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123-458: During the early modern period , the name grimalkin – and cats in general – became associated with the devil and witchcraft . Women tried as witches in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries were often accused of having a familiar , frequently a grimalkin. Beware the Cat was published in 1570 by William Baldwin . The novel is a story of talking cats, and part of it relates

246-445: A cult classic and a "flawed masterpiece"; when Paradox Interactive acquired the series, they had considered Bloodlines the "crown jewel" of World of Darkness , and something they knew from the start that they wanted to bring back with a sequel . World of Darkness has been critically well received, with several of its games having won or been nominated for awards, and with Vampire: The Masquerade having been inducted into

369-609: A "Grey Malkin" (as of an exotic cat breed) is the eponymous subject of the serial story The Riddle of the Gray Malkin , starting with Part 1 in Issue #1899 (August, 2021) of the Australian published edition of The Phantom comic series. A cat familiar named “Grimalkin” is the watch cat of Dr. Julian Karswell in the 1957 film Curse of the Demon directed by Jacques Tourneur. It normally looked like

492-471: A "crude and disrespectful" way, Paradox Interactive integrated White Wolf Publishing directly into the parent company, made changes to its leadership, suspended sales and printings of the books, and halted its development and publishing of World of Darkness games. The material was removed from the books, and Vampire: The Masquerade development was moved to the licensee Modiphius Entertainment and collaborators including Onyx Path Publishing. Starting with

615-502: A cat called Graymalk is the companion or familiar of a Witch known as Crazy Jill. In the 2023 launched MMO Palia , there is the species of the Grimalkin. They came to the world of Palia several generations ago, presumably from another planet. They are cat-like creatures with four ears and are depicted as cunning beings living in a clan society. Children are separated from their parents at an early age and must find their own way to make

738-534: A character interpreted as being a pedophile , leading to accusations that they were catering to neo-Nazi groups. White Wolf Publishing denied that this was their intention, and apologized. Following the use of the real-world anti-gay purges in Chechnya as the backdrop for fictional events in Vampire: The Masquerade sourcebooks, in what Paradox Interactive's vice president of business development described as

861-462: A collectible card game on their own, Rage , based on Werewolf: The Apocalypse , from 1995 to 1996, which was even more successful than The Eternal Struggle ; Five Rings Publishing licensed it, and continued producing it in 1998–1999. Two other Vampire: The Masquerade card games, Vendetta and Rivals , were released in 2021 by Horrible Guild and Renegade Game Studios, respectively. A story-based board game , Vampire: The Masquerade – Chapters ,

984-408: A connection between China's urgency for new discoveries being weaker than Europe's and China's inability to capitalize on its early advantages. Ronan believes that China's Confucian bureaucracy and traditions led to China not having a scientific revolution, which led China to have fewer scientists to break the existing orthodoxies, like Galileo Galilei. Despite inventing gunpowder in the 9th century, it

1107-505: A crisis, and by the mid-15th century, crashed. The silver imports helped fill the void left by the broken paper money system, which helps explain why the value of silver in China was twice as high as the value of silver in Spain during the end of the 16th century. China under the later Ming dynasty became isolated, prohibiting the construction of ocean going sea vessels. Despite isolationist policies

1230-626: A founder of modern political science . Machiavelli is most famous for a short political treatise, The Prince , a work of realist political theory . The Swiss Paracelsus (1493–1541) is associated with a medical revolution while the Anglo-Irish Robert Boyle was one of the founders of modern chemistry. In visual arts, notable representatives included the "three giants of the High Renaissance", namely Leonardo da Vinci , Michelangelo , and Raphael , Albrecht Dürer (often considered

1353-501: A large focus on lore and overarching narrative, whereas Chronicles of Darkness 's setting has no such narrative and presents the details of its setting as optional. The series has been well received critically for its setting, writing, and art direction, and has won or been nominated for awards including the Origins Award . It has also been commercially successful, with millions of game books sold; by 2001, Vampire: The Masquerade

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1476-496: A largely bloodless coup. Yi Seong-gye moved the capital of Korea to the location of modern-day Seoul. The dynasty was heavily influenced by Confucianism, which also played a large role to shaping Korea's strong cultural identity. King Sejong the Great (1418–1450), one of the only two kings in Korea's history to earn the title of great in their posthumous titles, reclaimed Korean territory to

1599-469: A living. Therefore, they are often active in criminal guilds and mostly lead a life underground. In Palia, the Grimalkin are the only non-native species before humans that are allowed to use magic without the threat of punishment. The most famous representative of the Grimalkin in Palia is Zeki. Early modern period The early modern period is a historical period that is part of, or (depending on

1722-576: A mage tradition in Mage: The Ascension . The rights to Ars Magica were sold to Wizards of the Coast in 1994, and the histories of the games were separated. Rein-Hagen constantly moved on to designing new games after finishing one, designing all the original five games except Mage: The Ascension , which was designed by White Wolf Publishing's founders, brothers Stewart and Steve Wieck , and Chris Earley; as such, new staff were brought in to manage

1845-465: A new model of role-playing games with a historical setting based on previous games, resulting in Vampire: The Dark Ages (1996), Werewolf: The Wild West (1997), and Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade (1998), of which only Vampire: The Dark Ages sold well. This led to the cancellation of the underperforming Wraith line, with the release of the historical-setting Wraith: The Great War and

1968-459: A result, the tax revenues collected by the samurai landowners were worth less and less over time. This often led to numerous confrontations between noble but impoverished samurai and well-to-do peasants. None, however, proved compelling enough to seriously challenge the established order until the arrival of foreign powers. In 1392, General Yi Seong-gye established the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) with

