The Endless Ages Anthology: (World of Darkness) by Jaym Gates

The Endless Ages Anthology: (World of Darkness) Reviews

• 
  Gianfranco Mancini

  
  
  Vampire:The Masquerade rocked the world of pen-and-paper roleplaying games in 1991 and inspired a generation of fans the likes of which the games and hobbies industries had never seen before.
  The World of Darkness setting introduced by VtM, is a darker, more devious and more conspiratorial “Gothic-Punk” version of our world where decadence, cynicism, and corruption are common. Humans are unwitting victims or pawns of vast secret organizations of supernatural creatures: vampires, werewolves, mages, and much more struggle with internal factionalism and against other species in secret wars of intrigue for control.
  Vampire:The Masquerade reached hundreds of millions of people through thousands of books published in a wide variety of languages, a television show, video games, comics, and even World of Darkness-focused conventions throughout the world.
  
  In addition to Vampire:The Masquerade, the other popular settings within the World of Darkness include: • Werewolf: the Apocalypse • Mage: the Ascension • Wraith: the Oblivion • Changeling: the Dreaming.
  This anthology released by Onyx Path to celebrate 25 years of Vampire:The Masquerade a mixed bag, with some not much appealing tales to me, a few authors more versed into Ann Rice's vampires than Kindred, and zero appearances of classic and iconic characters besides Gangrel Tabitha Prester and a too quick reference regarding prince of Washington D. C. Marcus Vitel.
  Dedicating a whole story to a lesser known bloodline was nice, but leaving out of a celebrating anthology major clans like Assamites, Tzimisce, Giovannito leave room for some generic vanpire tale not related at all with VtM was a real bad move.
  Luckly a few five stars bloody gems included here saved the day.
  The Cainite Conspiracies, the anthology based on Twentieth Anniversary Edition of Vampire: The Dark Ages, was a far better read for me.
  Such a shame.
  
  If you are still reading, o' kindly reader, and I've not bored you enough, reviews of single stories follow down here.
  
  Part One: The Becoming
  
  Tiger By Michael J. Martinez ☆☆☆1/2
  
  The first was a huge bear of a man, hirsute to the point of medically questionable, had he been living. This was the Gangrel named Hendricks, the prince’s sheriff, in charge of keeping the peace in the city. He’d already been part of Samantha’s education at several points, discussing the laws of the Camarilla and the importance of the Masquerade and how it would please him to no end to pull her limbs from her body if she failed to uphold them.
  
  Samantha's presentation to the city's Malkavian prince, after her embrace among Kindred and clan Ventrue, is not going as planned at all.
  It will be a night to remember, if it won't be her last.
  
  The Ballad of Dead Jasper’s Rebirth By Na’amen Gobert Tilahun ☆☆☆☆
  
  I was already cracked when I arrived, San Francisco just made the cracks wider, more noticeable. The last man who paid for my mouth had a black cross on his cheek and I took that as a good sign, except then he had leaned forward and the pain started, my life being drained from me. The end rushed to me and I felt loved and happy and ready…
  …then the taste on my lips, the burning of this horrible life, a sudden addiction.
  
  Jasper, a Kindred of clan Malkavian with a troubled past who lost his faith and made an hospital as his domain and hunting ground, finds out another of his kind is feeding from his herd violating the Second Tradition. 
  So, the Beast requires a reckoning.
  But in the endless nights there can be redenption too.
  
  Blood Moon By Dave Harlequin  ☆☆☆
  
  Finally, he spoke up and said “so, Sergeant Shithammer, I hear you’re the town alkie, that true?” I just looked at him and shrugged and told him I didn’t really care what he heard and started walking away. “Hey, come on, I didn’t mean to upset you, I like alcoholics! Every village needs the village idiot, it’s the only way things stay fun,” he said with an almost unnerving sincerity. “Lucky for you, I’m feeling generous tonight, and I think I can help you.” Before I ever had a chance to say no, or say anything for that matter, out came the teeth.
  
  Sarge, a war veteran with a drinking problem, finds out he can't imbibe alcohol anymore without getting sick after a stranger decided to  fix his bad habit in the most hilarious way possible, replacing his addiction with another, darker, one.
  Sadly, Sarge never responded too well to pranks and jokes, especially sick ones like this, and he's not going to give up that easy, especially given how much he really, really loves drinking.
  
