"They’ve ruled the city for centuries. The ruthless kings and queens of a coveted kingdom, the Montagues and Capulets hail from their respective sides of town with jewel-laden fists and gold chalices overflowing with the fruits of labor best carried out in the dark. Their two empires, built on blood and honor and dripping with opulence, have coexisted in relative peace as fragile as the crystal glasses they sip from."
— Intro, from the main website
Di Verona
is a Tumblr-based roleplaying environment that takes the works of William Shakespeare and transports it to a lavish, modern day Verona overrun by crime, violence and warring mafia syndicates. On one side are the Capulets, arms dealers that run everything east of the Castelvecchio Bridge; on the other are the Montagues, drug traffickers who hold their power in the west. The source material name is used as a character's mafia alias, as opposed to the character's full given name (i.e. "Juliet", Juliana Capulet).
The roleplay was originally launched in November 2016 and ran until September 2017. It was revamped and reopened for a second round in August 2018 and is currently running at present.
A trope by any other name would smell as sweet...
- Action Mom: See Genevieve and Vivianne.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Like, literally everyone, e.g. Marcelo being a bloodthirsty war machine instead of Mercutio, a nihilistic, tongue-in-cheek nobleman, and the fact that nearly everyone is a murderer despite half the characters coming from the equivalent of a romantic comedy.
- Adaptation Expansion: DV 2.0, baby.
- Always Someone Better: Grace watching Rafaella fall in love with other people.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Vivianne, the night her engagement with Everett shatters.
- Anyone Can Die: Orpheus, Faron, Valentina, Cassian and Lillian. Everyone is fair game. No one is safe.
- Arranged Marriage: Verona is full of them. See: Pandora and Roman, Cassian and Lillian, Juliana and Priam.
- Artistic License – History: A lot of the roleplay is based off of modern-day Italy, but a lot of it is fabricated. Are you surprised? You shouldn't be. There are witches. Come on, guys.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Every month there's a decadent, spectacular event where all the Capulets and Montagues are invited... and inevitably everyone ends up getting shot. People continue to show up regardless, because they're all idiots.
- Bad Boss: Damiano for the Montagues, Cosimo for the Capulets.
- Believing Their Own Lies: The mafiosi who really do believe they're making Verona a better city. Matthias, Marcelo, Katarina and others fall into this category.
- Benevolent Conspiracy: Lucien and the witches conspiring to rid the city of the mafia. After the witches' deaths, Lucien conspiring with Isabella.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Catherine snaps and tortures Santino when she discovers he tortured Theodora.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Zhangs, and the entire drama between the late Howard, Cristian, Genevieve and Henry. Also could include the Daly-Cravens.
- Bizarre and Improbable Ballistics: Badass shots and crazy knife throws with have all the fictional pizzazz you could want from a gunslinging mafia plot. Physics optional.
- Cain and Abel: Easton is currently plotting to murder Everett for the family inheritance.
- Christianity is Catholic: Catholic aesthetic, Catholic metaphors, Catholic guilt. Oh my god. So much Catholic guilt.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Where to even start...
- Celeste was kidnapped and tortured by the Capulets.
- Valentine tortured Catherine who tortured Santino who tortured Theodora.
- Orion tortured Marcelo, overseen by Vivianne.
- Tiberius tortured Paola.
- Rafaella was kidnapped and tortured by the Montagues.
- Color Motif: Red and gold (Montague) versus blue and silver (Capulet).
- The Consigliere: Literally. Alexander for the Montagues, undecided for the Capulets.
- Corruption of a Minor:
- Cyrus. Grows up in Verona and is sent to Cape Town to be sheltered from the mob, but becomes involved in criminal activity regardless. Returns to Verona and is now an emissary despite the protests of his mother.
- Catherine. Joins the mafia for her father, slowly becomes more morally grey, violent, and calloused as time progresses.
- Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!: It's lavish, it's sexy, and everyone is the worst.
- The Don: Need we say more? Again, Damiano and Cosimo.
- Everybody Smokes: And if they don't, they're probably going to end up trying it eventually.
- Everyone Is Armed: No matter where they are, what is happening, SOMEONE has a gun.
- Handicapped Badass: Primarily Ronan, who's diagnosed with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. Matthias, temporarily, when he was shot in the back of the knee.
- Happier Times Montage: All of those heart-wrenching flashback threads. You know who you are.
- The Hecate Sisters: The witches: Circe, Hecate and Medea.
- In Love with the Mark: Paola, when she attempted to get closer to Marcelo in the hopes of finding more information about Gabriele. Vivianne, when she was assigned to Everett as his mark and ended up in a seven-year relationship instead.
- Initiation Ceremony: At the Capulet Anniversary, Cosimo makes the initiates stab Valentina one by one to prove their loyalty and initiative in the mob.
- The Mafia: What it says on the tin, people.
- Mafia Princess: Juliana, whose label is La Principessa.
- Mind Screw: Everyone thinks the Capulets killed Alvise... until we find out that it was actually Henry... until we find out that it was actually Don Capulet, who'd drugged Henry alongside Rafaella, and masterminded the entire thing.
- Mob War: The main plot of the roleplay, a war that's spanned for generations between the Capulets and Montagues.
- The Mole: Valentina, when she masqueraded as a Capulet despite her Montague loyalties.
- Moral Myopia: Many of the Capulets and Montagues have no qualms killing, torturing and drugging their enemies, but when the same happens to their loved ones, they're horribly outraged.
- Naïve Newcomer: Heloise, freshly arrived in Verona. Tomas, before he became disillusioned.
- Nepotism: Juliana and Roman's roles being handed to them by their parents; Rafaella receiving the role of consigliera.
- Neutral No Longer: Paola, who went from neutral to Montague initiate in a bid to find more about Gabriele.
- Nice Mean And In Between: Bellamy, Marcelo and Roman, respectively.
- Nouveau Riche: Castora, after coming into her inheritance. The Falcos, too.
- Parental Abandonment: Vivianne sent Cyrus away for safekeeping in South Africa for nearly a decade. Castora's father abandoned her when she was eight to focus on other criminal ventures and never contacted the family again.
- Parental Favoritism: Louis Daly dotes on Catherine, and the Craven parents clearly favor Everett over Easton.
- Passing the Torch: It's understood that the respective mafia bosses plan to one day pass down the capofamiglia position to their children. Or at least, it's that way for the Capulets; Roman's on thin ice right now.
- Passion Play: Valentina is crucified during the Capulet Anniversary.
- Police Are Useless: They do literally nothing. Call 113 and nothing will happen
- Put on a Bus: Lawrence being shipped off to Russia
- Rags to Riches: Castora becomes a socialite overnight after being gifted with a filthy rich inheritance.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Montagues are associated with the color red, and are characterized as hot-headed and passionate. The Capulets are associated with the color blue, and are characterized as cool-tempered and cunning.
- Riddle Me This: Lucien uses riddles, telephone scrambles, and other cryptography in his communications as a witch. Daphne led Alexander on a game of cat-and-mouse riddles through Verona under the alias Lachesis.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Horatio, after he was caught helping Bunny up during La Purga, fled to Spain and hasn't been heard from since.
- Share Phrase: "Got your six," the hello and goodbye that Halcyon and Everett use.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Guess. Just take a wild guess.
- Team Dad: Everett and half the 20-year-olds in Verona. Lucien and Heloise.
- We Used to Be Friends: Lucien and Everett, Matthias and Vivianne.
- Would Hurt a Child: Harriet loses her son to gun violence during a skirmish between the mobs.
