TEXT: live-action rules
  for playing vampires
  
  A Modern Gothic Live-Action Storytelling Game
  
  mind’s eye theatre: the requiem
  2
  CREDITS
  Concept and Design: Justin Achilli, Charles Bailey, Philippe Boulle, Carl Bowen, Bill Bridges, Dean Burnham, 
  John Chambers, Ken Cliffe, Conrad Hubbard, Mike Lee, Chris McDonough, Matthew McFarland, Ethan Skemp, 
  Alex Teodorescu-Badia, Richard Thomas, Mike Tinney, Aaron Voss, Stephan Wieck, Stewart Wieck, Peter Wood-
  worth and Frederick Yelk
  Vampire: The Requiem inspired by Vampire: The Masquerade
  Vampire: The Masquerade created by Mark Rein•Hagen
  Written by: Ari Marmell, Andrew J. Scott, Dean Shomshak, C. A. Suleiman, Alex Teodorescu-Badia and Peter 
  Woodworth
  Additional Material: White Wolf Game Studio
  World of Darkness created by Mark Rein•Hagen
  World of Darkness co-created by Stewart Wieck
  Developed by: Alex Teodorescu-Badia and Peter Woodworth 
  Editor: Carl Bowen
  Art Director: Pauline Benney
  Book Design: matt milberger
  Interior Art:  Samuel Araya, Aleksi Briclot, Avery Butterworth, Nils Hamm, Becky Jollensten, Brandon Kitk-
  ouski, Cosimo Lorenz Panchin, David Seeley, Chris Shy, Chad Michael Ward and Cathy Wilkins   
  Vampire: The Requiem Playtesters: Chastain Addington, Alan Alexander, Demian Anderson, Sara Anderson, 
  Nils-Johnson Andreasson, David Bergkvist, Kraig Blackwelder, James Luke Boswell, Cassandra Brackett, Ryan Brandos, 
  Daniel Byström, Ben Chism, James Comer, Chris Cowan, Tara De Blois, Corey Dixon, J. Entsminger, Gala Ferriere, 
  Kevan Forbes, Douglas A. Forsyth, James Ganong, Fred Grass, Jasmine Marie Gribble, Brent Halstead, Aaron Harmon, 
  Robert Holmberg, Conrad Hubbard, Julian Hubbard, Charles Kelley, Steve Kenson, Bishop Lewis, Terje Loklingholm, 
  Chad McGrath, Mario Meo, Krister M. Michl, Albert Mowatt, Robin Nair, Mike Nudd, Corey Ovendale, Matthew 
  Petosa, Chris Renfroe, Mattias Renmark, Steven Sharpe, Malcolm Sheppard, Kearsley Shieder-Wethy, Dean Shomshak, 
  Jeff Skagen, Justin Smith, Ted Sunnerton, Helen E. Taylor, Ph.D., Joseph Turner, Jarett Underwood, Rachel “Bunnie” 
  Winter, Jim Zubkavich, and the White Wolf Game Studio
  Camarilla Playtesters: Sean Alexander, April Asbury, Bex, Todd Branch, Joe Carron, Wes Contreras, Michael 
  Curnutt, Miguel Duran, Aaron Fenwick, Mark Lewis, Kevin Millard, Hugh Montgomerie, Silja Muller, Randy Ochs, 
  Charlie Rose, Guy Seggev, Jeremiah Spaulding, Nico van Aerde, Jason Walter, Eddy Webb
  Pete’s Playtesters: Scott Adams, Kevin Allen, Fletcher Bennett, Rich Brodsky, Greg Curley, Dan DiFlavis, Jim 
  Fillmore, Matt Florentine, Alyson Gaul, Lee Hefner, BJ Hinkle, James A. Hussiere, Scott Katinger, Frank Manna, 
  Dan Schermond, Megan Strittmatter, Tim Sullivan, Jackob Thurston, Tome Wilson.
  Prop Blood Recipe by: Kevin Allen
  © 2005 White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of the pub-
  lisher is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes of reviews, and for blank character sheets, which may be reproduced 
  for personal use only White Wolf, Vampire, World of Darkness, Vampire the Masquerade and Vampire the Requiem 
  are registered trademarks of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Storyteller System, Storytelling System, 
  Mind’s Eye Theatre, Requiem, Werewolf the Forsaken, Forsaken, Mage the Awakening, and Awakening are trademarks 
  of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. All characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted by White 
  Wolf Publishing, Inc. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned. 
  This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are ﬁ ction and intended for entertainment 
  purposes only. This book contains mature content. Reader discretion is advised. For a free White Wolf catalog call 1-800-454-WOLF. 
  Check out White Wolf online at:
  http://www.white-wolf.com/ and the global White Wolf live-action chronicle at http://camarilla.white-wolf.com
  PRINTED IN CANADA.
  
  TABLE OF CONTENTS
  CHAPTER ONE:
     SOCIETY OF THE DAMNED 
  8
  CHAPTER TWO:
     CHARACTER 
  110
  CHAPTER THREE:
     SPECIAL RULES AND SYSTEMS 
  216
  CHAPTER FOUR:
     STORYTELLING AND ANTAGONISTS 
  296
  APPENDIX:
     BLOODLINES 
  362
  
  mind’s eye theatre: the requiem • introduction
  4
  Vampires: blood-drinking creatures of the night. Horrors born of darkness, whose sole 
  purpose in life — unlife, actually — is to slake their unholy thirst on the blood of the living. 
  Without doubt, vampires are monsters.
  Monsters, though, need not always be unthinking, unfeeling terrors empty of remorse, or 
  even compassion or other human traits. Indeed, vampires can exceed their deathless curse, 
  themselves becoming antiheroes or even heroes.
  Then again, some vampires truly remain monsters.
  This is the purpose of The Requiem. What you hold in your hands is a Modern Gothic 
  Storytelling game, a live-action roleplaying game that allows you to build chronicles that explore 
  morality through the metaphor of vampirism. In The Requiem, you “play the monster,” and 
  what you do as that monster both makes for an interesting story and might even teach you a 
  little about your own values and those of your fellows.
  A MODERN-GOTHIC WORLD
  The setting of The Requiem borrows greatly from gothic literature, not the smallest amount 
  of which comes from the “set dressing” of the movement. Key to the literary gothic tradition 
  are the ideas of barbarism, corruption and medieval imagery. This World of Darkness can 
  be said to be our own seen through the looking glass darkly.
  With regard to barbarism, the world of the vampires is like our own, but with a signiﬁ cant 
  upturn in violence and decay. The streets are more brutal, with the desperate eyes of the un-
  fortunate ever watchful for someone more privileged from whom they can steal something to 
  make their own bleak lives more comfortable. Gangs are more active and violent; vagrants are 
  bolder or they obliviate themselves even more. Even those with vast resources are more fearful 
  of those who would harm them — or more jealous of those who rival their own wealth or power. 
  Their actions can turn ﬁ erce with the slightest provocation.
  Corruption goes hand in hand with the idea of barbarism. The world is nasty and brutish, and 
  anyone who can get ahead had best avail himself of the opportunity. This is a world of indulgent 
  clergy, avaricious businessmen, cops looking for a payoff and gangsters who have no other options 
  than crime. Even those who don’t ﬁ t into such neat iconic archetypes face corruption of their own, 
  such as an unwed mother who ﬁ nds herself addicted to drugs and sells her child for a few grams of 
  crank, or an otherwise honest journalist who ﬁ nds out that his brother has become a bloodthirsty 
  creature of darkness and must keep the secret for kinship’s sake.
  Medieval imagery adorns all of the visual elements of the setting, and it can even bleed over 
  into other aspects. Buildings soar heavenward, supported by ﬂ ying buttresses, gilded when the 
  architects can afford it and studded by gargoyles that scare away evil spirits that are all too real. 
  Streets have fallen into disrepair. Even cities themselves are like medieval bastions, isolated 
  from the outside world, xenophobic and cut off. Anachronisms abound, from antique deco-
  rations in otherwise ultramodern buildings to forgotten catacombs beneath bank vaults and 
  subway tunnels. Honest-to-goodness castles might exist in the World of Darkness where none 
  stand in the real world. Moss and vines cling everywhere. Torches and candles light hallways 
  and anterooms. Walls bear breaches, cracks or other signs of disrepair. Ars moriendi punctuate 
  works of art. A sense of dread and fear looms visibly on the face of every passerby.
  Is it so strange, then, to believe that such a world hosts the Damned, as well?
  Introduction
  No man ever became extremely wicked all at once.
  —Juvenal
  
  5
  A TIMELESS CURSE
  Most vampires believe that their kind didn’t just pop into existence one night to scare a cow-
  ering mortal populace. Most of the Kindred, as vampires call themselves, believe that vampires 
  have existed for as long as they have had men to prey upon, and that they have followed mortal 
  civilizations since humankind ﬁ rst formed them. Others believe in a vampiric genesis not unlike 
  that of Adam in the Bible, and that the Kindred have been chosen by whatever power makes the 
  decision to let them stalk the night. Still others believe that vampires are part of the natural but 
  hidden order of the world, attaching vampiric origins to pagan beliefs and ancient mythologies. 
  Many vampires don’t care at all, believing the mystery to be as demonstrably unknowable as the 
  question of mortal life’s origin. Whatever the case, whatever the truth, it is known that vampires 
  have preyed upon the world since ancient times. Kindred society’s admittedly fallible memory 
  marks the undead as active during the height of the Rome, if not before. Even those unreliable 
  stories suggest that Kindred activity might have existed further back in time.
  TRADITION AND BREAKING FROM IT
  The Kindred, the unique vampires of The Requiem, have certain differences from the 
  vampires you have encountered throughout literature and popular culture. This game assumes 
  that most stories involve a domain of vampires — a city’s Kindred population — as opposed to 
  the more solitary stalkers of seminal ﬁ ction. From the Dracula of Bram Stoker’s novel to Lord 
  Ruthven of John Polidori’s “The Vampyre,” the undead are often depicted as lone ﬁ gures. 
  On the other hand, the vampires beneath the Theatre des Vampyres in Anne Rice’s Vampire 
  Chronicles functioned as a group, as did The Lost Boys and the nomadic ﬁ ends of Near Dark.
  None of those visions of vampires really serves the purpose of The Requiem, however. Those 
  groups of vampires are inherently antagonistic in their stories, while the solitary vampires don’t 
  really accommodate the group dynamic of Storytelling games. As such, for the sake of the game, 
  we’ve adapted the cultural notions of the vampire to one more suited to a troupe of players. We’ve 
  added our own mythologies and social structures to the mix, the better to highlight the highs and 
  lows of the undead condition. Our — your — vampires have the selﬁ shness of the solitary predator, 
  but also the social urges of creatures who fear the malaise of being left to their own company for 
  eternity. The result is a conspiratorial blend of horror and suspense, a truly gothic mixture of mad-
  ness, corruption, sensuality, mistrust and violence, all set against a backdrop of livid moodiness.
  CLANS
  Each Kindred is a member of a clan. A clan is a group of vampires who all share common 
  characteristics. Popular Kindred mythology suggests that all vampires are assumed to have 
  descended from one common Kindred, the founder of that clan, though no one knows who 
  those founders might be. When a vampire Embraces a new Kindred, the progeny is of the 
  same clan as the progenitor. Certain “sub-clans” of vampires also exist, known as bloodlines, 
  but a vampire can never change her clan.
  COVENANTS
  Covenants are like clans in that they are distinctions of vampires. The difference between 
  clan and covenant, however, is that one chooses his covenant. If clan is family, covenant is 
  political, philosophical or even quasi-religious membership. Indeed, some vampires choose 
  to belong to no covenant at all, acknowledging no authority higher than themselves.
  MYTHS AND FACTS
  Where does The Requiem’s mythology diverge from popular belief? Where do the conceits 
  ring true? The following statements outline real-world legends of the undead, clarifying their 
  truth or falsity in the World of Darkness.
  a modern-gothic world • a timeless curse • tradition and breaking from it
  
  mind’s eye theatre: the requiem • introduction
  6
  Vampires must sustain themselves on the blood of the living: Fact. For the Kindred, the 
  act of feeding becomes highly sensual. The vessel feels ecstatic when it happens, and the 
  feeding vampire undergoes a heady rush as well. Certain vampires sustain their undeath 
  by drinking the blood of animals, but rarely for long, as either their tastes or the needs of 
  their cursed bodies force them to seek human blood.
  Vampires are “immortal”: Myth and fact. Although vampires do not appear to age, and 
  some survive for centuries, the Kindred use the word “undead” rather than “immortal.” 
  Vampirism is a curse, not a blessing. It does carry with it great power, but the state of be-
  ing a vampire also brings with it numerous detriments, not the least of which include the 
  internalized rage of the Beast and feeding on human blood.
  A vampire’s prey becomes a vampire: Myth. You do not necessarily become a vampire if 
  you’re bitten or killed by a vampire. It takes a conscious act of will, known as the Embrace, 
  to create a new vampire. Indeed, a vampire leaves little to mark her passing if she is careful. 
  All a vampire must do to hide the wound left by her feeding is to lick it when she’s done.
  Vampires have every manner of supernatural power, such as turning into animals, ﬂ y-
  ing and wielding the strength of a dozen men: Fact. While these powers are not universal, 
  vampires have unique abilities known as Disciplines, which can grant individual undead 
  capabilities such as these and more.
  Vampires can have sex: Fact. While the act of feeding replaces all physical urges, vampires 
  can still indulge in sex and even take pleasure from it. Curiously, however, the emotional 
  aspect of sex vanishes after the Embrace. A vampire might enjoy the physical sensation of 
  sex, but no more than she enjoys a particularly savory smell or the touch of a luxurious 
  fabric.
  A wooden stake destroys vampires: Myth. Vampires aren’t destroyed upon being staked, 
  they’re held in stasis. A vampire’s body slowly withers and turns inward while trapped in 
  this state, desiccating and becoming ever more corpselike.
  Vampires don’t show up like normal people on camera or in mirrors: Fact. Vampires 
  show up with their features obscured in photographic media (including video footage) and 
  in mirrors. They can temporarily counteract this effect, but the “default” is a sort of oc-
  clusion. The same is not true for voice recordings; vampires’ voices are captured normally 
  on those.
  Sunlight burns vampires: Fact. As part of their curse, vampires recoil at the touch of 
  the sun, its vital rays scorching their undead ﬂ esh. Vampires typically spend the daylight 
  hours in the cold sleep of undeath, and only the most resolute can shake off the weight of 
  the day’s forced slumber for even a short time.
  Garlic and running water repels vampires: Myth. Such notions are nothing more than 
  old wives’ tales, cultural biases or perhaps the banes of certain bloodlines of Kindred.
  Vampires are repulsed by crosses and other holy symbols: Myth — almost. While such 
  is not generally the case, the devout sometimes do affect the Kindred with miraculous 
  aspects of their faith.
  Vampires’ souls are as dead as their bodies after they become undead: Myth and fact. 
  While a vampire might believe that he feels an emotion, what he actually feels is the echo 
  of mortal emotions that the remnants of his soul apply to his current experience. That is, a 
  vampire who feels angry might indeed be angry at the subject of his ire, but the resonance 
  of the emotion actually comes from some situation the vampire dealt with in life. This 
  condition results in many strange situations. A vampire who has never experienced a given 
  emotion before becoming Kindred might be emotionally confused, while a vampiric artist 
  might create a work of “art” that is awkwardly devoid of any true emotional insight.
  