2091-526: A small housecat, but had the ability to transform into a large jaguar to attack intruders. Grimalkin is the name of a mysterious black cat in the game Cat Cafe Manager. In Bruva Alfabusa 's "Hunter: The Parenting" webseries based on the World of Darkness setting, 'Grimaline' is the name of a side-character, which is a name derived from Grimalkin. In Roger Zelazny 's story A Night in the Lonesome October ,

2214-416: A standout compared to previous "lackluster" World of Darkness novels. New World of Darkness novelizations started to disappear around 2006, but have since resumed. The series has been adapted into comics, sometimes published in the World of Darkness tabletop game books, but also as comic books, including Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse lines published by Moonstone Books in

2337-766: A time of political and economic change, as a result of mechanization in society, the American Revolution , and the first French Revolution ; other factors included the redrawing of the map of Europe by the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna and the peace established by the Second Treaty of Paris , which ended the Napoleonic Wars. In the Americas, pre-Columbian peoples had built a large and varied civilization, including

2460-424: Is a series of tabletop role-playing games , originally created by Mark Rein-Hagen for White Wolf Publishing . It began as an annual line of five games in 1991–1995, with Vampire: The Masquerade , Werewolf: The Apocalypse , Mage: The Ascension , Wraith: The Oblivion , and Changeling: The Dreaming , along with off-shoots based on these. The series ended in 2004, and the reboot Chronicles of Darkness

2583-582: Is depicted as a cruel torturer who uses a large pair of scissors to take the thumb bones of her enemies. Her main role is as a close ally and mentor of the main character, Thomas Ward. A faery cat named Grimalkin appears in Julie Kagawa ' s book series The Iron Fey Series . He has similarities to the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland The Grimalkin are an anthropomorphic feline race in

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2706-659: Is in development by Flyos Games. A large number of World of Darkness novels and anthologies have been published, starting with the Werewolf: The Apocalypse anthology Drums Around the Fire in 1993, and were described by What Do I Read Next? A Reader's Guide to Current Genre Fiction as "old-fashioned adventures" in the style of pulp fiction . The books were popular and helped White Wolf Publishing grow, and were described as leading among horror novelizations by The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror in 1996, but were in

2829-749: Is usually seen to span from the start of the 15th century, through the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries, until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century. The early modern period is taken to end with the French Revolution , the Napoleonic Wars , and the Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire at the Congress of Vienna . At the end of the early modern period,

2952-703: The Ni No Kuni franchise. In Wicked (Maguire novel) , the main character Elphaba has a pet cat named Grimalkin while staying in the Emerald City . A cat named Grimalkin is a companion to Sham and Agba in Marguerite Henry 's Newbery Medal children's novel King of the Wind . A cat named Grimalkin is mentioned as a deceased former companion to Elaine in Anna Biller 's 2016 film The Love Witch . A cat identified as

3075-617: The shōguns of the Tokugawa clan . The period gets its name from the capital city, Edo , now called Tokyo. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo Castle from 1603 until 1868, when it was abolished during the Meiji Restoration in the late Edo period (often called the Late Tokugawa shogunate ). Society in the Japanese " Tokugawa period " ( Edo society ), unlike the shogunates before it,

3198-654: The Aztec Empire , the Inca civilization , the Maya civilization and its cities, and the Muisca . The European colonization of the Americas began during the early modern period, as did the establishment of European trading hubs in Asia and Africa, which contributed to the spread of Christianity around the world. The rise of sustained contacts between previously isolated parts of the globe, in particular

3321-462: The British and Russian empires had emerged as world powers from the multipolar contest of colonial empires , while the three great Asian empires of the early modern period, Ottoman Turkey , Mughal India and Qing China , all entered a period of stagnation or decline. When gunpowder was introduced to Europe, it was immediately used almost exclusively in weapons and explosives for warfare. Though it

3444-588: The Clanbook series, describing vampire clans, and the Kithbook line, covering types of fae. The games in the original series are set in a shared universe, also named the World of Darkness, which is a dark, gothic - punk interpretation of the real world, rife with corruption. In it, supernatural beings such as vampires, mages, and werewolves exist in secrecy, influencing humanity and clashing against each other; players take

3567-887: The Columbian Exchange that linked the Old World and the New World , greatly altered the human environment. Notably, the Atlantic slave trade and colonization of Native Americans began during this period. The Ottoman Empire conquered Southeastern Europe, and parts of West Asia and North Africa. In the Islamic world , after the fall of the Timurid Renaissance , powers such as the Ottoman, Suri , Safavid , and Mughal empires grew in strength (three of which are known as gunpowder empires for

3690-470: The Durrani Empire . The Songhai Empire took control of the trans-Saharan trade at the beginning of the modern era. It seized Timbuktu in 1468 and Jenne in 1473, building the regime on trade revenues and the cooperation of Muslim merchants. The empire eventually made Islam the official religion, built mosques, and brought Muslim scholars to Gao . Many major events caused Europe to change around

3813-618: The Jurchens . When Beijing was captured by Li Zicheng 's peasant rebels in 1644, the Chongzhen Emperor , the last Ming emperor, committed suicide. The Manchus then allied with former Ming general Wu Sangui and seized control of Beijing , which became the new capital of the Qing dynasty. The Manchus adopted the Confucian norms of traditional Chinese government in their rule of China proper . Schoppa,

