This Honor’s Fall, on Sunday morning, we will have a special reward for all the Family Heads… the High Lord Executioner will give them each a Memento… a large metal coin that we hope will be a new mainstay of the setting. Inspired by the John Wick movies, Memento will represent a different sort of economy in Requiem - one of favors and backed up by honor amongst thieves.
What Is a Memento
A Memento is a challenge coin. It’s a large coin with art on the front and back, that you carry with you at all times. Challenge coins have a largely undocumented history, but since World War II have become common in military units and other organizations as a way of showing membership. In our setting, they’re Mementos given out by the High Lord Executioner that represent favors, specifically favors that are more important than life itself. In our setting, the sanctity of Mementos are backed up by the Shadows of the Anastasia Family: they will make sure people honor their favors.
How Do You Get One
At Honor’s Fall, 13 Mementos will enter circulation (one to each Family Head). That means only a handful will end up in the hands of players; the NPCs who receive them will have the ability to give them to players over the course of the year. All Mementos come from the High Lord Executioner, who might give out a Memento to acknowledge tremendous and dangerous acts of service. If you have a Memento, you can always go to the High Lord Executioner to exchange it for a favor.
A person with a Memento can give it to another person; this represents owing them a favor. If someone gives you a Memento, the expectation is that they will risk their life to fulfill their promise. If the person is an NPC, you can expect they’ll honor the Memento. While player characters aren’t bound by the same rules as NPCs, we encourage them to treat their Mementos with the same gravity, and risk their lives to fulfill promises.
Using Mementos
To use a Memento, you hand it back to the person who gave it to you (or the High Lord Executioner) and ask for a favor. That person should then move heaven and earth to fulfill that favor. There are two rules:
As the Memento is an extension of the Treaty of the Fold, you can’t ask a person to violate the Treaty of the Fold (however, see “Murder Inc” below).
You can’t use it to change the consequences of Honor’s Fall: you can’t give someone a Memento to step down as a Family Head or High Lord Executioner, or renounce their Patron Family status.
There is a general guideline, however: you should ask for an act of service. This is something the other person is doing for you. Asking a person to give you 1,000 wagers is a gift, not an act of service; asking a person to cut off their hand is a punishment, not an act of service. While there is no rule against it, you can expect the NPCs (and hopefully some player characters) to scorn you for using a Memento in that manner. Mementos are about honor, not being clever.
A Memento For An Infection
It’s against the Treaty of the Fold to kill someone in Requiem, but Murder Inc has a special use for Mementos: one assassination costs one Memento. Not every hit gets you a marker… this is something akin to an Honor Hunt - a special job that absolutely has to be done. Remember, holding a Memento gives the person one favor from the High Lord Executioner, so if you get caught, you can turn in the Memento to receive amnesty for the kill. And if you get away with it… you have a very valuable Memento. With a Memento being worth an infection, NPCs with a focus on the Gravemind also acknowledge their value: you can likely get support from the Molons or Zodiac with a Memento.
To be clear, another example of a Memento for an Infection is stealing a Memento: if you steal a Memento, know this is an action that may lead to Infection loss. And remember, every coin is sequentially numbered, so it’s very easy to identify misbegotten Mementos.
Mementos In Role-Play
Mementos are new to Requiem, but assume the tradition of the Memento goes back some time - instead of “making it up,” assume that the High Lord Executioner is bringing back a tradition. We’re presenting the customs here so your character can know about it, but we’ll explore the return of Mementos through role-play.