  7
  THEME AND MOOD
  While each story you and your troupe tells will have its own unique theme and mood, 
  The Requiem itself has a certain theme and mood built into it. While you can certainly 
  play against type or push the overarching themes and moods into the background, they are 
  present nevertheless.
  THEME
  Many Kindred deﬁ ne their existence as an unanswerable riddle: “A Beast I am, lest a Beast 
  I become.” This idea makes morality the core theme of Requiem. What will a vampire do 
  now that she’s become a vampire? Will she exult in the Beast’s passions? Will she ﬁ ght to 
  retain her ties to what she knew in her mortal life? Is her unlife a lie, played out falsely under 
  the pretense that she never became a vampire? Is her unlife a hellish maraud through the 
  dark side of evil wiles indulged? Most Kindred’s unlives fall somewhere in between. That’s 
  the crux of the riddle, however. How much leeway does a vampire allow her Beast in order 
  to acknowledge it and yet keep it from overwhelming her?
  MOOD
  In some senses, The Requiem’s mood corresponds to key elements of the setting. The 
  world is grim and brooding, with shadows hiding ugly secrets and terrible threats. Play this up 
  as much as you wish — make the game a fount of boundless angst if you choose. Secrets and 
  espionage are part of the setting too, though, so a conspiratorial mood is also very appropri-
  ate. A blend of the two serves the game best. A certain amount of woe regarding the Kindred 
  condition highlights the game’s personal horror and gothic roots, while schemes and secrets 
  give the world a degree of creeping horror above the personal level, revealing the true depth 
  of its malignance bit by bit, much like a darkening sky blanketing the world in night.
  HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
  This book is broken up into numerous chapters, each covering a certain set of topics that re-
  late to the information as it will be used over the course of the game and in your chronicle.
  This Introduction exists to give you a quick bit of exposure to the world of The Requiem’s 
  Kindred, as well as a few ideas on what the game is designed to do.
  Chapter One concerns itself with Kindred society and the world in which the Kindred hide. 
  It examines everything from covenants and customs to domain politics and hoary secrets of 
  the Danse Macabre, the never-ending struggle between Kindred for supremacy.
  Aspects of character are the focus of Chapter Two, from details regarding creation of an 
  alternate persona to the characteristics of the clans to the mechanics of the Kindred’s unholy 
  powers themselves.
  The game’s systems and card-drawing concerns make up Chapter Three. These mechanics 
  govern all of the aspects of chance that occur during the course of a story, handling everything 
  from characters threatened by frenzies spawned by the Beast to suffering physical damage to 
  losing one’s Morality and sanity, and even more.
  Advice is offered to the Storyteller in Chapter Four. This includes everything from sugges-
  tions on how to handle the setting to considerations to make when structuring a chronicle. 
  The chapter includes a variety of pre-made antagonists for use in stories as well.
  The Appendix comprises bloodlines and new Disciplines. One of the features of The 
  Requiem is a customizable lineage system by which characters can create their own unique 
  broods and families of vampires, as well as the unique powers to which they lay claim. This 
  chapter includes systems by which players and Storytellers can generate new ones.
  theme and mood • how to use this book
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  8
  
  9
  Chapter One: 
  Society of 
  the Damned
  Suddenly to realise that one is sitting, 
  damned, among the other damned — it is a most 
  disquieting experience; so disquieting that most 
  of us react to it by immediately plunging more 
  deeply into our particular damnation in the hope, 
  generally realized, that we may be able, at least 
  for a time, to stiﬂ e our revolutionary knowledge.
  —Aldous Huxley, Grey Eminence 
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  10
  Try though they might, the Kindred are not, and never can be, truly a part of mortal society. 
  Regardless of their feelings, their wishes or their intentions, vampires are always separate from 
  those around them. They are wolves amid the sheep, and their very nature prevents them from 
  ever forgetting or ignoring that fact. No matter how much one of the Kindred might love a 
  mortal and wish to stay with him, the Blood calls constantly. The Beast threatens a frenzy that 
  all too often results in the violent death of those held dear. The Kindred inability to withstand 
  the gaze of the sun separates them irrevocably from the greater portion of the culture, the 
  society and the life that surrounds them. They are provincial creatures who think almost solely 
  on a local level, because the greater portion of the world is well beyond their reach.
  Mortals create communities, almost despite themselves. They portion off nations, celebrat-
  ing cultures that have evolved over centuries, if not millennia. They are all part of something 
  greater than themselves, even if they fail — or choose not — to acknowledge it.
  The Kindred, however, are bound to the cities that the kine — the living — have created, 
  and each of those cities is a distinct domain. The Kindred have no nations, no overarching 
  government; the local ruler is the only ruler. Although a vampire retains a sense of identity 
  or memories from her mortal life, she does not belong. She is no longer a part of whatever 
  greater body with which she identiﬁ ed. Rather, any loyalty or sense of belonging she has is 
  limited to local circles: fealty to the Prince, membership in a covenant or clan. These are the 
  only connections the Kindred can truly maintain, the only cultures of which they are truly 
  part, and it is upon them that the entirety of their society is built.
  The Embrace
  It begins with death — a torrid rush of blood spilling from the throat or wrist of the victim. 
  At the right moment, the vampire tears her own skin and places a few drops of precious Vitae 
  on the lips of the victim. The dark magic works its blasphemous miracle then. The vessel 
  dies… yet he doesn’t. While his natural processes cease, his sire’s Vitae infuses him with the 
  force that sustains him beyond death. This is the Embrace, the ﬁ rst step from existence as a 
  mortal into the modern-gothic world of the Damned.
  What is the secret? What causes vampires to rise from beyond their natural life, to consume 
  the blood of their erstwhile mortal fellows? Even the most erudite of the vampiric race do 
  not know. Origin stories trace vampirism back to the Bible, to pagan ways and witchcraft, to 
  the infamous Vlad Dracul, to the Devil himself and to any number of other sources. Every 
  culture in the world has vampires in its mythology, and likely among its populace as well. 
  “The Kindred condition” is an utter mystery, with an unknown number of members but no 
  shortage of would-be prophets and philosophers with their own dogmas, theories and heresies 
  as to the meaning or genesis of damnation.
  If anything is certain, it’s that the Embrace is not some kind of blessed immortality. Exis-
  tence as a vampire is a curse, and quite possibly a curse handed down by God Himself. While 
  being one of the undead certainly has its advantages — Disciplines (the mystical and eldritch 
  powers of the Damned), deathlessness, the potential to transcend mortal boundaries — the 
  drawbacks easily outweigh them. The price of undeath is steep, as foolish romantics infatu-
  ated by the myth of the vampire occasionally learn. One is forever apart from the world into 
  which he was born, unconsciously shunned by it. Indeed, he can only pretend to be a part of 
  it, and even that for only a short while, as the vampiric state forces him to prey on that world. 
  It is his sustenance now, rather than his company. Never again shall a vampire see the light of 
  
  11
  the sun without feeling it burn him. Never again will he know the vital pleasures of life. The 
  Requiem is a forced ostracism that can literally last forever. No wonder, then, that so many of 
  the Kindred blind themselves to it with their petty schemes and rivalries. Their endless war, 
  the Danse Macabre, might be the only way to escape their damnation, and even then, it is only 
  a distraction and not true redemption.
  THE REQUIEM
  It is curious, if not unﬁ tting, that the most common name for unlife among the Kindred 
  is a musical reference, the Requiem. The word itself means a mass or musical composition 
  for the dead. In some cases, a requiem is a dirge. In other cases, it is a chant intended for the 
  dead’s repose. In still others, it is a gesture of respect.
  No surprise, then, that the word has taken on its own meaning among the Kindred. The 
  word has connotations of its own, suggesting that the Kindred must have adopted it in a 
  more enlightened or sophisticated time. Tonight, however, all but the most cloistered Kindred 
  knows that the word bears its own specialized meaning. The Requiem is the Kindred’s unlife, 
  the grand, doomed waltz through which every one of their kind dances every night, urged on 
  by metaphorical strains of music that represent the hidden powers that guide, manipulate 
  and inspire them.
  BUT WHY?
  The reasons for Embracing are many and varied, and every Kindred who exists in the 
  world tonight probably has a host of her own for why she’d Embrace a childe. First and 
  foremost is loneliness, as becoming Kindred imposes an isolation that many vampires seek 
  to combat. Of course, the Embrace creates another Kindred — who is then himself alien 
  and isolated, continuing the desperate, doomed cycle. Some Kindred Embrace to preserve 
  a mortal’s talents, only to ﬁ nd that the Embrace renders that childe unable to reach the 
  apex of her living abilities. Other Kindred Embrace out of a sense of duty or to prevent 
  disaster, such as when accidentally killing a vessel and then “saving” her with the curse 
  of undeath — whose existence will then possibly doom other mortals on down the road. 
  The trend is inevitable but irreversible. Despite its intentions, the Embrace never causes 
  anything but damnation.
  Whatever the reason, no vampire is Embraced recklessly or without some degree of 
  thought on the part of the vampire making a new childe. Creating a Kindred requires an act 
  of immense will, and even a vampire who says she created a childe “just because” is certainly 
  hiding her reasons.
  THE DANSE MACABRE
  If an individual vampire’s existence is the Requiem, the way she interacts with her fellow 
  Kindred is the Danse Macabre, through which any number of individual Requiems play, 
  conﬂ ict and resolve.
  To many Kindred, the Danse Macabre has negative connotations. Relationships between 
  Kindred are forced, at best, as vampires are seemingly designed to be solitary predators. 
  The Embrace doesn’t completely deny the urges the individual knew as a mortal, however. 
  Inevitably over the course of undeath, all but the most withdrawn yearn for contact among 
  those who might be able to understand them. Is it so unnatural to seek fellowship among 
  others who have experienced the same pains and sorrows inﬂ icted upon them (and inﬂ icted 
  by them) throughout the Requiem?
  Indeed, the notion has undeniable risks. Although the Embrace doesn’t strip the Man from 
  the individual, it leaves the Beast — the urges and wiles of the facet of personality inside all 
  the embrace • the requiem • the danse macabre
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  12
  Kindred that thrives on blood and doesn’t care who it hurts. When Kindred come in contact, 
  they innately fear or see each other as a challenge. Indeed, all Kindred vie for limited resources 
  and secrecy, and other Kindred threaten both. In a world where Kindred must skulk and kill to 
  survive, how trustworthy is any other vampire?
  The Requiem weighs on the Kindred soul. When one knows he will never truly die, he has 
  no sense of urgency. Over the course of forever, what can sustain a vampire’s interest, or even 
  a Kindred of a century of unlife? In the interests of ﬁ ghting off their own timeless malaise, the 
  Kindred plot and scheme against each other. Once they’ve exhausted all of the sources that 
  legitimately brought joy or interest to their unlives, many turn to treachery in hopes of provok-
  ing any response at all from their jaded emotions.
  This last, then, is the true Danse Macabre, the “dance of death” orchestrated by vampires 
  to elevate themselves above their peers. It is a dangerous dance, punctuated by vampiric 
  traps, scheming elders, ambitious neonates and ruses that can take decades, centuries or even 
  millennia to come to fruition. The Kindred potentially have forever to concoct their master 
  plans and hatch their vendettas — they have no need to rush. For many vampires, revenge 
  is best when left to grow cold, prompting another turn in the Danse Macabre in response. 
  Thus the cycle continues indeﬁ nitely.
  The Danse Macabre is equally a saving grace and a resignation to damnation, for it distracts 
  the Kindred from their nihilistic, introspective Requiems, but only by causing conﬂ ict that 
  jeopardizes those very Requiems.
  CLANS
  A clan is a vampiric lineage. The Kindred acknowledge ﬁ ve clans, and all Kindred belong 
  to one clan or another. The most widely accepted theory regarding clans is that they are like 
  “families” of vampires. Members of clans all inherit certain mystical commonalities, from 
  acumen with certain Disciplines to traditional shortcomings for their particular type. One of 
  the failings of the “families” theory is that none of the clan progenitors are reliably known, 
  and only a few are guessed at with any degree of conﬁ dence. Certainly, the clans came from 
  
  13
  somewhere — but where? In a modern context, only two Kindred are known to have no clan, 
  and they haven’t reliably demonstrated that they’ve been able to Embrace over the course of 
  their Requiems. These vampires, the legendary Dracula and the Roman centurion Longinus 
  are responsible for the creation of certain covenants, not clans, but might they be on a path 
  toward clan creation themselves? And if the origin of clans doesn’t lie with certain progenitor 
  vampires, from what source do clans originate? If Longinus and Dracula have no clan, who’s 
  to say that other, more secretive Kindred haven’t also suffered the curse in the same way?
  Tonight, the inﬂ uence of the clans is felt almost everywhere. The ﬁ ve clans have a presence 
  throughout the Western world, or so it is believed. The Kindred deﬁ nitely came to the New 
  World along with the early colonists, suggesting that these vampires are European in origin, 
  or that they grew out of the civilizations that ﬁ rst populated the world and followed the move-
  ments of mortal men. Oral histories and sparse records indicate that some vampiric presence 
  existed among the tribal cultures of North America before its colonization, but whether these 
  creatures were members of clans or solitary, unique beings — or even if they were truly vampires 
  at all — cannot be determined. While information on the Far East is ﬂ eeting, members of the 
  ﬁ ve clans are known to be active there, as they are in Africa, South America and much of the 
  Middle East. Still, little is known about how indigenous culture shapes the understanding of 
  clans in all these regions, and anyone attempting to study the phenomenon is probably wise to 
  take no presuppositions with him.
  A bloodline is like a clan, but its characteristics are not so universal. It might help to think 
  of a bloodline as a “sub-clan.” Not all vampires are members of bloodlines. Each bloodline 
  has a parent clan from which it distinctly diverges, yet claims descent. Kindred scholars have 
  no reliable estimates of how many bloodlines exist in the world tonight, because bloodlines 
  can arise at any time and few of them would stand up to be counted, even if some formal 
  roster of them were made.
  DAEVA
  The Daeva are emotional, sensual and desirable. Sexual predators and sensual hedonists 
  alike populate the ranks of these succubi-seducers.
  Among Kindred historians, the Daeva are suspected of being one of the oldest clans of 
  the Damned. Their moniker suggests a Persian mythological origin, and their abilities sug-
  gest they could be related to the demons from which they take their name. A few ancient 
  writings suggest that the progenitor of the line was a Kindred known as Aesma Daeva, but 
  vampiric scholars debate whether this individual was actually undead or the writings merely 
  draw comparisons to the Persian demon of lust and anger.
  The name “Daeva” predates the commonly accepted origin point of Kindred society, 
  generally understood to parallel the ascension of Rome. Certainly, some incarnation of the 
  Daeva existed before then, but whether they had their own society or were merely a rabble 
  of lust-crazed revenants is unknown. After the rise of Rome, the Daeva had become an inex-
  tricable part of Kindred society, and vampiric history shows that they were very active in the 
  Camarilla, the ﬁ rst known social contract of the undead.
  GANGREL
  The Gangrel are primal, hardy and savage. They embody the myths of vampires turning 
  into animals or otherwise changing form (into wolves, bats or mist, for example).
  Many Kindred believe that the Gangrel clan is an old one, but due to the Gangrel’s bestial 
  nature, few records exist that can connect their origins to any speciﬁ c time period. While the 
  murky pre-history of the Kindred contains any number of legends about bestial vampires, not 
  all of these tales coincide with the hallmarks of the Gangrel.
  clans • daeva • gangrel
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  14
  Geographically, the Gangrel seem to hail from what is tonight Eastern Europe, where 
  they came in contact with the nascent Camarilla and were reluctantly drawn into that soci-
  ety. As Rome’s holdings moved westward, so, too did the Camarilla and thus the Gangrel. 
  Historians also theorize strong Gangrel roots in what is modern Scandinavia. Since those 
  early nights of society, the Gangrel have chosen the outlying borders of domains for their 
  own territories. As such, Gangrel are often seen as pioneers, eking out an existence where 
  domains will later form, or as scavengers, clinging desperately to territories and refusing to 
  yield once domains have fallen.
  MEKHET
  The Mekhet are quick, discreet and wise. Legends of vampires hiding in shadows, prey-
  ing secretly on victims and even learning secrets no one else is supposed to know probably 
  refer to Mekhet activities.
  Some of the oldest Kindred known to the vampiric world are members of Clan Mekhet, 
  though most spend their time harrowed by the cold sleep known as torpor. While most are 
  predisposed toward solitude, some have traveled with mortal armies and are even suspected 
  of forming undead mercenary factions of their own. As with most other clans, nothing 
  veriﬁ able is known about the progenitor of the Mekhet line. Many stories depict reclusive 
  Mekhet cult leaders or masters of schools of stealthy soldiers, so the clan might have origins 
  that abut the Pharaohs or philosopher-kings of the Classical or Ancient worlds.
  The name Mekhet itself gives some clues as to the clan’s origin, as it is an Egyptian word 
  for “amulet.” Some of the most venerable elders certainly bear features that might be de-
  scribed as Egyptian, while a few have classical Hellenic complexions, which isn’t surprising, 
  considering Greece’s proximity to Egypt. The commerce between the Egyptians and Greeks, 
  and later the Romans, corresponds with the legendary travels of members of this clan, as 
  well as their formative role in the nascent Camarilla. Since that time, the Mekhet have 
  traveled wherever shadows have fallen, wherever secrets lay hidden and wherever Kindred 
  call upon others to give them counsel.
  NOSFERATU
  The Nosferatu are stealthy, strong and terrifying. Their very presence unnerves people, 
  whether by physical ugliness, foul stench or nebulous personal malignance.
  Studies of Nosferatu legend suggest that the clan is relatively young, possibly originat-
  ing not too long before the rise of Rome, and possibly among the peoples it conquered. 
  Certainly, the Nosferatu were active among the clans of the Camarilla, but proof of their 
  presence before then is spotty at best. And yet, claims occasionally surface about very old 
  Kindred who, if not Nosferatu, are strikingly like the Nosferatu. Whether these vampires 
  are indeed members of the same clan, are Kindred of some “proto-clan” that became the 
  Nosferatu or are entirely unrelated can only be guessed at.
  Legends of the nosferatu are historically heaviest in central Europe, particularly in Ger-
  many, northern Italy and eastern France. Early records describing what seem to be broods 
  of Nosferatu also originate in modern Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria 
  and Greece, with some indication of presence in north Africa as well. Like the Gangrel, 
  Nosferatu tend to either seek out territories before or after most of Kindred culture both-
  ers with them. Unlike the Gangrel, though, the Nosferatu adapt relatively quickly to the 
  presence of other vampires, relying on their monstrous nature to make a place for them in 
  the society of the Damned.
  