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3936-576: The Malay Peninsula , Borneo , and eastern Indonesia, though the effectiveness of this influence remains debated. Majapahit struggled to control the rising Sultanate of Malacca , which dominated Muslim Malay settlements in Phuket, Satun, Pattani, and Sumatra. The Portuguese invaded Malacca's capital in 1511, and by 1528, the Sultanate of Johor was established by a Malaccan prince to succeed Malacca. During

4059-823: The Mataram Sultanate was the dominant power in Maritime Southeast Asia. The early modern period experienced an influx of European traders and missionaries into the region. In Early Modern times, the major nations of East Asia attempted to pursue a course of isolationism from the outside world but this policy was not always enforced uniformly or successfully. However, by the end of the Early Modern Period, China, Korea and Japan were mostly closed and uninterested in Europeans, even while trading relationships grew in port cities such as Guangzhou and Dejima . Around

4182-522: The Old or Classic World of Darkness and the New World of Darkness . Onyx Path Publishing's in-development Vampire: The Masquerade 4th Edition , which they had announced only a few months earlier, was cancelled following this, as Paradox Interactive planned to publish their own fifth edition. The Paradox Interactive incarnation of White Wolf Publishing released the fifth edition of Vampire: The Masquerade in 2018, which included references to neo-Nazis and

4305-463: The Origins Award hall of fame. The series has also been highly successful financially, primarily in the United States, with over three million game books sold by the late 1990s; around 1995, new World of Darkness releases were frequently top sellers, making White Wolf the second biggest publisher of tabletop role-playing games at the time after TSR, Inc. , and by 2001, Vampire: The Masquerade

4428-667: The Peace of Westphalia . Along with the European colonization of the Americas , this period also contained the Commercial Revolution and the Golden Age of Piracy . The globalization of the period can be seen in the medieval North Italian city-states and maritime republics , particularly Genoa , Venice , and Milan . Russia reached the Pacific coast in 1647 and consolidated its control over

4551-536: The Portuguese on Tanegashima Isle in 1543, the Japanese adopted several of the technologies and cultural practices of their visitors, whether in the military area (the arquebus , European-style cuirasses, European ships), religion ( Christianity ), decorative art, language (integration to Japanese of a Western vocabulary ) and culinary: the Portuguese introduced tempura and valuable refined sugar. Central government

4674-591: The Russian Far East in the 19th century. The Great Divergence took place as Western Europe greatly surpassed China in technology and per capita wealth. As the Age of Revolution dawned, beginning with revolts in America and France, political changes were then pushed forward in other countries partly as a result of upheavals of the Napoleonic Wars and their impact on thought and thinking, from concepts from nationalism to organizing armies. The early period ended in

4797-661: The Sharifan dynasty . The Safavid Empire was a great Shia Persianate empire after the Islamic conquest of Persia and the establishment of Islam, marking an important point in the history of Islam in the east. The Safavid dynasty was founded about 1501. From their base in Ardabil , the Safavids established control over all of Persia and reasserted the Iranian identity of the region, thus becoming

4920-498: The Siege of Belgrade (1456) , led by John Hunyadi and Giovanni da Capistrano . The siege culminated in a counterattack that forced Sultan Mehmet II to retreat, with the victory being credited with deciding the fate of Christendom . The noon bell, ordered by Pope Callixtus III, commemorates this victory across the Christian world to this day. World of Darkness World of Darkness

5043-618: The Third Battle of Panipat halted their expansion in 1761. The development of New Imperialism saw the conquest of nearly all eastern hemisphere territories by colonial powers. The commercial colonization of India commenced in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey , when the Nawab of Bengal surrendered his dominions to the British East India Company, in 1765, when the company was granted

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5166-498: The World of Darkness team at Paradox Interactive plans the setting's overarching narrative, and coordinates with external developers, such as those of World of Darkness video game adaptations, to ensure cohesion. In addition to the tabletop games, the series has expanded into other media, including video games, card and board games, the Mind's Eye Theatre series of live action role-playing games , novels, fiction anthologies, comics,

5289-696: The diwani , or the right to collect revenue, in Bengal and Bihar , or in 1772, when the company established a capital in Calcutta , appointed its first Governor-General , Warren Hastings , and became directly involved in governance. The Maratha Confederacy, following the Anglo-Maratha wars , eventually lost to the British East India Company in 1818 with the Third Anglo-Maratha War . Rule by

5412-414: The ethnically Manchu Qing dynasty , which would be the last dynasty of China . The Qing ruled from 1644 to 1912, with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. During its reign, the Qing dynasty adopted many of the outward features of Chinese culture in establishing its rule, but did not necessarily "assimilate", instead adopting a more universalist style of governance. The Manchus were formerly known as

5535-408: The historian ) immediately preceded, the modern period , with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity . There is no exact date that marks the beginning or end of the period and its extent may vary depending on the area of history being studied. In general, the early modern period is considered to have lasted from around the start of the 16th century to

5658-414: The 16th century. Leaders also supported direct sea trade with Europe, particularly England and The Netherlands, which sought Persian carpet, silk, and textiles. Other exports were horses, goat hair, pearls, and an inedible bitter almond hadam-talka used as a spice in India. The main imports were spice, textiles (woolens from Europe, cotton from Gujarat), metals, coffee, and sugar. Despite their demise in 1722,

5781-430: The 17th century, Korea was invaded again, this time by Manchurians, who would later take over China as the Qing Dynasty. In 1637, King Injo was forced to surrender to the Qing forces, and was ordered to send princesses as concubines to the Qing Prince Dorgon . The rise of the Mughal Empire is usually dated from 1526, around the end of the Middle Ages. It was an Islamic Persianate imperial power that ruled most of