  The Becoming By Nicole Givens Kurtz ☆☆
  
  Since being Embraced, Nanyanika saw better in the darkness, but she also could smell—everything. In the gloom of her native forest, her eyes had broken the shadows and shapes so she recognized objects and people better without light. That seemed to have stayed with her even in her new unlife. The night sky’s always lighter than the false illumination on the ground. Everything about her had begun to evolve, to change, but she’d never known any of her people to have, well, cat ears.
  
  After losing control over her inner Beast, young Nanyanika has upset the balance between the Aye, the mortals, and the Orun, the spirit world.
  As a result she's turning, litterally, into a black panther.
  To became a real Akunanse, she will have to learn how to bring her spirit into balance, feed the Beast, and control herself.
  Even if doing that will mean becoming something else.
  
  Family Photo By Matthew Dawkins ☆☆☆☆☆
  
  The wind picked up. This time it was victorious against her cool fingertips, gaining more purchase on the soiled photograph than her own grip could manage. Her head twisted abruptly to face westward as the snapshot, caught on a squall, flew free in the direction of the sunset. Appropriate. Fly safe, children, man, family. You’ll not be alone long. It’s a promise. All of you.
  
  Some Kindred are cursed by their hideous appearance.
  But with the passing of endless nights a fragile mind can snap at last, and it's time for one of them to start acting like the monster whose face she bears.
  Beware, because there are monsters among monsters too.
  
  Part Two: Gothic Punk
  
   Heart of Flesh By Nerine Dorman ☆☆☆
  
  It won’t take much to break the lock. It’s meant to keep prisoners in – not others out, but the ripples of my actions will spread, small at first but a growing tsunami. If I free him, I lose everything; a blood hunt will be called, I will be made anathema and cast out. My actions will damage my sire’s position. And yet...
  
  Sometimes Anarchs insolence just goes too far. So, when murals depicting key figures among the city Kindred start appearing and attracting kine attention, Camarilla elders are forced to make an example of the insolent artist mocking them.
  But what happens when examples became martyrs? What happens when old loves rekindle and prevail over loyalties?
  Blood is going to flow, that's for sure.
  
  The Cook’s Last Day By Crystal Frasier ☆☆
  
  “Sorry for the monologue,” she gasped at the effort of restraining the Beast. “It helps a girl focus when she’s hungry. Not that you seem to care.” She slapped her captive audience playfully and his head lolled lazily back, eyes trying to focus as he chewed forgetfully at the gag. “This is why you don’t follow strange girls into alleys, you fetishist asshole.”
  
  What to do if you are not high enough on the Cainite social ladder to get help from the city sheriff when somebody steals your last freshly prepared meal?
  What happens when you are hated by everyone, your sire included, and the only help you can gather is from vampire junkies buying the drug spiced bloodsacks you prepare for them?
  Tamra, a far different from your so typical Toreador, must guess the answer if she wants stop being lonely and bullied by other Kindred.
  
  The Blood We Spill Never Stains by Andrew Penn Romine ☆☆☆
  
  “You’re Coyote,” says Carlie with an oily show of teeth that would make Sacha proud. “Who the fuck are you?” Coyote growls in a faint, sleepy accent she can’t identify. Not Mexican. Romanian? What the hell. Greek? Potency radiates from the vampire and her smile falters. This son of a bitch is old, maybe as old as her sire. Older than Carlie, for damn sure. Sacha omitted that fucking bit.
  
  Carlie and Sasha, a couple of Toreador childe, have finally a chance to avenge their beloved sire Lisette and grand their grandsire Octavius the Final Death he deserves for killing his progeny.
  Being an Anarch in Los Angeles means be free and no rules, but are they willing to give up their freedom in order to have their vengeance?
  
  Dreams at Craidmore By Natania Barron ☆☆☆☆
  
  “I need your help, Mrs. McEwan,” said Eliza. “Call me Rana,” she said. Eliza swallowed. “Do you want my help, Eliza?” asked the woman. Eliza nodded, taking a step back. Mrs. McEwan had not moved forward, yet there was no denying the pressure in the room had changed. “Then begin by calling me Rana. Later I may ask you to call me something else — but for now, Rana will do. It is a better name than that of Mr. McEwan who left this mortal life so many years ago.”
  