  15
  VENTRUE
  The Ventrue are regal, commanding and aristocratic. Vampires as everything from Eastern 
  European lords on the mountain to gentriﬁ ed nobles to modern corporate raiders belong 
  to this clan.
  Surprisingly, the Ventrue are understood to be the youngest of the clans, almost certainly 
  originating in Rome itself, probably in tandem with the formation of the Camarilla. While 
  their history is relatively short (in vampiric terms), it is also distinguished, as the Ventrue 
  are made to rule. Although none remember the name of the ﬁ rst Ventrue, various vampiric 
  histories do ascribe the origin of the clan, which was believed to once be a covenant, to a 
  single female vampire. A darker history implies that this Kindred was not the ﬁ rst of the 
  Ventrue line, but that she consumed the soul of her own sire, and in so doing founded a 
  new bloodline that rose to the status of a proper clan.
  As might be surmised, the Ventrue have historically been strongest in Europe, from which 
  they grew into North and Central America, but their presence elsewhere in the world has been 
  relatively minor. As a clan, their numbers are probably fewer than those of any other clan, but 
  such things vary by domain, as one vampire community might consist of nothing but Ventrue 
  — likely all the preeminent Kindred’s progeny.
  COTERIES
  Decades and centuries ago, when cities were smaller and technology far less advanced, the 
  Kindred could afford to remain solitary predators, moving alone through the massed ranks 
  of humanity. Tonight, the world has changed. Both mortal and Kindred populations are 
  substantially larger than anyone could have dreamed even a few score years ago. Kindred, 
  particularly young ones with no political clout and minimal inﬂ uence in the mortal world, 
  need allies in ways their elders never did at their age. Combined with the lingering desire 
  for companionship left over from their mortal days, this need inspires modern Kindred to 
  gather in small social groups called coteries.
  The coterie, which normally consists of anywhere from three to six Kindred, with a few 
  unusual groups growing as large as a dozen, has existed as an ideal for centuries. In ages past, 
  coteries tended to assemble for a speciﬁ c purpose, such as the taking of an important road and 
  the construction of a lair, or perhaps defending a domain against outside aggression. The notion 
  of a coterie that assembles and remains together for long-term goals, or even more strangely for 
  social purposes, seems alien and artiﬁ cial to most elders tonight. Their positions in society are 
  already secure, their havens well hidden from enemies and unsuspecting kine alike. They dismiss 
  the formation of coteries as youthful foolishness, or even worse as the behavior of animals.
  For those Kindred not considered elders, however, coteries are just common sense. Some 
  modern coteries do assemble for a particular goal, as they did in years past. It might be an 
  objective that members wish to achieve, or they might be assembled at the behest of a Kin-
  dred leader, faction, their sires or by any others with the authority to demand some service 
  of the group members. In most cases, coteries are purely social constructs, with no purpose 
  other than the long-term beneﬁ t and mutual protection of their membership. They provide 
  allies and support that young Kindred haven’t yet managed to ﬁ nd anywhere else. At the 
  very least, such community provides someone to watch one’s back, to aid in the hunt and to 
  corroborate any accounts that might have to be given to elders or authorities — advantages 
  not be underestimated in the world of the Damned.
  That said, coteries aren’t happy bands of friends rollicking through a domain. The mistrust 
  endemic to all Kindred doesn’t end with the formation of a group. Coteries are subject to the 
  same internal squabbling, double-dealing and, on occasion, outright betrayal as any other Kin-
  mekhet • nosferatu • ventrue • coteries
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  16
  dred institution, especially owing to the fact that most coteries are cosmopolitan with regard to 
  members’ origins. In fact, almost every coterie ever formed is temporary; even if it lasts decades, 
  it eventually falls apart. The more time that passes, the more opportunities for advancement by 
  betrayal come up, and some member is almost certain to succumb to temptation eventually. Even 
  on the off chance that nobody leaves or turns against the group, Kindred tend to grow increasingly 
  paranoid as they age. Considering the sort of society in which they “grow up,” this reaction isn’t 
  unreasonable. What it means, however, is that most vampires beyond a certain age aren’t willing 
  to trust their former coterie-mates, even if nobody has engaged in any direct treachery. Those 
  coteries that don’t tear apart due to dishonesty or ambition inevitably separate out of mistrust 
  that someone will turn traitor.
  Exceptions exist, of course. Some elders still operate in, or at least maintain contact with, 
  their former coteries, if only to maintain longstanding networks of contacts, allies and the 
  like. These long-lasting groups are rare, though. For the most part, elders continue to mistrust 
  the notion of coteries — even those who, in their youth, were members of one — and, by 
  extension, they often mistrust those ﬂ edglings who form them. In fact, though few admit it, 
  many elders fear the spread of the coterie phenomenon, concerned that it will provide future 
  rivals with a base of power they themselves cannot exploit.
  DEAD CULTURES
  The society of the Damned is a mysterious and alien thing. After all, Kindred nature — the 
  innate paranoia, distrust and animosity that vampires often hold toward one another, to say 
  nothing of their constant squabbles over hunting territory — would seem to suggest that they 
  were intended to be lone hunters.
  Some believe that Kindred society exists now as it has for thousands of years. Legend has 
  it that vampires once ruled as kings and that their feudal domains have simply passed down 
  through the centuries. Of course, no vampire who walks the Earth tonight, or at least none 
  known, can truly recall the details of events so long past. The memories of those Kindred 
  who have slept away the decades grow uncertain. Dreams intrude on reality, and none of 
  them can truly know what was from what they simply believe to remember.
  Some Kindred, particularly among the neonates, believe their society is a more recent 
  development, at least in historical terms. They maintain that only in the modern era, when 
  hiding from the kine has truly become difﬁ cult thanks to rapid communication and other 
  technological advancement, has Kindred isolation from humankind become complete. Only 
  now, they claim, has the need for a separate society developed.
  The primary purpose of Kindred society, Kindred philosophers believe, is regulation. Kin-
  dred gather not merely in physical proximity, but socially, under a local government because 
  enough of them recognize the need to police their own. Were the Kindred to dwell in the 
  crowded cities with no overt authority, nothing would prevent the indiscrete or foolish from 
  waging war on one another openly, feeding indiscriminately or otherwise threatening each 
  other’s vitality. A ﬁ gure known as the Prince (or whoever represents the local government) 
  is an enforcer, ﬁ rst and foremost.
  Beyond this, Kindred claim that their kind cleaves together socially for reasons far more 
  personal and ingrained than the need to protect themselves from each other. Kindred society 
  grants its members something they could never have among mortals: a sense of belonging, 
  of community. Vampires might despise the greater portion of their fellows and their Prince 
  or governor — and a great many do — but this is nevertheless their community, their city. 
  Where mortals turn to family, the Kindred have clans. Where mortals form nations and 
  cultures, the Kindred have covenants. These social constructs allow the Kindred to feel as 
  
  17
  though they’re part of something, to counter the extreme isolation they would otherwise 
  suffer for all eternity.
  The Kindred are still outsiders, proponents of this idealized state, but at least their domains 
  and clans and covenants allow them to be outsiders together.
  Many elders, of course, consider such theories a heap of mealy mouthed, revisionist, self-
  indulgent efﬂ uvia spewed by idle childer with no knowledge of the way the world works. As 
  they cannot provide any evidence for their conservative, “society has always existed thus” 
  attitudes, however, elders aren’t likely to silence the social theorists any time soon. And thus 
  the Danse Macabre continues on one more front.
  THE COVENANTS
  A covenant is a social unit of vampires. Each is an artiﬁ cial group comprising Kindred 
  with similar philosophies, ideals, political aims and even religious notions. Vampires can 
  usually belong to only one covenant at a time, as members are somewhat exclusionary 
  about their principles, but Kindred sometimes leave one covenant to join another, 
  evade notice of membership in multiple covenants, or actively concoct false identities 
  with which to spy on other covenants. Some vampires belong to no covenant at all. 
  While all of these groups receive greater treatment elsewhere in this book, it helps to 
  familiarize yourself with some of their basic notions.
  The Carthians seek to reconcile Kindred society with modern governmental 
  structures and social systems. In any number of cities across the world, the Carthian 
  experiment is in some stage of its inexorable cycle, running from naïve idealism to 
  “the revolution eats its children.”
  The Circle of the Crone venerates a variety of female ﬁ gures as an amalgamated 
  creator of vampires, the Mother of all Monsters. Regarded as pagans by some of the 
  more conservative Kindred factions, the Circle relies more on holistics and redemption 
  than on the penitence and guilt of other ideological covenants. Its members are 
  sorcerers and blood witches.
  The Invictus is the aristocracy of the night. Neofeudal and corrupt from within, it 
  is nonetheless a powerful covenant that draws strength from tradition. The Invictus 
  claims to trace its roots back as far as ancient Rome, if not before.
  The Lancea Sanctum looks to Biblical history for its spiritual outlook. The covenant 
  seeks to inﬂ uence Kindred society with the strictures of Longinus, who was believed to 
  be a progenitor turned into one of the Damned by the blood of Christ. The covenant 
  practices a magic that draws on elements from Biblical times, when God’s will was 
  manifest.
  The Ordo Dracul is a neo-Victorian faction not unlike a secret society. It commands 
  mystical knowledge and rituals that allow members to transcend their vampiric state. 
  The covenant claims descent from the historical Vlad Tepes — Dracula himself. 
  Kindred who belong to no covenant at all are known by many names, but among 
  the most universal are “the unaligned” or “the unbound.” They have no formal 
  structure, and many just want to handle the Requiem on their own terms, rather than 
  those of covenants or other institutions.
  THE BODY COUNT
  So how many Kindred are there? They must exist in pretty substantial numbers if they’ve 
  got a society, yet they’ve managed to keep themselves more or less hidden from the majority 
  of the mortals around them.
  The truth is, Kindred numbers vary from city to city. In most small cities, the proportion 
  of undead to mortals tends to be relatively low: One vampire per 100,000 or more mortals 
  is not uncommon. In large cities, the ratio is usually nearer one vampire per 50,000 mortals. 
  In some cities that seem to draw the Kindred for whatever reason — cities such as New York, 
  dead cultures • the body count
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  18
  London, New Orleans and Chicago — the ratio can be substantially higher. Most Princes 
  don’t particularly keep track. As long as the population doesn’t grow so high that people take 
  notice of the predators among them, numbers don’t matter.
  If one were to take a worldwide average, the ratio is probably around the one-per-50,000 
  mark. It ﬂ uctuates so thoroughly from domain to domain that one should never assume that 
  any given population corresponds to that ﬁ gure.
  A GILDED CAGE
  Perhaps the single greatest reason vampire society has developed as it has is the Kindred’s 
  unbreakable tie to the city. The undead are bound to the cities of the kine as tightly as they 
  are to the Blood itself. For them, the city is really a cage, gilded though it might be, and the 
  Kindred could no more abandon it than they could become vegetarians.
  It would be foolish, of course, to suggest that Kindred never travel. If they did not, they 
  could never have spread as humanity has, and they would still be restricted to select areas 
  of the Old World. Despite all the reasons not to, reasons that have literally shaped Kindred 
  society as it’s known tonight, travel is sometimes necessary. It’s not that Kindred don’t travel, 
  it’s that they don’t travel casually.
  What is it, then, about cities that holds the Kindred? Why does each city exist as its own 
  ﬁ efdom, with little if any congress between it and its neighbor?
  TRAVEL AND VAMPIRIC GATHERINGS
  For live-action play, especially in chronicles with more than a handful of games, travel 
  becomes an interesting conundrum in and of itself. As vampires communicate between 
  domains, alliances and hatreds develop as covenants and clans establish relationships. 
  Although Requiem is city based, such relationships inevitably result in travel and 
  larger gatherings. Although they still consider each other to be potential enemies, 
  vampires in such a setting see perceive travel and meetings more as an opportunity 
  rather than an immediate danger: the beneﬁ ts of gaining allies and securing one’s 
  position often outweigh the risks of making the trip. With the optional mechanics 
  for Predator’s Taint being inactive at these meetings (see page 237), Storytellers can 
  portray a more dynamic vampiric society that doesn’t shun travel as much as one would 
  expect. Remember that violence and lethal combat are still the very last resort in the 
  Requiem, however: you shouldn’t make a trip to another city for the purposes of 
  torporing or killing a vampiric enemy. It is virtually unheard of for vampiric travelers 
  to visit a domain and willfully breach its Elysia, for instance.
  STAYING NEAR THE WELL
  Perhaps the most obvious reason for the Kindred to gather in cities, and to remain there, 
  is that that’s where the people are. Ultimately, no matter what sort of religious, cultural or 
  mystical face the Kindred wish to put on it, blood is all that matters. It’s at the core of every-
  thing they do. While hunting is never a sure thing, a Kindred can be relatively certain that, 
  with care and effort, she can ﬁ nd someone on whom to feed in a city without attracting too 
  much attention. Cities have slums, clubs, drug dens, hospitals and, if it comes down to it, 
  dark alleys. Even when Kindred can ﬁ nd people elsewhere, they don’t always present a viable 
  opportunity for feeding.
  Certainly, it might be possible for a particularly hardy or desperate vampire to eke out an 
  existence outside an urban center. A rustic town of 500 people out in the middle of nowhere 
  might provide enough Vitae to support a particularly careful Kindred for a short time. In a 
  population of that size, however, someone would eventually discover his depredations when he 
  
  19
  inevitably loses control and frenzies. At best, the vampire has a frightened, angry population 
  of mortals on his hands, all of whom move on or look for the culprit with shotguns. At worst, 
  the elaborate charade that hides the Kindred from the world’s awareness is compromised, 
  at least on a local level.
  Some few vampires take the idea of escape a step further and attempt to survive in the 
  wilds, feeding on animals. Many give it up after a relatively short time, though. Not only do 
  they face a relative paucity of available blood, Kindred eventually reach the point at which 
  animals are no longer sustaining. Why scavenge and scrounge in the yard when they can 
  simply stay nearer the table and feast?
  In addition to the difﬁ culties involved in feeding, existing outside a city invariably leaves a 
  Kindred subject to the other hazards and difﬁ culties inherent to travel.
  SOCIAL SUPPORT
  The paradox of the Kindred is that they possess both the solitary nature of the predator 
  and the social leanings of humans. They gather in groups, though their competitive and 
  aggressive nature often renders such gathering dangerous, or at least uncomfortable. They 
  compete against one another — plotting, scheming, backstabbing — yet they ﬁ nd themselves 
  unable to function in other environments. Even if the Kindred could easily acquire blood 
  outside the urban sprawl, few would be willing to leave cities behind, for both Kindred and 
  mortal society supports them.
  The Kindred gain most of their power and strength not from their innate abilities, but from 
  the inﬂ uence they wield in the mortal world. No matter how old or powerful a vampire is, 
  someone is always older and stronger. Why risk one’s potentially eternal existence, miserable 
  as it might be at times, when one can manipulate pawns into taking those risks instead? Rare 
  is the Kindred without some inﬂ uence, or at least a few contacts in government, business, 
  organized crime or some other potentially useful element of kine society. And for the most 
  part, those connections are all within the city because that’s where the people are.
  A Kindred without contacts is largely helpless. He certainly has his innate powers — the 
  strength and abilities inherent in the Blood and his undead nature — but so do his enemies, 
  and he no longer has any help on which to call.
  Even Kindred society serves as something of a safety net, as long as everyone involved is 
  willing to follow the rules. For the most part, any given vampire is unlikely to attack another 
  openly within the city. All but the most desperate Kindred think twice before blatantly violat-
  ing the Traditions of their kind or the local law for fear of reprisal from the Prince and other 
  authorities. Away from the reach of the Prince, however, all bets are off. For the Kindred, 
  anything beyond the city limits is lawless territory, lacking any supreme authority to whom 
  grievances can be brought. As most wise Kindred stay inside their cage, those who do not have 
  no undead allies on whom to call, just as they have few or no mortal pawns.
  PLAYING THE DANSE MACABRE
  The need to build up both mortal inﬂ uence and Kindred allies is a vicious cycle that 
  constantly feeds into itself. Young, unattached Kindred who are new to the Requiem 
  quickly ﬁ nd that they need some degree of leverage in order to make a place for 
  themselves in the world of the Damned. Maybe a ﬂ edgling vampire has accidentally 
  angered another neonate, someone holds a grudge against her sire, she needs to 
  convince an elder to allow her to feed in his territory, or maybe she simply runs across 
  someone who dislikes her covenant, clan, bloodline or hair color. She needs allies 
  among the local Kindred, or at least something to offer or with which to threaten her 
  rival. The greatest asset most Kindred have is access to their ties and connections in 
  a gilded cage• staying near the well • social support
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  20
  mortal society. Certainly, some particularly skilled Kindred provide other services, and a 
  Prince can offer territory or other special privileges, but inﬂ uence is the currency with 
  which most Kindred barter. One elder with leverage at the local airport might agree 
  to smuggle something for another, if the other will use his own contacts to make sure 
  that the police don’t break up the ﬁ rst’s drug-trafﬁ cking operation. Without some 
  measure of inﬂ uence in mortal society, most Kindred have little to trade.
  So the young vampire discovers that she must develop mortal allies and contacts 
  if she wishes to cultivate Kindred allies. The more Kindred allies she has, however, 
  the more attention she draws. The enemies of her allies become her enemies. Other 
  Kindred who might have left her alone suddenly see her rising in power and decide 
  to cut her off at the knees before she becomes dangerous. Suddenly, her allies aren’t 
  sufﬁ cient. She needs more connections, more inﬂ uential sponsors. For that, she needs 
  to develop more contacts and inﬂ uence in kine society.
  Despite the amicable-sounding name they have chosen for themselves, the “Kindred” 
  don’t particularly see themselves as family unless they’re forced to do so. The bonds 
  of friendship are all but nonexistent among vampires, and those relationships that 
  do form against all odds rarely survive as long as those who enter into them. Kindred 
  who attempt to remain aloof, who try to avoid entangling themselves in mortal or 
  Kindred affairs, usually ﬁ nd that society won’t permit them to sit the game out.
  And so it goes, an endless loop making sure that few Kindred ever manage to haul 
  themselves out of the quagmire that is the modern city.
  The bonds of clan, bloodline or covenant also provide ample ties to make common cause 
  between vampires. Kindred who dwell among a large population of their clanmates and covenant 
  members have an undeniable advantage over those who do not. Almost by deﬁ nition, these 
  social bonds are found entirely within cities. Leaving them all behind might seem like a liberating 
  notion to young Kindred, as they wouldn’t have to worry about upsetting their brethren, anger-
  ing elders, hunting on the wrong ground or speaking to the wrong person. Too many Kindred 
  have found, however, that the inherent difﬁ culties of surviving away from population centers 
  are greater than expected, and they have no assistance on which to call.
  LONELINESS
  One of the most ingrained reasons to remain in cities is loneliness. Kindred are no longer 
  mortal, but the transition is relatively recent for most. Not even the eldest can fully shake 
  the last lingering traces of what they used to be. Predators tend toward solitude by nature, 
  but people are gregarious in the extreme, and the Kindred’s waning sense of community, 
  of belonging, helps tie them to their remaining Humanity. Vampires certainly feel lonely as 
  often or as easily as mortals do (if not more so), and some who remain apart from the masses 
  too long discover they can no longer blend in when they attempt to return.
  Some young Kindred have recently attempted to survive in the wild as coteries, rather than 
  as individuals. Doing so goes a long way toward alleviating the loneliness of such isolation, but 
  many of these coteries run into difﬁ culties ﬁ nding enough sustenance upon which to feed. 
  It’s hard enough for a lone Kindred to feed herself on animals and the occasional hitchhiker. 
  For a group, the task is extremely challenging in the long run.
  ELYSIUM
  One of the most ancient and honored surviving Kindred customs, and one whose im-
  portance many modern neonates drastically underestimate, is that of Elysium. In essence, 
  a Prince may declare speciﬁ c locations of his city to be Elysium, places free of violence, safe 
  for all Kindred. Most ofﬁ cial Kindred business takes place in Elysium. The Prince’s court 
  is most frequently held in one such location, and most young vampires who need to speak 
  with a leader or elder come to Elysium to seek them out. Politics and intrigue are as common 
  