5904-414: The 1850s onwards, the pace of colonization shifted to a significantly higher gear. At the start of the modern era, the Spice Route between India and China crossed Majapahit , an archipelagic empire based on the island of Java . It was the last of the major Hindu empires of Maritime Southeast Asia and is considered one of the greatest states in Indonesian history. Its influence extended to Sumatra ,

6027-422: The 1960's Batman TV Series . Grimalkin is a character in The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher . A malk, cat-like faerie acting as a servant to Mab. She uses him as an interpreter, with Grimalkin speaking to other people in her stead while she remains silent. He first appears in Summer Knight . Grimalkin is the most powerful witch assassin in the popular children's series, Spook's , by Joseph Delaney . She

6150-455: The 1996 television series Kindred: The Embraced , the actual play web series L.A. by Night (2018), Seattle by Night (2019), Vein Pursuit (2020), and The Nightlife (2021), and an in-development film and television franchise. Although World of Darkness multimedia projects slowed down under CCP Games, production began anew after Paradox Interactive acquired the series. A collectible card game based on Vampire: The Masquerade

6273-504: The 1999 supplement Ends of Empire , which functioned as a finale to the game's metaplot. In 1997, White Wolf Publishing developed another model, where they would release a game that required another World of Darkness rule book to play, which thereby would get the same attention as a new stand-alone core game without requiring them to further support it with supplements; this was used for 1997's Mummy Second Edition and its 2001 re-release Mummy: The Resurrection , and 1998's Kindred of

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6396-540: The 2020 book Vampire: The Masquerade Companion , Paradox Interactive introduced further changes to the handling of the series: headed by creative lead Justin Achilli , they would develop core game books internally, while collaborator Renegade Game Studios would develop other game material. Along with this reorganization, Paradox Interactive announced that World of Darkness development from then on would involve sensitivity reviewers to ensure respectful portrayal of themes and topics. In addition to tabletop game development,

6519-500: The Asia-themed Kindred of the East and the historical Vampire: The Dark Ages . The 2004 reboot series, Chronicles of Darkness , consists of eleven game lines: Vampire: The Requiem , Werewolf: The Forsaken , Mage: The Awakening , Promethean: The Created , Changeling: The Lost , Hunter: The Vigil , Geist: The Sin-Eaters , Mummy: The Curse , Demon: The Descent , Beast: The Primordial , and Deviant: The Renegades . Most of these are based on concepts from

6642-418: The Bold (or Rash) to his enemies, His early death was a pivotal moment in European history. Charles has often been regarded as the last representative of the feudal spirit, although in administrative affairs, he introduced remarkable modernizing innovations. Upon his death, Charles left an unmarried nineteen-year-old daughter, Mary of Burgundy , as his heir. Her marriage would have enormous implications for

6765-468: The Company lasted until 1858, when, after the Indian rebellion of 1857 and following the Government of India Act 1858 , the British government assumed the task of directly administering India in the new British Raj . In 1819, Stamford Raffles established Singapore as a key trading post for Britain in its rivalry with the Dutch. However, the rivalry cooled in 1824 when an Anglo-Dutch treaty demarcated their respective interests in Southeast Asia. From

6888-414: The Dutch, while Japan engaged in the Nanban trade after the arrival of the first European Portuguese during the Azuchi–Momoyama period . Meanwhile, in Southeast Asia, the Toungoo Empire along with Ayutthaya experienced a golden age and ruled a large extent of Mainland Southeast Asia, with the Nguyen and Trinh lords de facto ruling the south and north of present-day Vietnam respectively, whereas

7011-438: The East . The two final major modern-day-setting World of Darkness role-playing games, Hunter: The Reckoning and Demon: The Fallen , followed in 1999 and 2002, after which White Wolf Publishing returned to historical-setting games with Victorian Age: Vampire and Dark Ages: Vampire , a new edition of Vampire: The Dark Ages , and a line of Dark Ages games based on other World of Darkness games that, like Kindred of

7134-484: The East and Mummy , required a main game's rule book to be played. A final game, Orpheus , was released in 2003 as a sequel to Wraith . In 2004, following dwindling sales, White Wolf Publishing ended the series with the major event Time of Judgment : a line of books that ended the overarching narratives of Vampire: The Masquerade , Werewolf: The Apocalypse , Mage: The Ascension , Changeling: The Dreaming , Demon: The Fallen , Hunter: The Reckoning , Kindred of

7257-485: The East , and Mummy: The Resurrection . Following this, White Wolf Publishing rebooted the series with the 2004 rulebook The World of Darkness , and released new games with updated Storytelling System gameplay rules and a new setting, beginning with Vampire: The Requiem in 2004 and Werewolf: The Forsaken and Mage: The Awakening in 2005. In 2006, the Icelandic video game developer CCP Games acquired White Wolf Publishing and their intellectual properties, with

7380-399: The East Asian sphere. In Japan, the Edo period from 1600 to 1868 is also referred to as the early modern period. In Korea, the early modern period is considered to have lasted from the rise of the Joseon Dynasty to the enthronement of King Gojong . By the 16th century, Asian economies under the Ming dynasty and Mughal Bengal were stimulated by trade with the Portuguese, the Spanish, and

7503-432: The Empire ) and France ensued, culminating in the Treaty of Senlis (1493) which gave the majority of Burgundian inheritance to the Habsburg (Mary already died in 1482). The rise of the Habsburg dynasty was a prime factor in the spreading of the Renaissance. In Central Europe, King Matthias Corvinus (1443–1490), a notable nation builder, conqueror (Hungary in his time was the most powerful in Central Europe ) and patron,

