The
Strangevirus contorts the bodies and mind of all it invades, turning them into creatures cold and alien. The Hemotopians are unique only for making the death of the soul into haute couture. Those who join this faction typically choose to appear as pale, androgynous, beautiful youth with luxurious clothing and gruesome abnormalities. Their "fashion" emphasizes the horrid resilience the Virus gives its hosts (e.g.: stitched-on smiles, exposed innards tied in pretty bows, nominally-fatal piercings, unhealing tattoos).
Hemotopian culture is anarchistic. It's also courtly, catty and somewhat competitive. Hemotopians tend to roam in cliques of up to a dozen, looking for unwary visitors and less beautiful viral hosts to torment. Members who fail to live up to their ever-changing sense of fashion, or offend a more persuasive host, are promptly and brutally ostracized. Often, the Virus will even leave their body in a snit, leaving their body mods -- and their old comrades -- to give them a good killing or two.
The Hemotopians do often venture outside of Strange to cause trouble, but generally take precautions not to spread the Virus. It's not that they give a fuck about you. They just don't think you deserve it.
- --taken from Function OR's [writeup]
Known Members
- Muse
- Morgan, the self-proclaimed High Lord.
- Tiskel, rogue cybernetic implant. Now Secretary to StrangeLibrary.
Known Ex-Members
- Sweet William, once Secretary to the Library for over three turns of the wheel. Now nothing.
Links to other Factions
The Hemotopians have remarkably few links to anyone - arrogance on their level tends to irritate or cause arrogance in return - however certain of them affect manners and dress that would fit perfectly within the constrains of the Victorian Retrotech Collective. In fact, some Hemotopians become helplessly enamoured of Vickies, possibly due to aesthetic linkages. The feelings are rarely reciprocal, but this does not seem to slow them down.
- Darkwave - Worth listening to, especially the Viral Hosted ones.
- Strange Medical Corps - SMC members are lucky if the worst that happens during an encounter with Hemotopians is having their heads ripped from their shoulders so that their bodies become temporary fountains.
Common Approaches and Themes
In a culture where great attempts are made to be individualistic, standing out from the rest of the mass of a collection of disaffected, beautifully clad aesthetes is not particularly easy. There are a range of traits that many Hemotopians steal from, whether or not they consciously admit to such. In fact, the conscious adoption of the reverse of a certain form of 'in' fashion also occurs, as cliches sicken and are ripped to bloody shreds. Any commentary percieved as particularly tasteless (such as adoption of CharmWarpian symbols) tends to last only a short amount of time. Nevertheless, the following is a partial list of interests and tendancies:
- Music that evokes great emotion, particularly the sort that does so memetically so that its victims are unable to resist. Hemotopians may be a collection of vicious bastards, but they do love their music. Styles range from hard thumping ecstatically violent industrial to heart breakingly lonely siren-songs. Music with a cheerful, catchy tune and horrifically defiling lyrics has been carefully manufactured by Hemotopians in the past.
- Older fashion styles, particularly pre-postScarcity, such as Victorian, Edwardian, affectations of extreme poverty and ruin, lace cuffs soiled with street filth, velvet gone to moth. Conversely, fine leathers too thin and perfect to exist without constant re-Instantation, slick PVC, tubes.
- Hemotopians eat. They do so publically, deliberately, making mockery of those about them by either devouring disgusting matter, seemingly consuming sentients, or even eating whatever everyone else is eating and making them wonder what on earth is actually in that food...Hemotopians seem fond of tea parties, where the slightest wrong social move can be an excuse for a little recreational sadism.
- Seduction, then abandonment, re-seduction, then abandonment, until the victim becomes numb to the entire approach and is therefore boring...
- Innocence. Some Hemotopians adopt innocent facades, others seem repelled by it, still others prey specifically on innocents, and further members attack the jaded by reminding them of what they've lost. The entire concept is morbidly fascinating for them.
- Romance. It goes with apeing beauty - Hemotopians frequently engage in massive overarching overplayed romances that can go on for years (sometimes centuries) or end up dying stormily after only a few days. With eternal vengeance sworn on both sides, of course. However, no one is as fervent as a lovesick Hemotopian, even if the object of their affection is, for example, non-Stranged and utterly panicked by the concept. Hemotopians make wonderful stalkers. Some of them insist on various forms of monogamy, often without telling their partners, then fly into killing rages of jealousy and slaughter everyone involved.
- Self-awareness. Many Factions are to a greater or lesser extent aware of their positioning, functioning and social situation within the Mess. Hemotopians are hyper aware of their own - many of them them know exactly what extent they appear affected, ridiculous, dangerous, banal and so on, and are almost constantly updating any personal datastorages with perceptual information. This data is frequently taken and turned back upon the observer in a manner that is aggressive and threatening. Hemotopians may mock themselves so violently that the self-harm damages empathic beings in the local area or until an innocent defends them, for example, or they may respond to negative perceptions with a towering arrogance so extreme as to require expression in the form of attempted murder. Conversely, often they'll fail to react at all, even to the most grotesque insults, although this may be due to perceptual difficulties arising from StrangeViral infection rather than true lack of care.
They Eat Dust!
A known ritual is to stick their hand-equivalents to their forehead, palm outward, smear their bodies with slimming and denaturing agents, snaggle their teeth-equivalents and smoke potent and time-shearing cylinders. It is rumoured that this will bring them closer to the ancient Dirt-simulated Angst.
A rare glimpse of actual rituals can be found here: [1]
They Breathe Ashes!
Some notes on roleplaying and inspirations go here.