  21
  here as rats on the street outside, with debate and negotiation heard as frequently as casual 
  gossip. Many elders spend entire nights here, and while neonates are usually welcome, they 
  are expected to remember their place.
  Most areas of Elysium are cultural or artistic centers, conducive to intellectual pursuits and 
  the sense of calm reﬂ ection that most Princes hope to maintain. Such places include everything 
  from theaters and opera houses to museums and galleries to university halls and libraries. As 
  more Princes come to accept the ways and conveniences of the modern world, and as young 
  Kindred ascend to positions of power, the number of nightclubs and restaurants declared 
  Elysium grows as well. In any case, wherever an Elysium is, attendees are expected to dress 
  and comport themselves appropriately, for the sake of the secrecy, if not simple courtesy.
  While refreshments are often provided at Elysium, especially during court or other formal 
  gatherings, such is not always the case. It is considered bad manners to show up to Elysium 
  hungry, as not only does doing so lead to short tempers and potential violations of the laws 
  of nonviolence, but most Princes forbid hunting within several blocks of Elysium. After all, 
  these locations are centers of Kindred activity. If hunting were permitted in the region, it 
  would only be a matter of time before the number of strange occurrences and deaths attracted 
  attention. Kindred who bring guests to Elysium — be they blood slaves, mortal retainers, 
  new childer, vampires from outside the city or even local Kindred who were not invited to 
  a given event — are responsible for their guests’ behavior, and they can be punished severely 
  for violations committed by companions.
  Any sort of physical or mystical confrontation is strictly forbidden within Elysium (though 
  social conﬂ ict has risen to both an art form and outright war). Violators of this rule are 
  inevitably banished or executed posthaste. When tempers ﬂ are beyond words, the Prince, 
  Sheriff or Master of Elysium might ask those involved to leave and cool off elsewhere in 
  hopes of heading off an explosion that would result in violence and punishment. Elysium 
  is strictly neutral ground, and Kindred are expected to leave their conﬂ icts — or at least any 
  physical continuation of them — outside. That said, elders are experts at holding grudges. 
  While a neonate might get away with mouthing off to an elder while inside, he’d better have 
  reliable transportation home and learn to sleep with one eye open. Many Kindred conﬂ icts 
  that have eventually erupted in violence began with a single misspoken word in the corridors 
  of Elysium.
  OPTIONAL RULE: THE FOURTH TRADITION
  Sometimes, the tradition of Elysium takes on an almost mystical signiﬁ cance of its 
  own, such is the power that Kindred invest in this notion. It becomes a kind of “fourth 
  Tradition,” a place where vampires can seek refuge from the violent predations of 
  their own kind. To reﬂ ect this, Storytellers may rule that taking any sort of overtly 
  violent action against another vampire within Elysium requires the would-be assailant 
  to spend a Willpower point each turn. This does not count toward the normal limit 
  of one Willpower point per turn. Actually attempting to kill or diablerize another 
  Kindred requires the expenditure of a Willpower dot to go through with the act.
  This even applies to characters in frenzy. They might destroy the surrounding area 
  or wreak their vengeance on nearby mortals, but without spending Willpower, they 
  will not focus their fury on another vampire.
  Mortals and other supernatural creatures are immune to these effects, and vampires 
  may likewise attack them freely, and it should be noted that ghouls are still affected 
  due to the fact of the curse ﬂ owing in their veins. Vampires may always defend 
  themselves normally, though if they desire to destroy a vampiric enemy they must 
  still pay the cost normally.  After all, this “tradition” merely makes it hard for them 
  to openly prey on each other in Elysium. It doesn’t pacify them to the point where 
   loneliness • elysium
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  22
  they become helpless targets. Likewise, a vampire whose ghoul or mortal ally attacks 
  another vampire within Elysium is still expected to answer for the behavior of her 
  “guest,” which usually means suffering the same punishment as if she had committed 
  the act herself.
  Needless to say, while it cuts down on the amount of violence during sessions, this 
  rule must be closely monitored to forestall abuse. An area of Elysium that enjoys these 
  unique beneﬁ ts must be well-known and publically declared, to the city at large if not 
  to all the characters involved in a ﬁ ght. Part of the power of this unspoken Tradition 
  derives from the air of barely enforced civillity that hangs over the location, after all. 
  A Prince cannot declare her immediate presence to be Elysium, for example, or hastily 
  announce Elysium on the spot to avoid an ambush. Nor can the Elysium contain a 
  character’s personal Haven. At the same time, the Storyteller should enforce the spirit, 
  not the letter of these guidelines. For instance, a character cannot sabotage Elysium 
  by setting up a sleeping bag somewhere in the building and then claiming “Well, I 
  have my haven here, so it’s no longer Elysium, and I can shoot him all I want.” 
  HAVENS
  Any discussion of Kindred safety and security from zealous enemies must eventually turn 
  to the concept of the haven — at once a vampire’s resting place, personal domain and private 
  inner sanctum. A haven is the place (perhaps the only place) where a vampire can reliably 
  ﬁ nd shelter from the sun while she sleeps the day away. Therefore, the selection and admin-
  istration of one’s haven can often be (or quickly become) one of the most important aspects 
  of a young vampire’s unlife.
  The vast majority of neonates do not begin their unlives with an established haven of their own. 
  As a rule, mortals do not keep their domiciles in a condition well suited to a vampire’s needs, so 
  the Embrace often forces an immediate change of environs upon a newly created ﬂ edgling. More 
  often than not, a Kindred’s sire provides his new progeny with a haven, even if only temporarily. 
  Once a neonate has grown accustomed to the rules of his new existence, he may then — often 
  with his sire’s assistance — procure a haven of his own somewhere in the domain. Once in a while, 
  the neonate merely returns to his former, mortal residence with the intent of renovating, and 
  indeed, some types of homes need surprisingly little work in order to become functional havens. 
  Most of the time, though, the sire advises against such a move, as it invites questions from one’s 
  former life and generally complicates a young vampire’s existence unnecessarily.
  A SIRE’S HOSPITALITY
  A strange, unofﬁ cial tradition has arisen over time concerning havens, and it has 
  caused no small measure of ill will between sires and childer over the centuries. The 
  tradition is seen most often among the Ventrue clan, and many believe that the 
  custom’s origins can be traced back to an ancient Eastern European mortal convention. 
  Regardless, some Kindred follow a tradition that says a sire is responsible for housing 
  his progeny until such time as that protege is released into the world. After all, they 
  argue, once a neonate has a haven of his own, he technically has his own personal 
  domain, and many old-fashioned sires do not believe that childer are entitled to the 
  rights of domain until such time as they are released. Therefore, the waiting period for 
  receiving a haven of one’s own can be much longer than a neonate expects, depending 
  on his sire’s sense of convention. Many bitter neonates are quick to point out the fact 
  that being beholden to one’s sire for protection from the banes of one’s existence, 
  as well as for one’s political station in vampiric society, puts one’s entire unlife in the 
  sire’s hands, and that’s just how many sires like it. Thankfully, this tradition is practiced 
  less frequently as time marches on. Tonight, few sires would even want their ﬂ edgling 
  childer dwelling under the same roof with them for years on end.
  
  23
  A haven itself is a very personal affair. Given the sheer amount of time a Kindred must 
  spend within — at least 12 hours a day, for all eternity — a haven can become the only thing 
  its owner will see in any real sense as his own. One does not have to be aesthetically obsessed 
  to appreciate a level of personalization in the home, and even the most Spartan vampire 
  eventually develops some sense of individual style (or at least efﬁ ciency) in the design, decora-
  tion and layout of his haven. 
  Technically speaking, a haven is nothing more than a vampire’s home. At least, that’s all 
  it has to be to ﬁ t the deﬁ nition. As such, there exist just as many different kinds of havens 
  as mortal domiciles, or even more, considering the options at a vampire’s disposal. The 
  average mortal can’t stand living under extreme weather or pressure conditions, but such 
  considerations mean very little to the undead. Some Kindred (especially the Gangrel and 
  some Nosferatu) enjoy the solitude offered by inhospitable surroundings, and they elect to 
  make havens in areas deep underground, atop dizzying heights or even underwater. Others 
  opt to blend in as much as they can, preferring the warm comforts of modern high society to 
  the cold comforts of the grave. Daeva and Ventrue in particular are known for their rariﬁ ed 
  tastes in havens (and all associated trappings), and some well-to-do Kindred maintain lavish 
  homes and penthouse suites that would make the wealthiest mortal green with envy.
  Security, of course, is of paramount concern, and Kindred possessed of any degree of ma-
  terial resources usually spare no expense in making sure that a haven is well protected from 
  both the sun and from daytime intrusion. Such security might come in the form of high-tech 
  alarms, a bank of cameras, pressure-sensitive ﬂ oor plates and the like, or it can come merely 
  from locale. A haven buried deep underground or in an old vault is going to be very secure 
  by nature alone, without any further security measures.
  DOMAINS OF THE DEAD
  Without a doubt, isolation and the attitudes and practices spawned by it have resulted in 
  the current forms of vampiric government, culture and society. While humanity has developed 
  enormous countries, world-spanning faiths, multi-national cultures and even the tentative 
  beginnings of a world community, the Kindred have been left behind, as unchanging as they 
  are undying. Exceptions certainly exist, but for the most part, when it comes to government 
  and sociological development, the Kindred never left far more primitive times.
  No Kindred domain is governed exactly like any other, but the vast majority of them re-
  semble the feudal nations of ages past. This doesn’t mean that the Kindred ignore modern 
  conveniences or dress like the cast of a Shakespearean tragedy. It does mean that their power 
  structure is usually hierarchical and largely inviolate.
  Consider the details. A given city is isolated by Kindred standards. It’s a walled sanctuary 
  with barbarians roving outside the gates. The population usually consists of Kindred of drasti-
  cally different ages, inﬂ uence and power. And, perhaps most importantly, no higher authority 
  exists outside the city. Nobody can step in and tell the locals they’re doing it wrong.
  Add all this up, and the result is a “government” in which anyone strong enough to take and 
  hold power is, by default, entitled to it. In most cases, this is a single vampire, usually one of 
  the eldest and most powerful in the city. The standard term for the Kindred who rules a given 
  domain is gender-neutral “Prince,” though many choose alternate titles that more accurately 
  reﬂ ect their personalities and styles of rule. A few cities are ruled by allied groups of Kindred, 
  and an even smaller number actually attempt to emulate more modern political styles of govern-
  ing, but these cities are by far the exception, not the rule.
  By and large, the Kindred have no choice but to accept the dictates and leadership of a given 
  Prince, no matter how tyrannical his reign is or odious his laws are. After all, what are the other 
  havens • domains of the dead
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  24
  options? Petition for help? To whom? No higher authority exists. Overthrow the regime? Odds 
  are, no single faction in the city has the strength to wrest power from the Prince, else it would 
  have happened already. One might be able to rally several different factions, multiple powerful 
  elders or simply a great portion of the Kindred population behind the goal, but for this tactic to 
  work, a great many Kindred with their own ambitions and fears must put aside their differences 
  and work together. This simply doesn’t happen often enough to provide much hope. The only 
  way such is likely to occur is if the Prince is so truly horrible and abusive that nearly every vampire 
  in the city believes that she has something to gain by ousting him. Sometimes a single powerful 
  elder does succeed in scheming her way to authority, ousting a weaker Prince in the process, but 
  doing so requires years of machinations, numerous alliances and many decades of experience.
  So if no appeal is available and revolution is unlikely to succeed, what’s left? Leave the city, 
  begin anew somewhere else? The Kindred are acutely aware of the hazards of that course of 
  action. For the great majority of Kindred, the only way to survive is to keep one’s head down, 
  grin and bear the current Prince no matter how awful he is, and hope one night to accumulate 
  enough personal power and inﬂ uence to take steps at that time.
  It must be said, though, that not all Princes are sadistic, iron-ﬁ sted tyrants. Few Princes rule so 
  absolutely that they can do everything they want. Other elders most likely dwell in their domains. 
  Certain vampires (known collectively and individually as the Primogen) might advise the Prince, 
  but that doesn’t necessarily mean they share all his goals and desires. Few Princes are so secure 
  in their positions that they can afford to completely ignore the wishes of their cities’ elders. This 
  isn’t necessarily a good thing — no guarantee exists that the desires of other elders are any better 
  for young Kindred than those of the Prince — but the need to make occasional concessions is 
  still the only check on the Prince’s power, other than the Traditions (see p. 91).
  Many domains take the feudal model further still. One method the Prince has of both mol-
  lifying the other elders and delegating responsibility is to parcel out portions of his city to other 
  Kindred as personal feeding grounds. Only a very few Princes parcel off an entire city. Most focus 
  only on the best areas: downtown, speciﬁ c slums, hospital districts, club and bar areas. (In many 
  cities, an area of this sort is called the Rack.) If the Prince grants such a territory to an elder, that 
  elder then decides who, if anyone, may feed there. This grants the elder substantial power, as 
  many Kindred rely on Racks for easy feeding. If they wish to continue hunting in those areas, they 
  must offer favors or concessions to the current landholder. Of course, some Kindred choose to 
  ignore the fact that the territory is no longer open. Many get away with it, but a vampire caught 
  poaching on another’s territory can be taken before the Prince and judged as a criminal.
  DEPENDENT DOMAINS
  Precisely how much power individual elders have over those in their territory varies 
  city by city. In some domains, they have very little. They might offer to trade feeding 
  and haven rights for boons or services, but anything beyond that is considered stepping 
  on the Prince’s toes.
  In other cities, elders rule their territories as domains within domains. Here, an elder 
  may set his own laws and enforce his own dictates, as long as they do not blatantly 
  contradict those of the Prince. This is particularly common in cities where an elder is 
  nearly as powerful as the Prince himself. In some cases, the Prince doesn’t even grant 
  territorial rights to the elder in question. Rather, that elder goes to him and says, “I’m 
  claiming this portion of the city for my own. Do you care to dispute it?” Weak Princes 
  (at least in comparison to other local elders) sometimes accept such arrangements in 
  order to avoid conﬂ ict.
  For more information on such situations, see “Subinfeudation” on p. 34.
  