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7626-441: The Japanese cut off all trade with Macau , and the Dutch severed connections between Goa and Macau. The damage to the economy was compounded by the effects on agriculture of the incipient Little Ice Age , natural calamities, crop failure and sudden epidemics. The ensuing breakdown of authority and people's livelihoods allowed rebel leaders, such as Li Zicheng , to challenge Ming authority. The Ming dynasty fell around 1644 to

7749-497: The Ming economy still suffered from an inflation due to an overabundance of Spanish New World silver entering its economy through new European colonies such as Macau . Ming China was further strained by victorious but costly wars to protect Korea from Japanese Invasion . The European trade depression of the 1620s also hurt the Chinese economy, which sunk to the point where all of China's trading partners cut ties with them: Philip IV restricted shipments of exports from Acapulco ,

7872-480: The Safavids left their mark by establishing and spreading Shi'a Islam in major parts of the Caucasus and West Asia. In the 16th to early 18th centuries, Central Asia was under the rule of Uzbeks , and the far eastern portions were ruled by the local Pashtuns . Between the 15th and 16th centuries, various nomadic tribes arrived from the steppes, including the Kipchaks , Naimans , Kangly , Khongirad , and Manghuds . These groups were led by Muhammad Shaybani , who

7995-450: The Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne . The narrator questions if it's a cat looking at a mouse or the devil looking for a soul, in this case that of Judge Pyncheon. A grimalkin is also mentioned in Emily Brontë 's Wuthering Heights , who briefly sits on a bench next to Mr. Lockwood before being removed hastily by Joseph. The Anna Seward poem An Old Cat's Dying Solilioquy , published in The Gentleman's Magazine in 1792, contains

8118-414: The Swedish video game publisher Paradox Interactive . Following this, the rebooted World of Darkness series was renamed Chronicles of Darkness , while the original series remained as World of Darkness . This was done to prevent confusion among players over there being two series and settings with the same name: Prior to the renaming, the two had been distinguished from each other by being referred to as

8241-442: The area as Hindustan by the late 17th and the early 18th centuries. The empire dominated South Asia , becoming the largest global economy and manufacturing power, with a nominal GDP valued at a quarter of the global economy, superior than the combined GDP of Europe. The empire, prior to the death of the last prominent emperor Aurangzeb , was marked by a highly centralized administration connecting its different provinces . All

8364-410: The beginning of the ethnically Han Ming dynasty (1368–1644), China was leading the world in mathematics as well as science. However, Europe soon caught up to China's scientific and mathematical achievements and surpassed them. Many scholars have speculated about the reason behind China's lag in advancement. A historian named Colin Ronan claims that though there is no one specific answer, there must be

8487-409: The beginning of the modern period with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and later by various movements to reform the church (including Lutheran, Zwinglian, and Calvinist), followed by the Counter Reformation . The Hussite Crusades (1419–1434) involved military actions against the followers of Jan Hus in Bohemia , concluding with the Battle of Grotniki . These wars were notable for being among

8610-405: The character types, stripping the many vampire clans and werewolf tribes from the original series down to five each. The person leading campaigns – a role called gamemaster or dungeon master in other games – is called a storyteller in World of Darkness , highlighting how the series is more focused on collaborative storytelling than on combat or on players overcoming the game leader's challenges;

8733-399: The coming to power of Tokugawa Ieyasu after his victory over supporters of the Toyotomi clan at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. Tokugawa received the title of shōgun in 1603, establishing the Tokugawa shogunate . The Edo period from 1600 to 1868 characterized early modern Japan. The Tokugawa shogunate was a feudalist regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by

8856-427: The country, particularly smaller regions, daimyōs and samurai were more or less identical, since daimyōs might be trained as samurai, and samurai might act as local lords. Otherwise, the largely inflexible nature of this social stratification system unleashed disruptive forces over time. Taxes on the peasantry were set at fixed amounts which did not account for inflation or other changes in monetary value. As

8979-484: The country. Town markets mainly traded food, with some necessary manufactures such as pins or oil. In the 16th century the Ming dynasty flourished over maritime trade with the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch Empires. The trade brought in a massive amount of silver, which China at the time needed desperately. Prior to China's global trade, its economy ran on paper money. However, in the 14th century, China's paper money system suffered

9102-493: The early 2000s, and a Vampire: The Masquerade series published by Vault Comics since 2020. There are several video game adaptations of the series, based on Vampire: The Masquerade , Hunter: The Reckoning , Mage: The Ascension , Werewolf: The Apocalypse , and Wraith: The Oblivion . Critical reception of the games has varied, ranging from average to positive, with 2004's Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines standing out, being described by video game publications as

9225-426: The early Ming dynasty, urbanization increased as the population grew and as the division of labor grew more complex. Large urban centers, such as Nanjing and Beijing , also contributed to the growth of private industry. In particular, small-scale industries grew up, often specializing in paper, silk, cotton, and porcelain goods. For the most part, however, relatively small urban centers with markets proliferated around

9348-630: The early modern era, the Ottoman Empire enjoyed an expansion and consolidation of power, leading to a Pax Ottomana . This was perhaps the golden age of the empire. The Ottomans expanded southwest into North Africa while battling with the re-emergent Persian Shi'a Safavid Empire to the east. In the Ottoman sphere, the Turks seized Egypt in 1517 and established the regencies of Algeria , Tunisia , and Tripolitania (between 1519 and 1551), Morocco remaining an independent Arabized Berber state under

