Louisiana: The Vampiric State of America

[LoA]

Alright, two things that need to be firmly established up front. Number one: Gothic Horror is not, nor has ever been my forte. Number two is my sister is a recovering Twitard, and much of this setting is going to be a personal vendetta against Edward Cullen and the horrifying precedent for which Stephanie Meyers set forth.

So these are my basic ideas, and of course the beautifully twisted people on this forum are free to give their more warranted opinions for this setting.

To say that things were going poorly for the Southern Confederacy in the year of our lord 1864 would be a statement of the most gross underestimation imaginable. That year was when things would take a fateful turn of the most dire and critical circumstances of fantasy and horror. Louisiana would soon become the epicenter of the most ghoulish and satanic of activities involving beast-like creatures that were once only thought to have been the product of the most dark and irreverent mythology. The tale tells that when the Governor of Louisiana was in dire straights following "unwarranted" pressures from the Confederate Government. OF what these pressures entailed will probably never come to surface, as most conspirators are probably long dead. During such time, the Governor was seduced into compliance by the most devilish and wicked of all of Eve's daughters. A woman of supposed French immigration, her only given alias was Madame Coldesang, a supposed nickname given to her by the Cajun and Creoles. No one knows the exact details of the covenant, but supposedly this Countess offered assured victory from the Union in exchange for an unknown price. The Governors (hopefully reluctant) compliance is self evident, as soon afterward, the shadows began to engulf the once fair state of Louisiana, even going so far as to molest and dominate in lands that reach around the surrounding states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Mississippi. From this point, intelligence is next to impossible to extradite out of the damned land. All that can be gathered is that Creatures of once fabled status, known to the liberally literate as "Vampires", have taken control of the daily affairs of Louisiana. God help us all.

It's the year 1910, and Louisiana has been turned into a nightmarish hellscape, and the citizens (atleast those higher on the food chain) couldn't be happier with it. The Vampiric Overlords have turned Louisiana into what could best be described as an eternal night, and have placed themselves on top of the food chain. However as power hungry as they are, they understand the importance of maintaining a delicate balance. The Vampires are not the only creatures of darkness in this realm, and if they are to keep them satisfied they'ed better do their jobs right, and of course theirs the matter of humans. With the supply of humans being limited their were two ways they could extract blood, either one, keep kidnapping humans from America and incite the Wrath of America (the Shadow Walls have their limits after all), or institute a "Blood Tax" that keeps a blood based economy between lesser vampires and Humans functional. The latter was chosen, and the humans enjoy a certain degree of autonomy as a result. The Vampire Lords also allow a certain degree of sunlight into

[Steerpike]

I assume Louisiana is still a slave state in this timeline. New Orleans was the biggest slave market in America and slavery was an absolutely massive part of the state's economy.

Actually, a huge question here is whether the vampires have recaptured New Orleans from the Union, who took it in 1862. There there were "two Louisianas" throghout much of the Civil War since the Union-occupied parts of Louisiana were declared a part of the United States rather than simply occupied Confederate territory. If the Union has lost New Orleans, that changes the whole tide of the war enormously. If it's 1910 I assume they have retaken it by now?

If vampiric Louisiana keeps slavery, and especially if they retake New Orleans, I can see a lot of vampires just feeding on slaves. Free citizens might still have the Blood Tax (for a really good version of this idea check out The Scar), but slaves seem like a "good" option for the vampire bloody supply. Horrible, of course, but so was slavery.

[Ghostman]

If vampiric Louisiana keeps slavery, and especially if they retake New Orleans, I can see a lot of vampires just feeding on slaves. Free citizens might still have the Blood Tax (for a really good version of this idea  check out The Scar), but slaves seem like a "good" option for the vampire bloody supply. Horrible, of course, but so was slavery.

They'd probably end up with a system where major slave owners use their slaves to provide the blood tax not only for themselves, but also on behalf of other free citizens (who thus become indebted to these patrons) - this would also lead to the slave owners becoming sort of inofficial middlemen handling all relations between humans and their vampire overlords.

[LoA]

If vampiric Louisiana keeps slavery, and especially if they retake New Orleans, I can see a lot of vampires just feeding on slaves. Free citizens might still have the Blood Tax (for a really good version of this idea  check out The Scar), but slaves seem like a "good" option for the vampire bloody supply. Horrible, of course, but so was slavery.

They'd probably end up with a system where major slave owners use their slaves to provide the blood tax not only for themselves, but also on behalf of other free citizens (who thus become indebted to these patrons) - this would also lead to the slave owners becoming sort of inofficial middlemen handling all relations between humans and their vampire overlords.

See this is why I posted. I'm going to read a more thourough history of Louisiana before I get beck to writing this. But yeah, a vampiric hierarchy is what I was looking for. I was also thinking about throwing in some other gothic creatures for the fun of it. The more interesting idea I had was that Vampires can create were-men, and in Louisiana they made a pack of Were-Alligators that act as a secret police in the Bayous.

There is an insulating layer of cosmic darkness (or whatever you want to call it) that separates Lousiana from the rest of the world. This has kept the US from reclaiming it from the dark powers that be.

[Steerpike]

Can the vampires use the darkness to expand their territory?

[LoA]

Can the vampires use the darkness to expand their territory?

I'm thinking not, or at least not in the United States The oath that was made only applies to Louisiana. There are some rules to this whole thing, and the only way to expand Louisiana's territory is through war. Why fight the Americans on a home front, and fight in a war they could easily lose? Their has been talk of the Vampiric Lords figuring out a way to expand into the Caribbean. There is a very real conspiratorial fear on the American end of Vampiric sleeper agents in Cuba, and possibly Jamaica.

[Steerpike]

So here's a fun idea: when the veil of darkness falls, it falls on both Louisianas, the parts controlled by the Confederacy and by the Union. Vampires take back New Orleans, but there are Union survivors trapped in the city. It's now years later, but there's a kind of anti-vampire resistance founded by the former Union soldiers in New Orleans and elsewhere.