  25
  So, as in a feudal kingdom, the domain is divided into smaller territories, each of which is 
  metaphorically ruled by its own landowner, who has power over those who would hunt or dwell 
  in his territory. That power, however, still ultimately belongs to the Prince, who might withdraw 
  his grant or offer it to someone else. Thus does a wise Prince placate those who would otherwise 
  be his enemies, while simultaneously granting himself leverage over them for future use.
  In some cities, the process continues further still. Those who control a given territory might 
  subdivide it further, granting portions of their own holdings to favored childer or allies. Do-
  ing so works only in the largest cities, of course, and not always in those. When it does, the 
  local rule often has three or even more layers, resulting in a chain of authority that even the 
  Byzantine-minded Kindred can ﬁ nd confusing.
  RULE BY FEAR
  Niccolo Machiavelli wrote, when speaking of wielding and maintaining political power, 
  “…one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difﬁ cult for the two to go together, it is 
  much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting.” This is a theory by 
  which the Kindred have ruled for as long as any surviving vampire can remember. It is fear, 
  after all, more than any other factor that holds Kindred society together.
  In most cases, any social or political action the Kindred take is motivated by fear. The 
  Prince fears losing power, so she cracks down on those who rebel against her word. Elders 
  fear the loss of status, so they squabble among themselves to tear down their enemies while 
  exalting themselves in the Prince’s eyes. Neonates fear the tyrannical political machine, 
  and they react either by becoming part of it or by striking against it in hopes of changing 
  the system before the system catches up with them. Covenants as a whole fear mortals and 
  young Kindred. The Invictus fears savvy young Kindred who can react to the modern world 
  better than staid elders can, and it fears staid elders who have had decades or centuries 
  to hoard power and inﬂ uence. The Lancea Sanctum fears the changes and secular nature 
  of the modern world. The Carthians fear the current power structure. The unbound 
  fear being bound by the laws of others. The Circle of the Crone seemingly fears the very 
  nature of the Kindred condition. The Ordo Dracul fears that which it cannot quantify or 
  understand. All of the Damned fear being cut off from access to blood or being forced to 
  leave their home cities.
  It would not be wholly inaccurate to say that the Kindred who would be Prince must simply 
  make herself the most feared, more than she must be the most powerful or the best connected 
  or the eldest. This, then, is why the majority of Princes are far more despotic than, perhaps, 
  their situations require. They know that it is only their subjects’ fear that keeps them in line. 
  Some Kindred are loyal to their Prince due to some personal attachment, however, or perhaps 
  in repayment for past favors. As always, the rare exception does exist.
  ANACHRONISM ASCENDANT
  Some young Kindred, particularly those who are not particularly familiar with 
  the feudal model, are utterly confounded by the shockingly outdated nature of 
  Kindred society. Even when established in a context they can understand, it makes 
  for a horrifying juxtaposition with the comparatively progressive modern world 
  from which they have been drawn. Kindred society has various cliques, all of which 
  tend to cling together and snub anyone outside their own incestuous ranks. It has a 
  proliferation of petty grudges, backstabbing and overblown squabbles over minor or 
  even imagined slights. And, like many factionalized populations, vampire society is 
  ruled with an iron ﬁ st by one individual (or, in a few cases, a cadre) who has managed 
  to become the most popular, largely by manipulating everyone else’s fear of being 
  left out or seen as different.
  domains of the dead • rule by fear
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  26
  Needless to say, the society of the Damned is far from perfect. The fact that such 
  vicious and barbaric customs ring true even in general terms goes a long way toward 
  showing how petty and deadly many Kindred personal and political struggles can be. 
  Another factor shaping and steering Kindred society, and one that ties back into the notion 
  of rule by fear, is the proliferation of vendettas and feuds among the undead. The Kindred 
  have developed the ability to hold and inﬂ ate a grudge to an art form, and most of them 
  never forget even the most minuscule slight. Part of this is physiological. As the Kindred cease 
  to age, so too do they cease to grow mentally and emotionally. Therefore, a vampire of 200 
  probably knows a great deal more than she did when she was 20, but she is unlikely to be 
  any more mature or truly any wiser. And as the majority of modern Kindred are Embraced 
  at the prime of life — and therefore relatively young — few of them ever develop the maturity 
  that would have come with but another decade or so of actual living.
  Perhaps the greater part of it, however, comes back to fear. Kindred respond to minor 
  offenses by holding grudges and working to humble or destroy the one who slighted them 
  because they are scared of doing otherwise. They fear losing face, and therefore status and 
  power, in the eyes of their compatriots, so they must show that they can give better than they 
  receive. They fear appearing weak before those who slight them, thus inviting further and 
  ever-escalating scorn and political attack. Certainly, the infamous Kindred capacity for rage 
  enters into it as well, but fear is, ultimately, the strongest motivator.
  These grudges often greatly inﬂ uence the entirety of society. Factions in a given city, and 
  even entire domains, have struggled and engaged in cold wars with one another purely over an 
  incidental remark or some other minor transgression by one party against another. Many elders 
  seek their positions and ofﬁ ces for no other reason than to wield power against rivals.
  These disputes often leave the realm of the personal and grow to far-reaching proportions. 
  A feuding vampire might call upon clanmates or fellow covenant members for support, and 
  while not all of them respond, a few usually do. He might involve allies in the city power 
  structure, which transforms the struggle into a political one, even if political power was not 
  the initial subject of disagreement. It’s an open question as to whether the conﬂ ict between 
  covenants, which so concerns and even deﬁ nes those groups in the modern nights, truly 
  began as cultural disagreements at all, or if they were spawned from personal feuds that 
  swiftly grew out of hand.
  GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES
  The previous description of Kindred domains as usually feudal can give the impres-
  sion that they’re all similar in construction. In truth, while the practical result is often 
  the same, the speciﬁ cs of government differ from city to city. Discussed here are just a 
  few of the possibilities for governmental models found across Kindred domains. All the 
  descriptions assume rule by a single individual, a Prince or the like, but rule by Primogen 
  or other council is also a possibility. Plenty of other types of Kindred governments exist; 
  those listed here represent some of the most common (or, in the case of the democracy, 
  the most frequently attempted and failed). Although the forms vary wildly, the ultimate 
  results — a dictatorship swayed by the powerful few, with little to no recourse available to 
  those beneath — are almost universal.
  Remember also that all these governmental models apply to Kindred society only. No Prince 
  on the face of the Earth is so powerful that he has the mayor, police chief and local congress-
  man all dancing to his tune. No entire city answers to the whim of a vampire. Even were 
  such a thing possible, it would inevitably lead to a Masquerade breach, for someone would 
  
  27
  eventually notice something amiss. Powerful Princes and other Kindred leaders likely have 
  substantial inﬂ uence among the mortal elite. They are necessary contributors to a mayor’s 
  campaign, or they can lean on certain lobbyists who in turn lean on the city council. The 
  Kindred must remain hidden, and even the most brutish Prince knows that his touch must 
  be light indeed when applied to the mortals who dwell within his domain. 
  DRESSING THE PART
  Note that when one of these descriptions says a court or assembly “resembles” 
  something from the past, it doesn’t mean the Kindred involved dress in cloaks, hose 
  and powdered wigs. While some truly eccentric or anachronistic elders might maintain 
  the look they preferred back in their mortal days (at least in private), most aren’t too 
  many years behind the modern fashion. Dressing as an obvious anachronism is a great 
  way to attract attention, and the Kindred know all too well that attention can bring 
  their whole kind low. Whether he calls himself a Prince, an Archbishop, a CEO or a 
  Don, the ruler of a given domain is far more likely to wear Armani than ermine. 
  FEUDAL MONARCHY
  One of the most common societal models, and the one considered the “default” when 
  discussing a city about which details are unknown, is also the one that most closely resembles 
  the medieval kingdom. A single ruler holds absolute power and makes no attempt to hide 
  that fact. His word is law, enforced by other elders to whom he has chosen to grant titles, 
  authority or territory. Princes of these sorts of domains often hold formal courts and usually 
  decree various laws limiting the movement of other Kindred through their domains, and 
  they demand that all newcomers present themselves for approval. These courts often involve 
  substantial pomp. A Seneschal announces members or petitioners as they arrive, titles that 
  would never see use on the streets are wielded and bestowed, and so forth. This sort of govern-
  ment is found most frequently in Invictus- and Ordo Dracul-dominated cities, but also forms 
  a signiﬁ cant minority among those domains ruled by the Lancea Sanctum and particularly 
  tyrannical Circle of the Crone domains.
  THE BOARDROOM
  The result of modern sensibilities, this sort of city is run almost like a corporation. The 
  Prince sits in a position much like a board chairman, with other elders in power serving 
  as co-executives. The ultimate result is largely the same as that of the more obvious feudal 
  system, but the Kindred involved like to appear more enlightened. Most decisions are made 
  by a vote of the ruling elders (unless the Prince chooses to overrule them, of course), policies 
  are decided in committee, and the elders make at least a show, if not an honest practice, of 
  rewarding loyalty and ability among underlings. Unlike a true corporate board, presiding 
  vampires rarely have the power to vote their chairman out, and those below them cannot often 
  look forward to a death or retirement opening up a managerial position. Both the Invictus 
  and the Carthians make frequent use of this governmental model.
  THE DIOCESE
  The Church has inﬂ uenced both mortal and Kindred history more than any other single 
  entity or organization in the West, and many Kindred model their domains on Church 
  hierarchy even tonight. To uninformed outsiders, this system often appears identical to a 
  feudal system with new names. The Prince — who usually takes an ecclesiastical title such as 
  Archbishop or Cardinal — rules absolutely, assisted by a council of advisors (variously called 
  Priests, Bishops or the like) who serve as enforcers and landowners. The vast majority of 
  government activities • feudal monarchy • the boardroom
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  28
  Church-modeled domains tend to swing toward one of two extremes. Many of them — par-
  ticularly those dominated by the Lancea Sanctum, who make greater use of this system than 
  any other covenant — truly do enforce a rule by religious doctrine. They demand observances 
  and certain behaviors of those who dwell in their domains, or at least of those who would 
  hold ofﬁ ces therein, and truly believe the faith they espouse. At the other extreme are those 
  Kindred who seek to use the trappings of faith and the beliefs of others for their own ends. In 
  these domains — usually found in cities held by the Invictus, the Ordo Dracul, the Circle of the 
  Crone or the unaligned — the overt religious nature of the government is either deliberately 
  mocking, or meant to inspire a loyalty among faithful Kindred that leaders themselves do 
  not honestly share. In either domain, merely questioning the rule of leaders is often a greater 
  crime than in more overtly feudal domains, for the “criminal” does not merely challenge a 
  secular authority, but the rule of God (or Longinus or the Crone or whoever). These domains 
  usually hold ofﬁ cial functions with as much pomp as do monarchies, but such gatherings are 
  usually devoted to religious pursuits, including prayers and hymns or rituals and ceremonies, 
  rather than celebrations of the rulers themselves.
  BY THE KINDRED, FOR THE KINDRED
  Found almost exclusively within Carthian domains (though some of the unbound have 
  tried it, and some Invictus Kindred have tried to appear as though they try it) are those recent 
  attempts at imitating modern governmental systems. These Kindred want to take the lessons of 
  mortals to heart, to eliminate rule by the eldest or most powerful under which they’ve always 
  suffered, and to grant all Kindred an equal say in what happens to them, or at least an equal 
  opportunity to attain power. To date, few of these attempts have lasted, as those Kindred who 
  do obtain power eventually decide they don’t care to give it up when their brethren tell them 
  they should. Those few domains that do remain often resemble the worst aspects of mortal 
  government. They are mired in rules, regulations and red tape designed to prevent any single 
  vampire from wielding too much power, and they are paralyzed by squabbles among various 
  ofﬁ cials, all of whom are convinced that their own vision for the city and government is the 
  way to go. Their courts usually resemble either chaotic public forums or very orderly (and 
  difﬁ cult to obtain) private meetings with high ofﬁ cials.
  COMMON LAW
  While the Traditions (see p. 91) form the basis for all Kindred law, they do not represent 
  the extent of that law. Every Kindred domain has its own rules and regulations. Some have 
  more than others, some enforce them more severely than others, and some are downright 
  bizarre, the results of an eccentric or insane Prince. They all have them, though. Some of the 
  most common laws, those found in many domains, are listed here.
  PRESENTATION
  Many Princes demand that any Kindred newcomers to their cities present themselves 
  formally at court. This is partly to make sure that the Prince has a solid grasp on who’s in his 
  city at any given time, and partly to make sure that the new arrival understands who holds 
  power and what she’s supposed to do while she’s there. Of course, following this custom 
  can be difﬁ cult, since new arrivals rarely know how to ﬁ nd the Prince in order to report, 
  but that, frankly, is their problem. In domains with this law, Kindred who go for more than 
  a few nights without presenting themselves are likely to be dragged before the Prince upon 
  being caught. If the Prince is understanding, he might simply issue a warning. Just as likely, 
  he banishes the offender from the domain without allowing any time to prepare, which is 
  tantamount to a death sentence.
  
  29
  WEAPONRY AND THE DANSE MACABRE
  Given the heavily armed nature of the modern age, it’s worth noting that 
  vampires often must be very careful about where they carry weapons within the 
  domain. While wandering one’s own territory armed is seldom a problem, bringing 
  a weapon into another vampire’s territory unannounced can cause some problems, 
  as it’s very easy to interpret as a threat in the eyes of suspicious Kindred. Even more 
  importantly, smuggling a weapon into Elysium or into any sort of audience with the 
  Prince is typically seen as a serious if not outright deadly insult. After all, Elysium 
  is supposed to be a neutral territory — sneaking a weapon into that situation is 
  therefore seen as either an intent to violate the peace of Elysium, or an implication 
  that the ruling authorities are not powerful enough to enforce the peace, a slight 
  few such inﬂ uential Kindred will tolerate. Likewise, entering the presence of the 
  Prince with a concealed weapon implies either an assassin’s intent, or simply that 
  one does not feel enough respect for the Prince to go unarmed. Neither message is 
  particularly healthy for the reputation or well-being of the Kindred in question. 
  Of course, exactly how strictly this practice is enforced depends on the Prince and 
  the domain in question. Since they know many Kindred will try to go armed whenever 
  possible, one solution favored by many Princes is to decree that weapons are forbidden 
  at Elysium and other Kindred gatherings, then grant permission to carry a weapon as 
  a political favor. This not only rewards those who display obediance, but also subtly 
  stacks the deck against those who would threaten the Prince’s interests. Ofﬁ cers such 
  as the Sheriff and the Hound are typically assumed to be allowed to carry weapons 
  in the course of their duties, and other ofﬁ cers may receive it in deference to their 
  power or personal standing. Lastly, in domains or territories that are under siege 
  or where Kindred are frequently in danger of attack (witch-hunters, Lupines, etc.), 
  carrying a weapon may be far more common and accepted, especially if those forces 
  have actually attacked Elysium in the past. Even the most tyrannical Prince knows that 
  attempting to needlessly disarm Kindred who fear for their existence is tantamount 
  to inviting rebellion.
  Princes that forbid vampires from being armed in Elysium or other speciﬁ ed areas 
  typically require that all weapons be checked at the door, where they can be secured 
  until the vampire decides to leave. Even if a vampire is permitted to carry a weapon, 
  most of the time they must still declare its presence to the Master of Elysium, so that 
  there are no unpleasant surprises later. Note that while it may be relatively easy for 
  Kindred to smuggle weapons in using Touch of Shadow or mundane methods, the 
  penalties for being caught with a weapon later on are typically much harsher, as not 
  only has the Kindred deﬁ ed the prohibition, but actively attempted to conceal this 
  violation as well. Sufﬁ ce it to say that the punishment is seldom worth the dubious 
  security of carrying around a gun or a knife, especially since such weapons are typically 
  little threat to the Kindred. 
  CLAN, COVENANT OR BLOODLINE RESTRICTIONS
  In some cities, the powers that be have a particular aversion to one particular clan, cov-
  enant or even familial bloodline and have decreed that group a pariah. In these domains, 
  merely being Nosferatu or Carthian or whatever is a breach of the domain’s social contract. 
  A member of said group is forced to leave the city, but some truly vicious or hateful Princes 
  call blood hunts on fugitives.
  While a city might be dominated by a single covenant, almost no city belongs entirely to 
  one faction over the others, and most contain members of at least three or four, if not all 
  ﬁ ve, of the major covenants. Even rarer, almost to the point of nonexistence, is a city where 
  one speciﬁ c clan holds absolute power.
  the diocese • by the kindred, for the kindred • common law
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  30
  FEEDING RESTRICTIONS
  Some Princes declare certain types of mortals off-limits to the Kindred population. The 
  restricted type can be anything as narrowly deﬁ ned as a single family (“None shall touch the 
  descendents of Philip Danforth, for he once saved my life when I was mortal”), a profession (“I 
  need the police to hold back the criminal gangs employed by the unbound”), or even an entire 
  demographic (“As I am a Catholic, and I believe that only we have seen the true way, you shall 
  not touch any of the faith, that we may spread the Word to others”). Of course, the Prince’s 
  reasons for declaring any particular group off-limits might well be entirely selﬁ sh — maybe he 
  himself feeds only on that type, and doesn’t want the competition — but that doesn’t make the 
  law any less valid. Violators of such laws are usually banished, but some are slain.
  TITLE, RANK AND POSITION
  So who holds all the power in Kindred society? What, really, deﬁ nes a Prince or a member 
  of the Primogen or a Sheriff? Are they all the same? What do they really do?
  Presented here are the primary ranks and positions found throughout Kindred domains. 
  Not every city has one of these positions — in fact, the smallest of communities might have 
  only two or three of them — but they are common enough that all are worth discussing. Note 
  that while each position is listed by its most common title, all of them are known by various 
  terms throughout the world.
  More on these positions and how they function in game terms can be found in Appendix 
  Two: The Danse Macabre.
  PRINCE
  The single most important and ubiquitous ﬁ gure in Kindred politics, the Prince normally 
  rules her city with nearly absolute power. Some are weaker than others, of course, and some 
  are mere ﬁ gureheads for powerful Primogen or other elders. For the most part, however, any 
  given Prince holds that position for no other reason than that she was strong enough to take 
  it in some way. She might be a consummate politician who attained her post by accumulating 
  favors from all the other elders, and who now manages her domain through diplomacy and 
  compromise. Alternatively, she might be a veritable warlord who gained power by intimidat-
  ing or “disappearing” her rivals, and now maintains power through the simple expedient 
  of slaughtering anyone who questions her. Most Princes, of course, fall somewhere in the 
  middle, but nearly all boast some advantage or trait that keeps them on top.
  Of course, a Prince must do more than bark orders and issue death sentences. Her job 
  is not merely to govern, but to regulate. A Kindred domain is a boiling pot, full of personal 
  and sectarian conﬂ icts, petty grudges and endless political maneuvering, all topped with 
  the innate and inescapable violence of a race of predators who feed on blood. The Prince’s 
  job is to keep a lid on that pot — or, perhaps more accurately, to be the lid on that pot. The 
  reason most Princes eventually become dictatorial is that they must keep so many powerful 
  and easily agitated vampires in line.
  Note that in some rare cities, normally those largely dominated by the unaligned and the 
  Carthians, the Prince may attain power through means other than sheer personal ability. Such 
  a Prince might be selected by local elders. The Carthians have even attempted open elections. 
  Most often, such Princes are either overthrown by more powerful Kindred or themselves become 
  tyrants to make sure they are not overthrown.
  Other Titles
  While Prince is the most common term by far, Kindred leaders refer to themselves as 
  Cardinal, Bishop, Archbishop, Don, President (usually in the case of those rare elections 
  
