, stress—all the modern illnesses are symptoms of the absurd and tragic struggle to bridle instinct. Guilt is engendered by the imperfect ability of humans to suppress the inner rage of the repressed id

Adam Parfrey, Apocalypse Culture 

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The good die young. That is why immortality is reserved for the greatest of evils

Daniel Baldwin

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This city is afraid of me.  I have seen its true face.  The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown.

Rorschach’s Journal, The Watchmen

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He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

E. Burke, Reflections

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Trisete, Italy - Gun-toting toughs hijacked a bloodmobile near the Italian-Yugoslavian border, stealing hundreds of pints of freshly drawn blood - and lawmen blame the rubbery on vicious, thirst-crazed Vampires!

Weekly World News, Vampire Hijack Bloodmobile!

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She did not seduce, she ravished.

George Meredith, Diana of the Crossways

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The one thing about living in Santa Carla that I never could stomach is all the damn Vampires.

Grandpa, The Lost Boys

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I think of isolation and abstinence, and how each is so cruelly dependent upon the other.  There are times I cannot stand to resist any longer, yet when I do feed, I cannot abide the sight of the blood that is upon my hands.

Tamalary, Confessions

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Remember, Doc, when the will is invoked, the recuperative powers of the human body are incredible.

FBI Agent Cooper, Twin Peaks

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Should the whole frame of nature round him break, In ruin and confusion hurled, He, unconcerned, would hear the mighty crack, And stand secure amidst a falling world.

Horace, Odes

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Experience is the child of Thought, and Thought is the child of Action.

Benjamin Disraeli, Vivian Grey