Thelma Goth
Seamstress
Village view with mountain and Citadel in distance.
- Intent: To codify a major location for future RP.
- Image Credit:
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: Galaxy of Fear: City of the Dead | "A Good Man is Hard to Find"
View of the Citadel at dawn.
- Landmark Name: The Citadel
- Classification: Castle
- Location: Necropolis
- Affiliation: Thelma Goth
- Size: Small
- Population: Insignificant
- Demographics:
- Energy Vampire
- Psy-Pire
- Lesser Sanguinius Vampirika
- Various other vampiric species
- Accessibility: Located atop a large hill, anyone can reach the Citadel - provided they are willing to brave the dark wilderness which surrounds it and climb up the steep slope.
- Description: The Citadel was originally built during the Plague Era, and was the primary residence of a vampire voivode and her court. Centuries later the fortress had passed to her descendant Genevieve, who along with her husband Frederic Goth opened their home to fellow vampires facing persecution and exclusion from galactic society. The denizens of the Citadel maintained an uneasy peace with their neighbors by feeding on animals rather than sentient beings. That is, until a crazed Genevieve attacked a child from the nearby village. The villagers hired hunters to slaughter the inhabitants of the Citadel; the few survivors were forced to flee, leaving the castle an empty, haunted ruin...
Much of the Citadel is currently in ruins, its decay hastened by vandalism and graffiti.
The Citadel was built during the Plague Era, around 450 ABY. It was originally the primary residence of a Psy-Pire voivode, from which she ruled over the surrounding area. By 800 ABY, ownership of the castle had passed to Genevieve Crepsley, a direct descendant of the original owner. Genevieve lived there with her husband, Frederic Goth, and their daughter Thelma. Both Genevieve and Frederic were idealistic dreamers who believed their kind could coexist alongside other species of the galaxy. They opened their home to fellow vampires of many different species and cultures, hoping to unite them under one philosophy: never feed from a sentient being. Instead, the vampires engaged in regular hunting trips during which they would catch and feed from animals found in the forests outside the Citadel.
Their numbers increased exponentially as rumors of their mission spread across the stars. Among the Citadel's denizens were Maxim Koschei, a Psy-Pire and former Jedi Master who became a mentor to Thelma, and the Barbaroi sisters, three ancient Life-Bearers who taught Thelma the arts of weaving and sewing. Originally there were no boundaries imposed on the vampires of the Citadel, but as conflicts arose between the Goths and their guests, they were forced to implement rules of conduct. These eventually included banning the Anzati, a species whose members proved too wild and dark to be reformed - so much so that they posed a danger not just to sentient beings, but to other vampires as well.
The turning point came in 889 ABY, when Genevieve Goth began to act strangely. It started with recurring nightmares about people and events she did not know of, leading to insomnia and a troubled mind. These progressed to mood swings and personality changes. She spoke of things which she should not have known about. After a bout of frenzied rage led to her attacking Maxim, the terrible truth became apparent: Genevieve had been secretly feeding on sentients. A Psy-Pire feeds on memories; the ones she had consumed had caused her to lose her grip on reality, no longer certain of who she was, constantly reliving the lives of others.
In an effort to control the damage dealt by his wife's hypocrisy, Frederic made a drastic decision. He locked his wife away in the unused attic of the Citadel, claiming she had died from an illness. Only Maxim and Thelma knew the truth. Maxim assisted Frederic in the deception, keeping watch over the sealed door. Thelma began starving herself out of fear that she would end up like her mother, refusing to eat despite her father's pleas. Life at the Citadel became dark and gloomy, as a sense of impending doom loomed over them all.
Frederic entered the attic to check on Genevieve, and made a shocking discovery: a strange and monstrous creature had grown from her body, apparently a spawn of the Dark Side. The creature attacked Frederic. He managed to kill it, but Genevieve used the distraction to escape, exiting the castle and fleeing into the woods. Though Frederic and Max searched for her, she eluded them. Not long after her disappearance, a child was found dead in the nearby village of Prynne. For the past several decades, the Citadel had maintained a cold and distant relationship with the denizens of Prynne, which had once been under the thrall of the voivode who built the castle. But with the death of an innocent, the tenuous peace between the two communities crumbled. The villagers hired hunters to exterminate the vampires.
It was a slaughter. The hunters broke into the Citadel, killing everyone they found. Maxim managed to spirit Thelma away to safety, but seemingly no one else survived the massacre. Despite this, the nightly attacks on the village did not stop. Bizarre monsters began attacking the villagers. Genevieve was still out there, growing more powerful as she fed. The terrified villagers began deserting their homes, fleeing the malevolent being preying upon them.
By the time Thelma returned to her home, no one was left. The castle stood empty and the abandoned village was now occupied by bizarre monsters. She would later come to realize that the monsters were created by Genevieve, manifestations of her frenzied rage. In a final confrontation with her mother, Silas Westgard killed Genevieve in order to protect Thelma, putting an end to her reign of terror and granting her a release from her madness. But her death brought Thelma no solace, and she has not returned to the Citadel since...