  31
  mentioned earlier), Sultan, Lord, Duke or 
  whatever title strikes their fancy, depending 
  on the nature of their government. A few 
  self-styled “Queens” exist, but most Kindred 
  leaders avoid use of the title King.
  SENESCHAL
  The Prince’s right hand, the Seneschal is 
  responsible for many of the night-to-night 
  details of running a government. While the 
  Prince concerns himself with conﬂ ict in the 
  city and making certain the Masquerade 
  goes unbroken, the Seneschal makes sure 
  that things run smoothly in the government 
  itself. He is responsible for keeping track of 
  the Prince’s assets (and possibly those of the 
  Primogen or other ruling bodies). He makes 
  schedules and appointments and handles the 
  many logistics required so that no elder feels 
  that another is given preferential treatment. 
  The Seneschal holds substantial power in the 
  domain, for he often decides whose petitions 
  are passed on to the Prince, who receives a 
  court audience, and in what order. In some 
  few but noteworthy domains, the Seneschal’s 
  power is so complete, and he is so much bet-
  ter informed of happenings among the elders 
  than the Prince himself, that it’s unclear who 
  the true ruler is.
  Other Titles
  Although Seneschal is the most fre-
  quently used term by far, the position is 
  also sometimes referred to as Amanuensis, 
  Chamberlain, Majordomo, Secretary and, in 
  some of the most informal domains, simply 
  as an assistant.
  HERALD
  The Herald is the Prince’s mouthpiece. 
  When the Prince makes a decree, the 
  Herald’s job is to make sure that all of the 
  city’s Kindred hear of it (assuming it’s meant 
  for all ears…). When the Prince convenes an 
  unscheduled court, the Herald is responsible 
  for alerting those who must attend. The 
  Herald hands down judgment, represents 
  the Prince in proxy when she cannot (or 
  will not) make a personal appearance, and 
  otherwise serves as something of a “secretary 
  title, rank and position • prince • seneschal • herald
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  32
  of state.” The Herald is assumed to speak with the Prince’s voice at all times. Some treacher-
  ous or ambitious Heralds use this fact to direct other Kindred to their own liking, making 
  suggestions that others assume carry the weight of the Prince’s orders. Some Heralds who 
  were less subtle than they believed have been executed for this very thing, so wise Heralds 
  remain more or less honest.
  The Herald position is often absent in small cities. In many such cases, the Seneschal (or 
  less frequently the Sheriff) handles these duties in addition to his other responsibilities.
  Other Titles
  In addition to Herald, this position is sometimes called Minister, Runner, Mouthpiece, Spokes-
  man or Secretary (not in the domains where the Seneschal bears that last title, of course).
  PRIMOGEN
  If a single position can be considered nearly as ubiquitous and representative of Kindred 
  politics as the Prince, it is the Primogen. The Primogen (singular as well as plural) ofﬁ cially 
  serve as the Prince’s advisory council on matters of policy. The precise nature of that council 
  varies from domain to domain. If the Prince is strong and especially tyrannical, the Primogen 
  might be little more than a formality, a conclave of elders who serve to rubberstamp whatever 
  the Prince wishes to do. In most domains, they serve as true advisors, and most wise Princes 
  try to take that advice into account whenever possible. Some Primogen are powerful enough 
  (or the Prince they advise is weak enough) that they can actually overrule the Prince on 
  certain matters. A few Primogen actually rule their cities, either through a ﬁ gurehead Prince 
  or openly as a governing body.
  The precise size and nature of the Primogen varies. Some are informal, meeting in shadowy 
  back rooms when the situation requires, arguing out whatever issue brings them together. Oth-
  ers cleave to a schedule and procedures for speaking, often appearing much like a governing 
  board, a congress, an old-fashioned Greco-Roman senate, an ecclesiastic council or any other 
  form of organization imaginable. Said councils can range from a mere three or so vampires in 
  small communities to large advisory bodies, which may consist of a dozen or more Kindred.
  For the most part, the Primogen consist of those local elders who have sufﬁ cient power to 
  claim a seat. Also common are those Primogen who decide among themselves whom to admit 
  into their ranks. More rarely, a Prince might select members of his advisory council, but this 
  occurs only in cities where the Prince is especially strong and the Primogen especially weak. Most 
  Primogen contain a mix of members of various clans and covenants, though some are more 
  homogenous, depending on the domain. That is, the Primogen in a city largely dominated by 
  Carthians is likely to have more Carthian members than any others, and the Primogen in a city 
  where the Gangrel are persecuted is unlikely to have many Gangrel members.
  Other Titles
  The vast majority of these councils (and council members) go by the title Primogen, but 
  they are sometimes known as Boards, Circles, Senates, Tribunals or simply as advisors.
  PRISCUS
  A Priscus (Prisci in plural) is the informal “head” of a speciﬁ c clan in a domain. This posi-
  tion is not an ofﬁ cial one in the local governmental structure. Rather, it evolves organically 
  as a single powerful Kindred takes responsibility for his clanmates. This can be a choice he 
  himself makes, to seek power, or it might result from others of his clan coming to him with 
  problems. As an informal position, the Prisci have no institutional power or rank. That said, 
  the position does convey a substantial amount of status, and because it’s usually powerful 
  and well-respected Kindred who attain the position, the Prince and other elders are wise to 
  at least consider their opinions. Many Prisci also sit on the Primogen, but the two bodies are 
  
  33
  not synonymous; not all Prisci are Primogen, and not all Primogen are Prisci. Many cities 
  have no Prisci, and many more have Prisci for some clans and not others.
  WHIP
  Perhaps one of the strangest of Kindred positions, the Whip is as informal a position as 
  the Priscus. She is responsible for “inspiring” her clanmates to present a united face on major 
  issues and to make their voices heard on local issues, to make sure that the other clans take 
  them seriously. She is both a leader and a taskmaster, a ﬁ gurehead and a bully. Many Kindred 
  make the mistake of thinking of the Whip as an assistant to the Priscus. In point of fact, the 
  two positions are independent, and oftentimes at odds with each other. A Whip succeeds 
  only as long as she has sufﬁ cient power or leverage to force her clanmates to do as she wishes. 
  Whips exist only in those cities with fairly large populations of a given clan, and even then 
  only if a particular member of that clan feels the need to take the position.
  Other Titles
  Whips are often referred to, informally and angrily, as taskmasters, slavers, headmasters 
  and many other far less polite terms.
  HARPY
  Unusual in that it is both an ofﬁ cial and unofﬁ cial position, the Harpy is, at its simplest 
  level, a member of the “Kindred elite.” Harpies represent a who’s who of Kindred affairs, the 
  celebrities and fad-starters. Other Kindred look to Harpies to see who’s in and who’s out, and 
  what positions and opinions are popular this season. A well-known Harpy can sway public 
  opinion faster with a biting comment than some Princes can with a solid decree.
  Harpies who attained their inﬂ uence and position unofﬁ cially, through nothing more than 
  personal power and charisma, are often more respected than those who are appointed by 
  Prince or Primogen. An unofﬁ cial Harpy probably calls things as he truly sees them, whereas 
  an appointed Harpy is usually considered a shill or even propagandist for the Prince.
  SHERIFF
  A combination police investigator, enforcer and inquisitor, the Sheriff is responsible for en-
  forcing the Prince’s laws and dictates, for bringing outlaws before the Prince for judgment and 
  — at times — for carrying out sentences. Some Sheriffs truly believe in the rule of law and believe 
  that they serve their society and fellow Kindred by keeping the city as orderly as possible. Others 
  love the position for the power it offers, as they are permitted to bully and push around other 
  vampires, even those who would normally be too dangerous to touch. Some Sheriffs are clever, 
  subtle investigators, while others are little more than bruisers with rank.
  Other Titles
  While Sheriff is the most common title, the position is also sometimes called Reeve or 
  Constable.
  HOUND
  Quite simply, the Hound is the Prince’s (or Primogen’s) muscle. If the Sheriff is a policeman, 
  the Hound is an assassin or a leg-breaker. He doesn’t investigate, he doesn’t question. His job 
  is to punish anyone he’s told to punish. In some instances, the Hound and the Sheriff are at 
  odds due to their overlapping responsibilities. In other cities, the two are combined into a single 
  position. While the Hound might be asked to carry out the ofﬁ cial and public chastisement of 
  a lawbreaker, that duty more often falls to the Sheriff. The Hound is normally employed when 
  the Prince wishes to skip over normal (and possibly public) procedure.
  Other Titles
  In addition to Hound, such an enforcer is often called Assassin, Archon, Scourge or Templar.
  primogen • priscus • whip • harpy • sheriff • hound
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  34
  MASTER OF ELYSIUM
  In essence a combination master of ceremonies and groundskeeper, the Master of Elysium 
  is responsible for maintaining a city’s Elysium, ensuring its readiness for court or other ofﬁ cial 
  functions, cleaning up afterward and making sure that word of speciﬁ c Elysium-related events 
  reaches those who must attend. The Master of Elysium is also responsible for enforcing the 
  custom of nonviolence at such gatherings, and he often works hand-in-hand with the Sheriff 
  or Hounds for such purposes. In many cities, the duties of Master of Elysium fall on the Sen-
  eschal or Herald. In particularly large cities, more than one Master of Elysium exists, perhaps 
  even one for each declared Elysium.
  SUBINFEUDATION
  While the feudal model upon which Kindred society is based has its roots in similar his-
  torical mortal practices, only the most oblivious Kindred would refuse to acknowledge that 
  governmental feudalism is all but dead in the world of mortal politics. Some of the realities that 
  brought feudalism to an end in the mortal world plague the Kindred world. Unlike many mortal 
  governments, however, the Kindred have found a way to work around such problems.
  Quite simply, cities are too big, populaces too large, and minutiae too overwhelming for a 
  single Prince to truly rule an entire domain. Only in the smallest communities can a solitary 
  Prince hope to lay sweeping claim to all of a domain. As a result, the process of domain sub-
  infeudation occurs, which is the breaking down and parceling out of different sub-domains, 
  each of which becomes the responsibility of a “sub-Prince” who answers to the true Prince’s 
  ultimate authority. Such ﬁ gures of authority are known as Regents, and their sub-domains 
  are known as tenurial domains.
  For all intents and purposes, a Regent is a Prince in everything but name, with a single, 
  signiﬁ cant difference. The Regent has no praxis in his tenurial domain, no claimed “right to 
  rule.” Rather, a Regent is awarded his position by the Prince herself, who can unmake a Regent 
  just as easily as she made him. Appointment to a Regency is almost always accompanied by a 
  formal oath of subservience, particularly among the Ventrue and in domains with a powerful 
  presence of the more traditional covenants such as the Invictus or Lancea Sanctum. Even among 
  more “progressive” clans and covenants, Regencies do not come lightly, and the wise Prince 
  ensures loyalty through some vow, contract or other deﬁ ned agreement.
  How much power a Regent has over a tenurial domain depends on the power of the city’s 
  Prince and why the Prince assigns the domain in the ﬁ rst place. One of the beneﬁ ts of the 
  Regency is the ability to set one’s own rules, as long as they also enforce the Prince’s dictates. 
  Of course, some Princes speciﬁ cally restrict the actions of their Regents (such as, “You may not 
  designate an area Elysium” or “Only the true Prince may grant the right to Embrace”), but the 
  title itself comes with near autonomy unless the Prince speciﬁ es otherwise.
  Regents come in all varieties. Some are themselves loyal or respected elders, gifted with 
  certain domains in which the Prince acknowledges their status, inﬂ uence or expertise. Prisci 
  and Harpies are prime examples of candidates for this sort of Regency, but one does not 
  necessarily beget the other. Other Regents are upraised ancillae or even neonates who are 
  tasked with the upkeep and maintenance of certain tenurial domains (whether as reward, 
  opportunity, trial or punishment…). Some Regents are important ﬁ gures among their own 
  clans or covenants, granted tenurial domains to reﬂ ect that status much as a Church bishop 
  or archbishop might have been granted political territory in mortal history. Deposed Princes 
  who haven’t been sent to their Final Deaths upon a new Prince’s claim of praxis often ﬁ nd 
  themselves made Regents, either to prove their loyalty to the new regime or so the new Prince 
  can keep an eye on them. Granted, these last instances are rare.
  
