Death Valley: the City and Its Districts

Death Valley is a gothic city in a far future where vampires rule. Here are its eight districts, what you will find in each, and which covens hold them tonight.

The city

Death Valley is the city at the heart of Vampire Genesis: Victorian gothic on the surface, far-future machinery underneath. In the game it is a real place, a pixel-art map that keeps its own clock and weather, where the sun sets, fog rolls in, blood rain falls and every lit window belongs to a player.

It is split into eight districts. Five can be claimed by covens through territory wars, two are neutral ground, and the High Court belongs to no one. Each district holds the game's places, so knowing the city is knowing the game.

The Pall

Vampires walk Death Valley by day because of the Pall, a man-made overcast the city keeps in its own sky. Great engines on the spires of the High Court breathe it out day and night, and the Council's airships drift through it, mending the thin places. Under it the sun never reaches the streets at full strength.

So daylight in the valley is grey and thin. It will not burn a vampire to ash, but it drains them. Most sleep through the hostile noon behind heavy curtains, and those who hunt by day find their strength sapped and their prey fiercer. Out in the far wards the Pall wears thin, and travellers tell of places past the Deadlands stranger still.

The Pall has moods of its own, and its leavings are the valley's strangest weather: ash that falls cold, a crimson mist that rolls down off the engines, and rain that comes down red. Nobody alive remembers the city's sky without it, though about once a day it wears thin for a while, and the streets empty until it knits back.

Who holds the city

Covens take districts by siege and have to defend them. This is who holds each one right now:

The eight districts

High Court Sovereign

The seat of power: tall spires and towers lit by candle and moonlight. The Vampire Council meets here, the clock tower that keeps the Event Calendar rises over it, and at the Patrons' Monument the richest vampires give away fortunes to have their names engraved. No coven can take the Court.

Places: Vampire Council, Patrons' Monument, Event Calendar, Question of the Day, The Jail

Night Market Claimable

Narrow streets of houses strung with lanterns, and the city's shops: the Market, the Dungeon Armory, the Materials Vendor, the Estate Agent and Sweeney Todd's barber shop, where vampires sit for their portraits, and Mrs Lovett's pie shop next door. Beneath its cobblestones hides the Black Market, open only to vampires whose coven commands the Night Market.

Places: Market, Dungeon Armory, Gift Shop, Materials Vendor, Black Market, Estate Agent, Sweeney Todd, Barber, Mrs Lovett's Pie Shop

The Vault Claimable

Stone towers and counting houses: the Blood Bank, the Death Valley Stock Exchange and the Master Smith, who repairs gear for less for the coven that holds the Vault.

Places: Blood Bank, Death Valley Stock Exchange, Master Smith

The Crucible Claimable

Forges and furnace light. Crafters work the Crafting and Vial Workshops, the Job Hall hands out work, and the Pitmaster waits deep beneath.

Places: Crafting Workshop, Vial Workshop, Job Hall, The Pitmaster

The Parish Claimable

Churches and spires with violet and crimson glass. Vampires marry in the Wedding Chapel, seek the High Priestess, and keep the Hall of Balance.

Places: Church, Hall of Balance, High Priestess

Covens Quarter Neutral

Where the covens keep their halls: Coven Alley, the Coven War Room and the siege lines. Covens plan their wars here, and the quarter itself stays neutral.

Places: Coven Alley, My Coven, Coven War Room, Territory Siege

Blood & Iron Claimable

The city's fighting edge, by the gate to the Hunting Grounds: the Insomniac Gym, the Midnight Clinic, the Hunter's Codex, the Familiars and their arena, Coterie Battles and the Warmaster.

Places: Insomniac Gym, Hunting Grounds, Hunter's Codex, Midnight Clinic, Familiars, Familiar Arena, Coterie Battles, The Warmaster

The Underbelly Neutral

The crowded lanes along the canal, low houses and flickering holo-signs. Every new vampire starts here in the Common Lair. Hellenbach's Parlour and the Hall of Fame are here too, the Ossuary's crypts open beneath it, and at the River Stairs vampires dredge the canal for lost things. It is neutral ground.

Places: Hellenbach's Parlour, Hall of Fame, Game Updates, The Ossuary

Beyond the walls

Past the Hunting Grounds gate in Blood & Iron lie the wilds, four wards of dead forest, barrow and deep dark where vampires hunt. The Hunting Guide covers them, and the events calendar shows how the city changes with the seasons.

Questions