9471-528: The early modern period was its spreading globalizing character. New economies and institutions emerged, becoming more sophisticated and globally articulated over the course of the period. The early modern period also included the rise of the dominance of mercantilism as an economic theory. Other notable trends of the period include the development of experimental science , increasingly rapid technological progress , secularized civic politics, accelerated travel due to improvements in mapping and ship design, and

9594-533: The editor of The Columbia Guide to Modern Chinese History argues, "A date around 1780 as the beginning of modern China is thus closer to what we know today as historical 'reality'. It also allows us to have a better baseline to understand the precipitous decline of the Chinese polity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries." The Sengoku period that began around 1467 and lasted around a century consisted of several continually "warring states". Following contact with

9717-515: The emergence of nation states . The early modern period is a subdivision of the most recent of the three major periods of European history : antiquity , the Middle Ages and the modern period. The term "early modern" was first proposed by medieval historian Lynn Thorndike in his 1926 work A Short History of Civilization as a broader alternative to the Renaissance . It was first picked up within

9840-459: The end not financially successful, due to book chains closing mall stores in 1995–1996 and returning a large amount of unsold books to the publisher. By 1998, What Do I Read Next? considered the novelizations to have improved in quality, citing White Wolf's move to commissioning established horror and fantasy writers; in 2002, Black Gate considered Andrew Bates's Year of the Scarab Trilogy

9963-692: The end of the Crusades and of religious unity in Western Europe under the Roman Catholic Church . The old order was destabilized by the Protestant Reformation , which caused a backlash that expanded the Inquisition and sparked the disastrous European wars of religion , which included the especially bloody Thirty Years' War and ended with the establishment of the modern international system in

10086-459: The field of economic history during the 1940s and 1950s and gradually spread to other historians in the following decades and became widely known among scholars during the 1990s. At the onset of the early modern period, trends in various regions of the world represented a shift away from medieval modes of organization, politically and economically. Feudalism declined in Europe, and Christendom saw

10209-547: The first European conflicts where hand-held gunpowder weapons, like muskets , played a decisive role. The Taborite faction of Hussite warriors, primarily infantry, decisively defeated larger armies with heavily armored knights, contributing to the infantry revolution. However, the Hussite Crusades were ultimately inconclusive. The final crusade, the Crusade of 1456, was organized to counter the advancing Ottoman Empire and lift

10332-468: The first in a planned series of five annual games, Vampire: The Masquerade was released in 1991, and was followed by Werewolf: The Apocalypse (1992), Mage: The Ascension (1993), Wraith: The Oblivion (1994), and Changeling: The Dreaming (1995), all set in the same world and using the Storyteller rule system. This rapid expansion with new games, although successful and capturing players' and

10455-510: The first native dynasty since the Sassanids to establish a unified Iranian state. Problematic for the Safavids was the powerful Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans, a Sunni dynasty, fought several campaigns against the Safavids . What fueled the growth of Safavid economy was its position between the burgeoning civilizations of Europe to its west and Islamic Central Asia to its east and north. The Silk Road , which led from Europe to East Asia, revived in

10578-539: The game lines, including Andrew Greenberg for Vampire and Bill Bridges for Werewolf , who came to define the look and feel of the series. An economic downturn for White Wolf Publishing in 1995–1996, caused in part by bookstore returns for World of Darkness novelizations, led to a falling out between Rein-Hagen and the Wieck brothers, after which Rein-Hagen left the company. As the original planned five annual games had already been published, White Wolf Publishing next devised

10701-680: The global inventor of the mechanical printing press . Nicolaus Copernicus formulated a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology (1543), which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe. His book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium ( On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres ) began modern astronomy and sparked the Scientific Revolution . Another notable individual was Machiavelli , an Italian political philosopher, considered

10824-594: The greatest artist of Northern Renaissance), Titian from the Venetian school , Peter Paul Rubens of the Flemish Baroque traditions. Famous composers included Guillaume Du Fay , Heinrich Isaac , Josquin des Prez , Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina , Claudio Monteverdi , Jean-Baptiste Lully . Among the notable royalty of the time was Charles the Bold (1433–1477), the last Valois Duke of Burgundy , known as Charles

10947-481: The historic era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not uniform across Europe, this is a general use of the term. As a cultural movement, it encompassed a rebellion of learning based on classical sources, the development of linear perspective in painting, and gradual but widespread educational reform. Johannes Gutenberg is credited as the first European to use movable type printing , around 1439, and as

11070-430: The industry's interest, led to often flawed first editions, prompting several revised, new editions of the core rulebooks between 1992–2000, resulting in Mage: The Ascension morphing a lot between its editions as its themes changed. Ars Magica was initially tied to World of Darkness and used as a historical backdrop: its House Tremere was reused as a vampire clan in Vampire: The Masquerade , and its Order of Hermes as

11193-442: The information as optional and something one may choose whether to include in one's game. The supplements often take the form of a book describing a location as it is portrayed in the setting, such as Vampire: The Masquerade 's series of By Night books and Werewolf: The Apocalypse 's Rage Across series. Several splatbooks – sourcebooks detailing character classes or organizations – have also been published, such as

11316-434: The intention of developing an online video game based on World of Darkness . Business continued as usual until 2009, when CCP Games started transferring White Wolf Publishing staff to video game development and slowed down tabletop game production. The CCP Games incarnation of White Wolf Publishing published its last print products for distribution in 2011, with Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition , an update of