  35
  TENURIAL DOMAINS
  A great many Kindred tend to confuse the concepts of tenurial domains and feeding 
  grounds (see p. 101). Indeed, the two are often intertwined, though one doesn’t necessarily 
  encompass the other. A tenurial domain is simply an area ruled by a speciﬁ c Regent, inside a 
  larger region. For instance, a particularly powerful elder might claim a speciﬁ c neighborhood, 
  and the Prince of the city might legitimize the elder’s claim. The Prince might do so because 
  he wants the elder in his debt, or it might simply be that the Prince doesn’t have the power 
  to challenge the elder. In other circumstances, the Prince of a small city might retain power 
  even after her erstwhile domain is annexed by a larger city and thereby made tenurial.
  Alternatively, the Prince might grant a favored servant or ally tenurial rights over a small area. 
  The Prince wins all ways. He makes the smooth running and customs enforcement of a part of 
  his domain someone else’s responsibility, he grants a favored ally enough power to make her 
  grateful, and he has the ability to strip that power away at a single word if the underling proves 
  treacherous or otherwise dangerous.
  At other times, the Prince doesn’t really intend to grant the Regent quite so much power, 
  but only “feeding rights” to a given territory. Shrewd Kindred are able to transform feeding 
  rights into true power by trading permission to feed for favors or even further subinfeudation. 
  (After all, the Regent has every power of a Prince in her tenurial domain.) Wise Princes take 
  advantage of the opportunity to let others shoulder the responsibility for running portions 
  of the city. Less wise and more fearful Princes attempt to curtail the development of all such 
  domains. Most of these would-be tyrants are ousted from power when the Kindred beneath 
  them grow sick and tired of the lack of opportunity.
  UNCONVENTIONAL DOMAINS
  Hand in hand with the evolution of tenurial domains came the advent of less tangible no-
  tions of domain. Whereas a Prince might once have granted an ethnic ghetto or prestigious 
  neighborhood to a Regent, some Princes now grant dominion over spheres of inﬂ uence under 
  the auspices of domain, both their own and tenurial. A Prince who acknowledges one of his 
  subjects’ sway among the authorities might grant “law enforcement” as a tenurial domain. A 
  Kindred who owns signiﬁ cant property among trading ports might be granted rights to “the 
  docks,” both as a geographical region and in reference to shipping commerce.
  These sorts of domains are just as valid as any other tenurial domain, but they’re harder 
  to be wary of. After all, when one steps into a region known to be the territory of another 
  Kindred, he knows he crosses a physical, tangible line of demarcation. On the other hand, 
  how far does a grant of an unconventional domain go? If the health-care infrastructure of 
  a city is one Kindred’s tenurial domain, does that include hospitals (surely), independent 
  practitioners (maybe), and even drug stores (likely not)? Unless the Prince speciﬁ cally 
  outlines the extent of the Regent’s domain — which makes for awkwardly wordy titles and 
  occasionally incenses the Kindred who’s ostensibly being honored with the grant — bound-
  aries remain vague.
  An unconventional domain is a double-edged sword. The Regent arguably has to be more 
  vigilant in his tenure’s dimensions than a Kindred granted domain over a physical region. 
  After all, how can a Kindred granted tenurial domain over “the police” be sure that somewhere 
  in that organization, someone’s not answering to another one of the Damned? Further, if 
  other Kindred recognize the tenure too broadly, the esteem can work against the Regent, as 
  those excluded from the domain can use the Regency as an example of a stranglehold over a 
  particular aspect of unlife and rally others against the Regent. A Regent of Fine Arts would 
  likely face signiﬁ cant opposition, as would a Regent of Finance. This isn’t to say such things 
  master of elysium • subinfeudation
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  36
  don’t happen, but rather that those positions are either embattled or held by Kindred with 
  such enormous personal power that they can maintain broad tenurial domains.
  TERRITORIAL DISPUTE
  Trouble arises occasionally between the Prince and his Regents, and more frequently 
  between Regents themselves. A rare few Regents are so powerful that they can pass laws in 
  opposition to the Prince’s decrees or at least refuse to enforce the Prince’s decrees. Domains 
  occasionally overlap, as well, especially when unconventional domains come into conﬂ ict 
  with geographical ones. For instance, if a crime occurs in a Regent’s neighborhood, is that 
  her issue or does it fall under the auspices of the Regent of Law Enforcement?
  In many of these cases, the only clear winner is the Prince, as the resources that rival Re-
  gents devote to foiling each other take their attention from him. Indeed, if things turn ugly 
  and one of the Regents ends up meeting Final Death, that leaves a potential position open 
  for another Kindred’s reward.
  As might be expected, conﬂ ict over tenurial domains is common. It rarely escalates beyond 
  the boundaries of grudges and vendettas, but such feuds can be bitter and long-lived, as with 
  any interaction between Kindred. Indeed, some cities have been plunged into veritable civil 
  war over domain disputes, but most savvy Princes know to step in and reevaluate their Regents 
  before things become so dire.
  SOCIETY HIGH AND LOW
  While many of the Kindred’s actions seem to be politically oriented, that’s certainly not 
  the full extent of their interactions with each other. Indeed, the bulk of Kindred interactions 
  occur in social venues, but as is the case with such relationships, the outcomes are not so 
  rigidly deﬁ ned. The Kindred power structure is formalized. The Kindred social structure has 
  many more facets that can’t possibly be explained in a single book.
  Kindred Requiems are curious things. As noted before, vampires are solitary predators, 
  yet they crave the social contact that keeps their deathless loneliness at bay. Every Kindred 
  has some reason or another to attend social functions. For the Daeva, the sensuality of such 
  contact is ﬁ rst and foremost. The Ventrue enjoy opportunities to display their grandeur and 
  muniﬁ cence. The Gangrel certainly enjoy cutting loose under the right circumstances. And 
  even the Mekhet and Nosferatu need to emerge from the shadows and forget that they’re 
  monsters, if only for a short time.
  The following are just a few examples of the many ways in which Kindred gather and meet 
  without the formalities of domain politics imposing themselves. Of course, what happens in 
  these venues can certainly affect politics (and only the most naïve Kindred think such things 
  happen only rarely), but at least those politics aren’t the order of the night in every exchange 
  between Kindred.
  Nightlife: The Damned are no strangers to the dance clubs, bars, lounges, pool halls and 
  numerous other places where mortals go to enjoy themselves. For most Kindred, visiting such 
  places serves two purposes. It allows them to seek prey who are comfortable in their own 
  element, and it allows that longed-for contact with someone other than themselves.
  Cultural Events: To be sure, any time an art gallery shows an exhibit, an opera or ballet is 
  staged, a museum hosts a ceremony, or any other affair that represents the uniqueness of the 
  human condition takes place, the Kindred are there, drinking in its magniﬁ cence and making 
  their own known. These needn’t even be high-society affairs, as art shows can take place in 
  starving artists’ bohemian galleries, and not every play is a Broadway production.
  Parties: What better way to forget the pain of Damnation than to celebrate something 
  — anything — else. From lavish soirees hosted in grand hotel ballrooms or private mansions to 
  
  37
  warehouse parties, underground raves and countercultural festivals, a party can be a grandiose 
  affair or a reckless revel. Some Kindred even throw their own parties, with socialites hosting 
  nigh-Victorian engagements, lowlifes rousing the rabble and everything in between. Among 
  parties hosted by the Kindred, sometimes mortals are invited and sometimes not, depending 
  on the scale and purpose.
  Religious Ceremony: In nights long past, churches formed the center of communities. 
  While these faithless times make that less common, it is still true that a community that prays 
  together stays together. In those domains that host strong religious or spiritual presence among 
  covenants and individuals, centers of faith form the basis of relationships and interactions 
  that eclipse their clerical foundation. The anointing of a new childe, for example, or the for-
  mal adoption of a new member into a religious covenant can serve to draw Kindred of many 
  stripes together. Indeed, some religious ceremonies involve mortals, whether as sacriﬁ ces, or 
  more openly, such as with blood cults or groups that blend mortal and Kindred dogma.
  Salons: Salons are usually intellectual affairs, where invited Kindred gather to discuss a 
  particular idea. In some cases, the matter to be discussed might be a new philosophy, point 
  of debate or emerging new theory. Other salons reinterpret classical or even ancient ideas. 
  Salons can be formal, high-society affairs akin to their historical namesakes, debates only the 
  smallest step away from political gatherings, or even informal rants where a Kindred with a 
  pet passion puts it forth to whomever will listen. Salons usually bring great prestige to their 
  hosts — when they come off well, that is.
  Elysium: Not every gathering of Elysium is a political affair convened by a Prince with 
  matters of policy to discuss. Some are purely social, venues where Kindred can meet and not 
  have to worry about the… unpleasantness that occasionally occurs among their kind. Most 
  sites of Elysium in a given city are open (to the Kindred only, of course) at any time after dark, 
  maximizing the number of places where Kindred can congregate in relative safety.
  society high and low
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  38
  The Danse Macabre
  Throughout their long history, the Kindred have engaged in an endless struggle — the coldest 
  of cold wars, fought in the shadows of mortal society. This internecine conﬂ ict is known as 
  the Danse Macabre, and it nightly threatens to tear the entire race of the Damned apart.
  This secret war is both the beginning and the end for the undead. As a race, they are destined 
  to blood and violence, yet their survival depends on peace between them. They are consumed 
  nightly by the possibility that the war will consume them, and they toil ceaselessly in fear of having 
  to forever struggle against their own kind. The conﬂ ict is perhaps the greatest, saddest paradox 
  of the Kindred world, and as such, it is a fundamental aspect of unlife among the Damned.
  DEUS VULT
  Perhaps ironically, Christianity signaled the dawn of the Danse Macabre. Factionalism 
  spread like wildﬁ re through the mortals of Europe and the Holy Land, and for the ﬁ rst time, 
  parallel ripples of dissonance emerged from Rome herself. Emerging from the wake of the 
  events of the Cruciﬁ xion, the “Childer of Longinus,” as members of that covenant insist on 
  calling the earliest recorded vampires, were hardly content to sit huddled in their candlelit 
  chambers, speaking prayers to a father whose very actions had damned them, while word-
  lessly and thoughtlessly accepting everything their sires had taught them. No, the world was 
  changing, and with it changed the undead. Some vampires likened Christ’s resurrection to 
  the mockery of their own, and many fell to bickering about the nature of his divinity. Indeed, 
  some blasphemous Kindred even suggested that Christ was either some kind of vampire or 
  Longinus, himself! And, naturally, these and other social ﬁ ssures only further entrenched 
  elders and sires.
  During the Dark Ages, what had long been seen as a heretical movement grew to become 
  the order of the night. Many believed that God had forsaken the world entirely, and they left 
  their ancient traditions behind in favor of the whims of appetite and petty egotism. Hostilities 
  between Kindred reached an all-time high as sires struggled to keep childer in line amid an 
  endless sea of darkness and ﬁ re. Several religious orders emerged among the Kindred, each 
  possessed of a different slant on the nature of the Damned and their place in God’s world. 
  Many vampires latched onto the fringes of the Church and its scions, and the Damned were 
  some of the most active supporters of the early Crusades. Indeed, God Himself became the 
  foil that vampires would use upon one another, each more deftly than the last, in the name 
  of either power or righteousness.
  All their bluster came to a head during the burning times of the holy Inquisition. Vam-
  piric inﬁ ghting had grown so great, the Kindred’s arrogance so complete, that they drew 
  the attention of the mortal world. Although the effect was the widespread violation of the 
  First Tradition, the greater cause was the growing violation of the Blood-borne prohibition 
  against kinslaying and a decrease in the overall level of respect and love for God (or anything 
  resembling Him). 
  After the ﬁ res of the Inquisition died down, the Kindred discovered that their numbers 
  had dwindled, their fortunes had crumbled, their society had shattered and new factions 
  rose almost nightly. When they looked upon what their conﬂ ict had wrought, they neither 
  learned from what they saw nor endeavored to trace the disaster’s origin. Instead, the Kindred 
  all secretly blamed one another for the downfall of the system, and the species as a whole 
  turned inward. Where there had once been overt moves and periodic salvos into the domains 
  
  39
  and affairs of other Kindred, there were now hidden schemes and patient plans that took 
  years to unfold. The Damned still moved against one another, and they still engaged in the 
  Danse Macabre, but now they savored it more, learning the art to a carefully played game. 
  The Kindred were a patient breed — when one’s mentor is undeath, patience is the ﬁ rst lesson 
  one must learn — and they learned how to utilize that patience.
  THE BLOOD WILL TELL
  The coming of the Industrial Age saw a nearly paradoxical dichotomy emerge in the world of 
  the Kindred. Cities expanded at astronomical rates, and with each technological advancement 
  came more opportunities for inﬂ uence in the mortal world. By the same token, however, the 
  localization of power and money made each new resource that much more prized among the 
  undead. Territory in cities became a serious issue, and for the ﬁ rst time, political groups emerged 
  as major factors in Kindred society. The times called for some major adaptations in the ways the 
  undead did things, but as is endemic to a selﬁ sh and predatory species, very few Kindred took 
  up the mantle of responsibility with the intent of making sure that everyone adapted together.
  Even with the expansion of the mortal world, the Kindred continued to play their local 
  games of love and hate, point and counterpoint. The nature of vampiric existence no longer 
  allowed for extensively planned movements of units or forces across multi-national battle 
  maps. Vampires were no longer generals governing legions of childer and blood thralls, 
  ready to sail off to battle at a moment’s notice as a few had been in earlier times. They were 
  humanoid jackals, territorial scavengers with nothing but their food and land. And at the 
  end of the night, each vampire was a prisoner of that land, whether he called it home or not. 
  And when faced with that realization, many vampires tried to make themselves the wardens 
  of their prison homes, each bucking for superiority over the other inmates. Only when one 
  was the warden could he be sure of how the prison would operate from night to night.
  This notion in particular, the concept of control, is central to the Danse Macabre as it 
  is known tonight. Through the passing of years upon years, many Kindred feel the reins of 
  control slip ever so slowly from their clutching talons. Despite their temporal power, they 
  must sit by, unable to build or create or evolve as they once did, watching while the world 
  moves on around them. So they seek to amass as much mortal power and inﬂ uence as pos-
  sible in the hopes of feeling vicariously through their connections to modern reality. They 
  vainly seek a glut of material power hoping somehow to make up for the spiritual and creative 
  impotence of their existence.
  To make matters worse, other Kindred are often the only barometer by which an out-of-
  touch vampire can measure his own surrogate success. If his brothers and sisters of the night 
  do not fare very well, then logically, he must be truly successful. The entire system feeds on its 
  own illogic until, at a certain point, only the struggle for dominance remains. Some Kindred 
  even see this existence for what it is and claim that it is the only way their accursed kind can 
  progress with any peace through the ages. After all, they reason, only when one has control 
  over everything does one not need to resort to diablerie or kinslaying. The Danse Macabre, 
  they dare claim, is actually the salvation of the Kindred race! Needless to say, many vampires 
  would disagree vehemently, but it does go to show the degree to which the undead try to 
  rationalize what they have become.
  THE FOG OF ETERNITY
  Some modern neonates are surprised to learn just how little is known for sure among their 
  kind. Like many others before them, they make the mistake of assuming that creatures who 
  exist forever must likewise remember forever. The shock is even greater for those Embraced 
  in the last three decades, due to the prevalence and availability of information in the world. 
  the danse macabre • deus vult
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  40
  Upon being informed of just how old the Kindred truly are, many grow eager — giddy, even — to 
  ﬁ nd really old vampires and pick their brains about people, places and events of ages past.
  They quickly come to learn, however, that history is an inconstant companion for the Kin-
  dred. Even if a single (formerly) mortal mind could conceivably retain all it saw, learned and 
  experienced over a period of centuries, the very physiology of the Kindred form forbids such 
  clear and detailed recall. A vampire’s blood increases in potency the longer he stays awake and 
  active in the mortal world, and the more potent a vampire’s blood is, the more difﬁ cult it is 
  for him to remain at ease with the world around him. Potent blood is demanding, indeed. It 
  calls out for the Vitae of other Kindred — an urge potentially leading to the terribly sinful act 
  of diablerie. Failing that, it calls out for sleep, so that the blood at least has a chance to thin 
  over time and return the vampire to a semblance of his more composed self. To make matters 
  worse, certain vampiric activities can cause a Kindred’s blood to concentrate prematurely, 
  thus leading to further mental distortion, frustration and anguish.
  This fact alone would call into question any elder vampire’s ability to remember speciﬁ c 
  details of centuries past, but the Blood is neither the only nor the greatest contributor to the 
  eternal inconstancy of history where the Kindred are concerned. When an elder ﬁ nally does 
  succumb to the call for rest, she enters a state known as torpor, a comatose sleep during which 
  her vampiric essence thins out. While in torpor, the Kindred does not need to feed to keep 
  her unnatural form in its static state. She merely sleeps, rejuvenating her body.
  The difﬁ culty comes in the quality and nature of torpor-induced sleep. Being in torpor is 
  akin to lying prostrate through a decades-long waking dream. Visions, memories and images 
  of events past (and possibly even future) plague the addled mind of the torpid Kindred, and 
  that’s just a mild torpor experience. For some, torpor is a protracted nightmare, fraught with 
  horriﬁ c visitations of past atrocities and failures. Imagine all the most intense qualities of 
  a powerful drug high, combined with the lucid displacement of the deepest sleep, and the 
  result is what every passing hour of torpor is like. Now, try to imagine such a mental state 
  stretching on for 50 years. How about 100 years? The results can be harsh.
  Not even the strongest mortal mind could withstand such psychic duress for more than a few 
  days, let alone years. Waking from such a state would leave the average mortal psychologically 
  scarred, if not entirely catatonic. And yet, the Kindred must endure this punishment regularly 
  and repeatedly in order to survive the passage of centuries. Is it any wonder, then, that their 
  concept of time and the sequence of events is distorted? Indeed, some are simply too weak to 
  bear the brunt of the mental onslaught of repeated torpors. Their minds eventually shatter from 
  the strain, leaving them incapable of rising of their own volition. It is whispered that hundreds, 
  if not thousands, of such Kindred lie beneath the Earth’s surface, their sanity stripped from 
  their undead minds like husks from corn. Some believe that these insane Kindred will rise one 
  night and be like unto an army against the Damned society from which they were driven.
  Wise Kindred take steps to make sure that their precious thoughts and memories stay fresh, 
  and more importantly, ﬁ xed. Many use journals and other mundane means of recording events 
  and dates, while others resort to more drastic and often mystical means. One group in particular, 
  a faction known as the Agonistes, has taken it upon itself to catalog some of the knowledge 
  that has been lost to Kindred over time and in torpor, while simultaneously looking for ways 
  to ameliorate the worst of the great sleep’s effects. So far, the scholars of the Agonistes have 
  made little headway in the latter objective, but they have made such advances in the former as 
  to be “in demand” around the world. Indeed, many elder Kindred, in expectation of impending 
  torpor, summon one of the Agonistes to oversee his transition, as well as to assist in various 
  other record-keeping tasks. The group takes the “conﬁ dentiality” of patrons’ activities and 
  memories very seriously, and there have been few accusations of impropriety to date.
  