  1911: Lady Eliza Montrose's days in Craidmore castle, Scotland, were a monotony after her widowed brother moving to France and leaving his only son in her care.
  But something old has a soft spot for women living in the remote old house in Aberdeenshire, and Eliza is going to find out that is better beware what you dream of.
  It may just come true.
  
  Part Three: Signs of Gehenna
  
  Polytechniou By Lawerence Hawkins ☆☆☆☆☆
  
  Dear Mother, On these long nights full of questions, your silence provides better answers than your presence ever offered. Before? You spoke to me of God, of fate, of a necessary cruelty. You spoke of duty, honor, faith, and other such delusions. You spoke of your apocryphal Abyss beneath us, of the toll it took from you. All lies. And now? You are ashes in my ink pot. You are the words I write and the lack of answers they provide. You’re just an echo. A consistent lie. Thank you for this. If you had not taught me this truth, I’d have never escaped. Tonight, I run out of ink. Out of you. Tonight? I think I will be free.
  
  Polytechniou in Thessaloniki is a celebration day often ending with social unrest where mass riots occur during the entire night.
  Sadly for the kine attending it, Sabbat packs have a very different kind of celebrations in mind to happen tonight, filled with rites, rituals, and games.
  Bloody games.
  
  Upon This Rock By Bill Bridges ☆☆☆☆☆
  
   Stanislaus banged a fist into the wall as he remembered their first encounter. He had watched and waited, judging the newcomer, waiting to see if he was boon or bane. At first, he was astonished and amazed at the idea that another Kindred shared his faith, his love for the Lord and his knowledge of scripture. But that soon soured, as Konstantin’s particular take on scripture became apparent. He was nothing less than a heretic, a snake in the garden, a sinner who threatened to doom the souls of all those who listened to him.
  
  Gargoyle Stanislaus decides he had enough after Konstantin, a Malkavian priest professing a different faith about a wicked welcoming of Gehenna, pushed too far with his heretical sermons among the secret congregation of ghouls growing every night in the bowels of his beloved church.
  He's willing to turn from lamb to wolf before surrender his war and let the holy place fall to heresy.
  No matter at what price.
  
  Justice by Dylan Birtolo ☆☆☆☆☆
  
  When the time came for Communion, Rohesia was the first to accept the blessing. Getting closer to Father Clayton intensified the sensation until each step felt like she was walking through a furnace, but she did not falter. When the wafer touched her tongue, the intensity of the pain almost made her gag, but she was no stranger to the holy fire. She accepted it with a smile, feeling a warmth in her heart separate from the intense heat around her.
  
  Rohesia is a religious vampire. She loves being a integral member of churches, recruiting the faithful and encouraging their attendance, spending years of toil and service, accept the painful blessing of Communion, and let herself enthralled by the blessed, still deadly, heat of True Faith.
  When time comes at last to look for a new parish, just before people start questioning about her being still young after so many years, Rohesia stumbles into a ring of fake priest cainites luring and killing true believers into unholy churches.
  Time for Rohesia to take up arms, litterally, and bring justice in the name of the Lord again.
  
  Lies, Damned Lies by Richard Dansky ☆☆
  
   Seconds passed. Eventually, Genevieve pressed the “down” button for herself. And then she tapped the screen of her laptop, where the network of pulsing dots collapsed into a single one. “They don’t understand,” she whispered to herself. “There’s someone behind this. And I know where they are.”
  
  Computers and new tecnologies like smartphones are hard to learn for elder vampires, so some of them use their childe or ghouls in order to explore this brave new world on their behalf.
  But some elders don't need understanding how new tecnologies work to manipulate data and lure adversaries where they want.
  
  
  Sundowning By Delilah S. Dawson ☆☆
  
   “They could help,” she says with a knowing smile. His hands flutter up briefly and fall on the pastel green blanket like dead bats. “Darling, the jig is up. The curtain is falling. There is no Them. Vampires aren’t real. We had fun pretending, but now it’s time to stop gluing on fangs and drinking red wine and playacting that we’ll be young and beautiful forever. It was all a lie. A pretty lie, but a lie nonetheless.” His head falls to the side, his fine gray eyes quivering shut. “Give it up. Go live a real life.” “This is real,” she says, holding out her belled black skirt to curtsy. His long fingers pluck at his gown in a sick imitation of a bow. “This,” he says with grave finality, “is real.”
  