11439-407: The last medieval epic poet ) was actually a chief modernizing force of the time (whose reform initiatives led to Europe-wide revolutions in the areas of warfare and communications, among others ), who broke the back of the knight class (causing many to become robber barons) and had personal conflicts with the three other men on the matter of the knight's status. Christianity was challenged at

11562-577: The line "Before thou lay’st an aged grimalkin low". A cat named Grimalkin appears in Shirley Jackson's short story "The Man in the Woods". It is soon ousted in a brief catfight by the new, unnamed black cat who has just arrived in the heels of the young protagonist Christopher. The new cat assumes the name of Grimalkin. A grimalkin is mentioned in the Episode "The Joke's on Catwoman" (Episode 17 of Season 3) of

11685-533: The metaplot when running games. In his book series Designers & Dragons , Shannon Appelcline considered the series' focus on metaplot to likely be what had caused sales to dwindle prior to the reboot, as players would have stopped playing the games when feeling they could not keep up with the story. Reactions to the Chronicles of Darkness setting have been divided, with some preferring the original series' setting for being more fantastical and grand in scale, and some

11808-467: The military technology that enabled them). Particularly in the Indian subcontinent , Mughal architecture , culture , and art reached their zenith, while the empire itself is believed to have had the world's largest economy, bigger than the entirety of Western Europe and worth 25% of global GDP. By the mid-18th century, India was a major proto-industrializing region. Various Chinese dynasties controlled

11931-639: The north and created the Korean alphabet . During the end of the 16th century, Korea was invaded twice by Japan, first in 1592 and again in 1597. Japan failed both times due to Admiral Yi Sun-sin , Korea's revered naval genius, who led the Korean Navy using advanced metal clad ships called turtle ships . Because the ships were armed with cannons, Admiral Yi's navy was able to demolish the Japanese invading fleets, destroying hundreds of ships in Japan's second invasion. During

12054-465: The original series, directly as with Vampire: The Requiem and Vampire: The Masquerade , or indirectly as with Geist and Wraith , which both deal with spirits. Both series are supported with supplementary sourcebooks detailing backgrounds and character types, which can be used when creating adventures for one's players; pre-made adventure modules have also occasionally been published. The Chronicles of Darkness sourcebooks in particular present

12177-499: The point where Tor.com and Backstab recommended using them even when running non- Chronicles of Darkness games. Fenix appreciated the speed of creating characters and of playing, comparing the system of dice pools and dots favorably to number-based role-playing game systems. In his 2023 book Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground , RPG historian Stu Horvath noted, "For all of the innovation and great ideas on display across all of

12300-527: The political balance of Europe. Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor secured the match for his son, the future Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor , with the aid of Mary's stepmother, Margaret. In 1477, the territory of the Duchy of Burgundy was annexed by France. In the same year, Mary married Maximilian, Archduke of Austria . A conflict between the Burgundian side (Maximilian brought with himself almost no resources from

12423-580: The pre-reboot game. Amid mass layoffs at CCP Games the same year, leaving few resources to produce tabletop games, White Wolf Publishing's creative director Rich Thomas formed Onyx Path Publishing and licensed both of the World of Darkness series, continuing support for them and producing new material. This included further anniversary editions, and new games like Mummy: The Curse (2013) and Demon: The Descent (2014); these projects were frequently financed through crowdfunding. White Wolf Publishing and its intellectual properties were sold again in 2015, to

12546-439: The reboot's more grounded setting. The original series' rules were criticized by Arcane as, although generally easy to understand, often having confusing and unclear combat rules, while Tor.com described them as having a recurring problem with statistical anomalies. The updated gameplay rules of Chronicles of Darkness were however generally seen as a big improvement, and seen by critics as fluid, elegant and open-ended, to

12669-446: The roles of these beings, who belong to various classes such as Vampire: The Masquerade 's vampire clans, and Werewolf: The Apocalypse 's werewolf tribes. The series as a whole is themed around personal horror, while individual games have their own themes, such as redemption and humanity in Vampire: The Masquerade , and hubris in Mage: The Ascension . The series is known for its focus on metaplot – an overarching story for

12792-508: The rules exist to give players a framework for telling stories, and players are rewarded by being part of the setting rather than by escalating power levels. Chronicles of Darkness has a larger focus on making the gameplay systems work together, enabling easier cross-over play between the games. The World of Darkness series began development in 1990 by game designer Mark Rein-Hagen at White Wolf Publishing , as his next major role-playing game project after 1987's Ars Magica . Designed as

12915-591: The series' "fabulous artwork" as one of its major strengths, Fenix praising the series' mood and the quality of the writing, and Realms of Fantasy appreciating the broad scope and the familiarity to players due to being based on the real world. Shadis described the setting as "truly unique", bringing something never before seen to games. Some publications found the setting too crowded or defined, however; Diehard GameFan thought this took away from opportunities for horror, and Tor.com thought it left little room to tell new stories, often choosing to ignore

13038-453: The setting that advances as new game books are released. Whereas the original series has a large focus on lore and background information for its setting, the urban horror Chronicles of Darkness setting does not to the same extent; it does not have a metaplot, and it presents any setting information as strictly optional to include in campaigns. With its lesser focus on lore and less defined world, Chronicles of Darkness also streamlines

13161-560: The significant monuments of the Mughals, their most visible legacy, date to this period which was characterized by the expansion of Persian cultural influence in the Indian subcontinent, with brilliant literary, artistic, and architectural results. The Maratha Confederacy , founded in the southwest of present-day India, surpassed the Mughals as the dominant power in India from 1740 and rapidly expanded until

13284-603: The start of the 16th century, starting with the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the fall of Muslim Spain and the discovery of the Americas in 1492, and Martin Luther 's Protestant Reformation in 1517. In England the modern period is often dated to the start of the Tudor period with the victory of Henry VII over Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. Early modern European history

13407-438: The start of the 19th century (about 1500–1800). In a European context, it is defined as the period following the Middle Ages and preceding the advent of modernity; but the dates of these boundaries are far from universally agreed. In the context of global history , the early modern period is often used even in contexts where there is no equivalent "medieval" period. Various events and historical transitions have been proposed as

13530-428: The start of the early modern period, including the fall of Constantinople in 1453 , the start of the Renaissance , the end of the Crusades and the beginning of the Age of Discovery . Its end is often marked by the French Revolution , and sometimes also the American Revolution or Napoleon 's rise to power . Historians in recent decades have argued that, from a worldwide standpoint, the most important feature of

13653-536: The story of the Grimalkin's death. According to the editors of a modern edition, the story, and thus the name, originates with Baldwin in terms of being the earliest example known in print. It is also spelled Grimmalkin or Grimolochin. A cat named Grimalkin in William Shakespeare 's 1606 play Macbeth helped the Three Witches look into Macbeth 's future. A grimalkin appears in chapter 18 of The House of

13776-531: The time, making armor obsolete, and as a consequence the heavy musket as well. Although there is relatively little to no difference in design between arquebus and musket except in size and strength, it was the term musket which remained in use up into the 1800s. In the early modern period, the Holy Roman Empire was a union of territories in Central Europe under a Holy Roman Emperor the first of which

13899-580: Was Otto I . The last was Francis II , who abdicated and dissolved the Empire in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars . Despite its name, for much of its history the Empire did not include Rome within its borders. The Renaissance was a cultural movement that began in the 14th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to

14022-481: Was based on the strict class hierarchy originally established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi . The daimyōs (feudal lords) were at the top, followed by the warrior -caste of samurai , with the farmers , artisans , and traders ranking below. The country was strictly closed to foreigners with few exceptions with the Sakoku policy. Literacy among the Japanese people rose in the two centuries of isolation. In some parts of

14145-619: Was in Europe that the classic handheld firearms, matchlocks, were invented, with evidence of use around the 1480s. China was using the matchlocks by 1540, after the Portuguese brought their matchlocks to Japan in the early 1500s. China during the Ming Dynasty established a bureau to maintain its calendar. The bureau was necessary because the calendars were linked to celestial phenomena and that needs regular maintenance because twelve lunar months have 344 or 355 days, so occasional leap months have to be added in order to maintain 365 days per year. In

14268-416: Was invented in China, gunpowder arrived in Europe already formulated for military use; European countries took advantage of this and were the first to create the classic firearms. The advances made in gunpowder and firearms was directly tied to the decline in the use of plate armor because of the inability of the armor to protect one from bullets. The musket was able to penetrate all forms of armor available at

14391-520: Was largely reestablished by Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the Azuchi–Momoyama period . Although a start date of 1573 is often given, in more broad terms, the period begins with Oda Nobunaga 's entry into Kyoto in 1568, when he led his army to the imperial capital in order to install Ashikaga Yoshiaki as the 15th, and ultimately final, shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate , and it lasts until

14514-412: Was launched the same year with a new line of games. In 2011, the original series was brought back, and the two have since been published concurrently. The games in the series have a shared setting , also named the World of Darkness, which is a dark, gothic - punk interpretation of the real world, where supernatural beings such as vampires and werewolves exist in secrecy. The original series' setting has

14637-443: Was released by Wizards of the Coast in 1994 as Jyhad , before being re-launched a year later as Vampire: The Eternal Struggle ; Wizards of the Coast continued publishing it until 1996, and then White Wolf took over, publishing it in 2000–2010. In 2018, Black Chantry Productions licensed The Eternal Struggle , reprinting old cards and continuing production of the game. Following The Eternal Struggle , White Wolf also published

14760-665: Was the Khan of the Uzbeks. The lineage of the Afghan Pashtuns stretches back to the Hotaki dynasty. Following Muslim Arab and Turkic conquests, Pashtun ghazis (warriors for the faith) invaded and conquered much of northern India during the Lodhi dynasty and Suri dynasty . Pashtun forces also invaded Persia, and the opposing forces were defeated in the Battle of Gulnabad . The Pashtuns later formed

14883-651: Was the first who introduced the Renaissance outside of Italy. In military area, he introduced the Black Army , one of the first standing armies in Europe and a remarkably modern force. Some noblemen from the generation that lived during this period have been attributed the moniker "the last knight", with the most notable being the above-mentioned Maximilian I (1459–1519), Chevalier de Bayard (1476–1524), Franz von Sickingen (1481–1523) and Götz von Berlichingen (1480–1562). Maximilian (although Claude Michaud opines that he could claim "last knight" status by virtue of being

15006-456: Was the second best selling tabletop role-playing game after TSR, Inc.'s Dungeons & Dragons . Onyx Path Publishing's crowdfunding campaigns for World of Darkness games and material have also been successful, particularly those for the original series, such as the anniversary editions of Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Mage: The Ascension . The series' setting, plot, and art direction have been well received, with Rue Morgue describing

15129-507: Was the second highest selling tabletop role-playing game after TSR, Inc. 's Dungeons & Dragons . The series has been adapted into other media, including the television series Kindred: The Embraced , actual play web series , novels and anthologies, comic books, card games, and a line of video games . The original World of Darkness series consists of eight core lines of role-playing games which were originally released from 1991 to 2002: As well as off-shoots based on these, such as

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