  Cairn and Nevin, a couple of goths, loved a lot dressing and loving like vampires, maybe too much.
  So, after Nevin got cancer, Cairn just can't accept fun is over and decides to look for a real vampire to save her dying friend.
  Madness, isn't it?
  
  Part Four: Modern Nights
  
  Redder Than Red by Monica Valentinelli ☆☆☆☆
  
  “I just want Ayisha.” Stephan, to my knowledge, has never lost a childer. He does not understand the gaping hole in my chest, a pain that I still feel for the loss of my progeny. He cannot comprehend Ayisha’s deep betrayal, either, when she turned her back on her Clan. I do. I want to peel the flesh from all 206 of her bones after I break every one of them in four places. I want to hear her scream so loud the dead will wake from their graves. I want to watch my ghouls bind her to a marble effigy of my childer and record the sight of her burning flesh when the sun rises. I want…
  
  Ayisha Jocastian, Anathema and diablerist, killed Estaban, the childe of Rebecca Fleischer, a Malkavian elder obsessed with counting and numbers, and she must pay according to the laws of the Kindred.
  Tonight, after five years, seven months, 13 days, and fifteen hours, Rebecca is finally going to have her vengeance.
  
  Part Love to Ashes By Steffie De Vaan ☆☆☆
  
   The door closed. Hope of reconciliation, fueled by Nita’s mercy, faded to darkness. Rage turned to the boil, bubbling over until the world was red. Sephone screamed incoherently at the door, hitting it with her fists until the bones in her hands broke. Still she screamed, spitting blood and wordless curses. She hated Yanis. Hated Nita. Hated this cage of endless nights. She would end it all. END IT
  
   Some elders need games to win boredom of endless nights and ages.
   Yanis’ game is to make her childer love and hate themselves, then setting them against each other for her attentions and eternal love.
   A game that Yanis played on until the elder grew bored of it and time comes to move on and look for some new childe.
  What can go wrong, after all?
  
  Numbers by Ann Lemay ☆☆
  
   Vampires are horrible. I say that most earnestly. After all, the reason I have a Plan is because I took the greatest of exceptions to being turned. My resentment for being thrust into the world of the unliving is without bounds, and will last until the heat death of the universe. Well. Unless everything goes according to The Plan, at which point, I get to walk into the sun in about 53 years, give or take a few months. There are some possibilities involving some idiot human starting a nuclear war (sub-plan 34b involves not letting that happen, if you must know, as I like humans just fine), but otherwise, I’m fairly on track here.
  
   Despite internal wars, clan upheavals, and the occasional human discovering the Masquerade, vampires have actually managed to sustain a very healthy population expansion. Too healthy.
  Systems were put in place long ago to prevent truly obnoxious levels of kindred expansion
  The duty of a Tabula Rasa is to ensure Kindred don’t feed themselves into extinction.
  But when a Malkavian get bored of his job to keep the vampire population under a comfortable limit, so that the current human numbers can sustain it without arousing suspicion, he finally developes a plan to simplify his work: why just not exterminate all vampires?
  
  The Draug of the Deep By Berit Ellingsen ☆☆
  
   Val, Jack, and Dave are a team of divers sent in a descent to repair a broken spot on an underwater pipeline that’s been leaking oil on and off for the last ten years.
   A small but bothersome leak for the company hiring them, enough to finally send divers down to a near-record breaking depth of four hundred and forty meters.
  They are going to find out the hard way that  can be far more dangerous and bloodthirtsty predators than sharks underwater.
• 
  Nerine Dorman

  I can't rate because I'm one of the authors. A diverse collection to please fans of the IP.
• 
  Marco

  Some stories I liked, some stories I liked even more and even the weaker ones weren't really bad.
  
  All in all a pretty solid collection of stories!
• 
  Stoic_quin

  Thin blooded in the worst way
  
  Weak relative to original white wolf. Overly lurid ~ felt hacked together. As a fan - not to my taste
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  J

  Bottom line? Everyone loves Malkavians. That's it. :S