  41
  USING THE FOG OF ETERNITY
  Though the fog of eternity might seem harsh for players who wish to portray 
  centuries-old vampires, it is often much more of a blessing than a curse. For one 
  thing, it can be very useful in legitimately masking a player’s ignorance of speciﬁ c 
  historical facts that his character “should” know. After all, even if his character 
  was active in 1483, thanks to the dreamlike nature of torpor, his memory of the 
  time is likely to be quite sporadic at best. So if he happens to get a name wrong 
  or fails to remember important events, he can always explain it away in-character 
  as a result of his long sleep. That way the player can focus on what is important 
  for his character to know — personal details, events he was directly aware of or 
  involved in, a general “feel” of the period, etc. — without having him feel foolish 
  or put on the spot if he doesn’t know every last detail.
  Another advantage of such clouded memory is that it can be a fertile ground for 
  character development and roleplaying. If a player would like to introduce a particular 
  subplot or take a certain direction with his character development, he can always 
  have his character “remember” an incident from his past that spurs a change in the 
  present. Perhaps a cruel and heartless vampire suddenly recalls a love affair or an 
  act of kindness from the past, and seeks to atone for his crimes (raise his Humanity). 
  Or maybe the sight of a building burning reminds him of battles long past, causing 
  him to take up the sword again for the ﬁ rst time in centuries (raise his Weaponry). 
  Just remember two guidelines for such recollections: First, ask the Storyteller and any 
  other players involved if the memory might have some relevance to other characters 
  or the current story. Second, don’t try to use such sudden recollection to justify using 
  out-of-game knowledge.
  Of course, the fog of eternity is not just a tool for players to use. Imaginative 
  Storytellers can ﬁ nd all sorts of ways to play with the long stretches of time 
  rendered hazy, altered by dreams or even now utterly blank in a character’s past. 
  False memories, dream sequences, invented incidents, altered journals, coerced 
  witnesses, forgotten crimes, impostors posing as old friends, long-lost relatives (or 
  even childer), ancient feuds… the list of possible tricks and plot devices is quite 
  extensive, not to mention extremely versatile.
  For all its uses, however, the fog of eternity should never be used solely to screw a 
  player over. Players are very sensitive about their characters’ histories and personalities, 
  and with good reason. If you plan to use the fog of eternity to introduce an element 
  that changes a character’s whole history or paints him in a very different light, it’s best 
  to talk about it with the player ﬁ rst. Many players are willing to run with such ideas in 
  the interest of drama, even if they present a hardship in the short term. Failing that, 
  you can later reveal that the twist wasn’t really what it appeared to be at ﬁ rst, thus 
  leaving the player’s original sense of his character and history intact.
  THE WAY OF ALL FLESH
  It is both in and against Kindred nature to plot, scheme and ultimately bring to ruin the 
  unlives of their own kind. It is both fate and personal choice. Even those who seek to bring 
  about a better world for their kind (or at least a sub-set of their kind) merely further the 
  mistaken beliefs and ideals that lead to greater Kindred calamity. Some believe it is simply 
  the way of things: God’s will, inherent spiritual evil or the most natural aspect of an un-
  natural species.
  Others see the way the Danse Macabre is going and legitimately fear for the future. In recent 
  years, more evidence emerges about the vampires of old — the long-forgotten elders who might 
  have been the original progenitors of the modern clans. Elders of advanced age are feared 
  greatly, and rightly so, and the most common position to take is one of wishful thinking. 
  Pretend it’s not a threat, and it will go away.
  deus volt • the way of all ﬂ esh
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  42
  Just the same, puppets and sinners continue to bring news to the scattered domains of the Kin-
  dred. Stories of another burning time yet to come, when a reckoning shall fall upon the wayward 
  Damned. Some believe that various harbingers of some great accounting will rise, that the prophe-
  cies in various Kindred holy or occult texts will come true, that Longinus or the Crone will take 
  an accounting of the sins of their lines, that Dracula will return to ﬁ nd his covenant in disarray 
  and enact a culling or that only the purest of the pure will remain safe from whatever form this 
  portentous justice takes. Many still study the old ways and texts, searching for signs and omens of 
  when this dark time might arrive. They believe in the words of prophets and madmen among the 
  Kindred, and God help those who have forsaken them. Others believe the stories to be nothing 
  but rumor — another political ploy hatched from among the distempered minds of the young and 
  foolhardy. Others believe that some concordance among all the myriad tales, or the cryptic nature 
  and format of the stories themselves, indicates the return of a bloodline or covenant known as the 
  Moirai — one believed long dead yet still spoken of every night in hushed whispers.
  What is agreed upon, at least by those who have stopped to pay attention, is that the Danse 
  Macabre is headed into yet another era. Advancements seen in the last 30 years alone have 
  allowed Kindred-versus-Kindred conﬂ ict to blossom into never-before-seen arenas. Young 
  and savvy vampires use the Internet as often as they use any other tool of manipulation and 
  deceit, and with the advent of ﬁ ber optics, digital networking and a host of other inventions, 
  the possibilities are endless. Never before has there been so much potential in the art of war, 
  and despite the quiet nagging of what remains of the vampiric conscience, it all sounds pretty 
  good to the average vampire.
  And so, childer continue to plot and scheme against their sires, and sires continue to plot 
  and scheme against their childer and their rivals. The covenants continue to plot against each 
  other, and the unaligned continue to buck the authority of them all. The Carthian experi-
  ment shows no sign of slowing down around the world, for good or for ill, and beside it all, 
  the Circle of the Crone remains, vigilant and secretive. The stage is set for the next act in 
  the Danse Macabre, and all the players have taken their places. There isn’t a doubt in their 
  minds that they are ready for the play that awaits.
  After all, they’ve played these roles before.
  IN VITAE VERITAS
  While possessed of many curious properties, the Blood reacts in special ways between 
  vampires. Details as to why this happens are unknown. No blood-specialist or vampiric 
  hematologist has studied the phenomena extensively enough, and no mystics understand 
  the nature of the Curse so well. Certainly, though, these situations occur often enough and 
  widely enough to be known to all Kindred.
  PREDATOR’S TAINT
  Vampires instinctively know other Kindred upon sight, as the Beast seems to call to other 
  Beasts in its vicinity. Hackles rise, fangs extend and a sense of fear or territoriality overtakes a 
  Kindred upon meeting another vampire for the ﬁ rst time. The urge is primal and bestial. The 
  more potent Kindred sees the interloper as a threat to his superiority, while the less potent 
  vampire instinctively feels a desire to ﬂ ee this greater predator. Both Kindred potentially risk 
  frenzy at the overwhelming surge of instinct — the aggressive vampire feeling the urge to attack 
  the lesser to assert his dominance, and the “subordinate” vampire feeling a pressing urge to 
  ﬂ ee. Kindred of equally potency both feel the desire to attack each other and settle the matter 
  of primacy once and for all. True, such compulsions abate once two Kindred are familiar with 
  each other, but the initial experience can be terrifying — or perversely thrilling.
  
  43
  THE SWEETEST SIN
  The blood of the Kindred is both savory and sweet, scintillating the tastes with its heady, 
  forbidden ﬂ avors. Those who consume Kindred Vitae, especially other Kindred, ﬁ nd that they 
  long to taste it again. While the Damned would never stoop so low as to suggest that their 
  blood is addictive, the reality deﬁ es their semantic pride. Dependencies can develop, longings 
  make themselves felt, and full-blown addiction is certainly not out of the question.
  As a result, the sharing of blood between Kindred is looked down upon by Kindred society 
  as a whole. Although it is occasionally forgiven in light circumstances, such as a lover’s tryst 
  or another symbol of affection, those who make a habit of drinking other Kindred’s Vitae 
  are considered degenerates at best and potential diablerists at worst.
  THE VINCULUM
  Part of the Kindred’s ill regard for tasting the blood of other vampires is the Vinculum, 
  sometimes known as the blood bond. Those Kindred who consume the blood of another single 
  vampire three times become subjected to a unique state of emotional control. This Vinculum 
  creates a powerful but artiﬁ cial love for the vampire from whom three draughts are taken.
  A thrall is any being currently under the inﬂ uence of a Vinculum. The vampire to whom a thrall 
  is bound is called the regnant or domitor. In social situations, the term thrall is applied to bound 
  Kindred, as most undead think of blood-bound mortals solely as ghouls (see p. 99). This delinea-
  tion, however, is not entirely accurate. It is possible to have a mortal thrall who is not a ghoul, 
  as mortals who have tasted Vitae do not automatically become ghouls. Those who do, retain the 
  powers and traits of the ghoul only as long as Kindred Vitae remains in their system, but the power 
  of the Vinculum far outlasts any such limits. Rumor has it that the Vinculum can subvert the will 
  of even the wildest supernatural entities, but little hard data has come forth to verify this.
  Thralls are not complete slaves, but they come close. They constantly feel the artiﬁ cial love, 
  affection and loyalty imposed by the bond, even if they simultaneously hate their domitors for 
  demeaning or enslaving them. Among those who are weak-willed, naïve, mentally unstable or 
  even willing, the blood bond creates a feeling of singular devotion. Most Vinculums result in this 
  condition, as most thralls subjected to them either know what they’re getting into or have some 
  turgid notion of their relationship with their domitors-to-be. Ghouls who see their masters as 
  dark angels, Kindred lovers expressing their devotion to each other through mutual blood bonds, 
  even wayward “blood dolls” who readily give of their own blood to please their undead patrons… 
  All of these at least initially enter into Vinculums willingly. Others aren’t so enthusiastic, as with 
  unbound Kindred brought to heel under a Prince through the Vinculum, or truculent childer 
  forced to bond themselves to their sires “for their own good.” It truly is a blasphemous love, 
  for it is unnatural and the conscience often rebels against it. Thralls are normally incapable of 
  blatantly disobeying or working against their regnants, but some are sufﬁ ciently strong willed to 
  sabotage their masters in subtler ways.
  Some very rare coteries attempt to overcome the inevitable growth of mistrust between 
  members by engaging in a web of Vinculums. Reciprocal bonds wouldn’t work to hold a co-
  terie together; rather, it would engender loyalty between pairs. Instead, these coteries engage 
  in a practice that some Kindred youth have rather crudely dubbed a “circle jerk.” That is, one 
  neonate bonds herself to another, who bonds himself to a third, who bonds himself to a fourth, 
  who in turn bonds herself back to the ﬁ rst. The amount of trust required to enter into such an 
  arrangement is incalculable, and the results are inevitably painful for those involved, as they 
  must spend much of their time watching the object of their affections fawn over someone else. 
  Many coteries that attempt this process eventually tear themselves apart out of obsession and 
  petty jealousy. Those few that manage to make it work are remarkably cohesive.
  in vitae veritas • predator’s taint • the vinculum
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  44
  Kindred Covenants
  If the clans represent family and perhaps culture among the Kindred, and cities are their do-
  mains, then the various covenants represent the closest vampiric equivalent to nations, political 
  parties and even religions. The covenants form a cornerstone of undead society and — as far as 
  is possible to determine — are ancient traditions that have been part of the vampiric world for 
  centuries. The covenants that are (supposedly) oldest hold a more respected “pedigree” than 
  others, but none is truly modern. Even those young vampires who believe that Kindred society 
  as it exists tonight is a relatively recent development admit that the covenants almost certainly 
  predate the Industrial Revolution in some form or another.
  The covenants serve as nations, for they provide the Kindred with a sense of community 
  that they can ﬁ nd nowhere else. Kindred are Embraced into a clan, with no say of their own. 
  Like many mortals, even if they feel a loyalty to their blood and their family, they often differ 
  with one another in their opinions and beliefs. For the most part, they are trapped in their 
  home domains, and their loyalty toward the local regime is usually purchased with fear and 
  enforced by ambition. Covenant allegiance, however, is something over which Kindred have 
  personal control. They are drawn toward factions that espouse doctrines in which they can 
  believe (or at least to which they don’t object). Here, more than anywhere else, they are likely 
  to encounter other Kindred who share at least some of their ideas and objectives.
  The covenants serve as political parties, for they provide ambitious Kindred with built-in 
  support. Most covenants seek as much inﬂ uence in the local Kindred power structure as 
  possible, either to advance their own goals or to simply prevent rivals from gaining power. 
  For the most part, politically active Kindred would rather have a fellow covenant member in 
  power than any other rival (though many would certainly rather hold the power themselves, 
  when at all possible). A vampire with many elder allies working to aid his ascendance has an 
  undeniable advantage over rivals with less support.
  Perhaps most strangely, the covenants even serve as a religious body for some members. 
  While some of the covenants are overtly religious, all of the factions have strongly held be-
  liefs and attitudes that often reach the level of dogma. While some young Kindred ﬂ it from 
  ideology to ideology, either in search of a place to belong or trying to ﬁ gure out their own 
  attitudes, many other vampires cling so completely to the doctrines of their chosen covenants 
  that they are unable to comprehend any other viewpoints. While only a few covenants declare 
  outright that their way is mandated by Longinus, God or some other higher power, most of 
  them claim zealots who certainly seem to act that way.
  Further distinguishing them from clans, covenants have a ﬂ uid membership. A Kindred’s 
  clan never changes, but a Kindred’s covenant may. Certainly, it is difﬁ cult to forswear one’s 
  covenant and join a new one, but doing so is not impossible. An expected lack of trust often 
  accompanies such behavior, but only the most severe members of either the renounced or 
  the new covenant stoop to leveling claims of treachery against a convert. In many cases, a 
  Kindred’s philosophies simply change over the course of the Requiem. Most covenant mem-
  bers would rather lose a dilettante whose heart doesn’t truly belong to the cause any longer 
  than have her lack of faith undermine the rest. Granted, those who repudiate all covenants 
  usually lose signiﬁ cant esteem in the eyes of erstwhile peers, but sometimes a Kindred just 
  grows… away.
  Such being the case, it is with raised eyebrows that the Damned allow others of their kind 
  to move from one covenant to another. Oddly, neonates and under-accomplished ancillae 
  
  45
  have the easiest time of it, as their lack of tangible ties to covenants occasionally allow them 
  to escape notice. Some Kindred even count themselves as members of multiple covenants 
  — but only until they’re found out and forced to stop playing all sides against the middle. 
  More accomplished Kindred have difﬁ culty changing sides, usually because of the contacts 
  they’ve made or secret knowledge they’ve accumulated as a member of their original covenant. 
  Highly visible “defections” are usually the source of much gossip, and more than once have 
  been the foundation for ill will or even bloody vendetta.
  The covenants are not necessarily in constant conﬂ ict. Most cities contain members of all 
  of the major groups (or at least a few), and Kindred governments operate effectively with of-
  ﬁ cers and advisors from multiple factions. Like rival churches in ages past or political parties 
  in modern mortal government, the covenants often manage to coexist, yet they rarely agree 
  on any salient points.
  Still, the simple fact that these covenants exist at all inevitably leads to discord. Even those 
  few Kindred who don’t want power for themselves understand why it’s in their best interests 
  to make sure that fellow covenant members hold as much authority as possible. Every faction 
  wants to be in control, and every covenant has different views on how the Kindred should 
  rule (and even behave). In most cities, this conﬂ ict is covert, taking the form of political ma-
  neuvering, espionage, sabotage, bribery, blackmail and the occasional assassination. In select 
  domains, this ongoing cold war heats up and covenants engage in open conﬂ ict (as open as 
  possible for the Kindred). Much like mortal gang warfare, these conﬂ icts are usually short 
  but exceedingly bloody. Such conﬂ icts usually do not end so much as fade out when one or 
  all parties involved grow too exhausted to continue. The shaky peace that appears to result, 
  as the covenants are forced through attrition to coexist once more, often lasts only until one 
  of them regains sufﬁ cient strength to begin the process anew.
  COVENANTS AROUND THE GLOBE
  The Kindred exist everywhere humanity builds cities and extends cultures. Vampires 
  cover the globe, and while their numbers are few in comparison to those on whom 
  they feed, their population is not so small that it can easily be regimented into neat 
  factions. The covenants described here differ somewhat from domain to domain. That 
  is, a member of the Invictus in London probably shares most of the primary attitudes of 
  a fellow Invictus in Detroit, but they likely differ on a great many of the details.
  More importantly, other covenants beyond the major ones exist in various regions 
  throughout the world. The factions described here are the largest or most powerful, at 
  least in the West, but others exist in other cultures, in smaller communities and in Third-
  World nations. The covenants here represent the majority of Kindred, and the greater 
  portion of Kindred power, but they do not account for the entirety of either.
  It’s important to note that, while members of a given covenant tend to agree on certain 
  basic principles (and often ally with one another against outside rivals), plenty of tension and 
  enmity exists between members of a single covenant. In fact, in those cities where any given 
  covenant dominates, intra-covenant rivalry is actually more common than inter-covenant 
  rivalry. Invictus Kindred compete with others in the Invictus, Carthians struggle with rival 
  Carthians, and so forth. A vampire’s covenant allegiance is a good indicator of certain politi-
  cal and philosophical beliefs, but anything else is questionable.
  THE CAMARILLA
  In nights long past, all of vampire society united under one common banner, at least as far 
  as the Western World was concerned. This organization was known as the Camarilla, cor-
  kindred covenants • the camarilla
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  46
  responding roughly to a later Spanish word meaning “power group” or a cabal of conﬁ dential 
  advisors. The Camarilla’s might was unchallenged — anywhere Imperial Rome held sway, so did 
  the Camarilla. It is even suspected that many Kindred customs that survive to this very night 
  had their roots in Camarilla structure, such as the notion of Princes who govern autonomous 
  domains. While proof of pre-Roman vampirism is rare or incomplete, almost all Kindred ac-
  cept that pre-Roman vampires probably existed. They are commonly understood to have been 
  savage, monstrous and completely disorganized. If anything, their “society” was probably little 
  more than scattered, vague domains populated by a single vampire and any broods he chose to 
  foster. The now-defunct Camarilla was the ﬁ rst successful attempt at a true Kindred society.
  As the Roman Empire collapsed, however, so did the support structures of the Camarilla 
  crumble. As Kindred require the blood of mortals to keep them vital, they rely on mortal 
  society as a foundation for their own. With Europe fragmenting into isolated, feudal domains 
  during the Dark Ages, Kindred society had little choice but to do the same or fall entirely 
  into the barbarism of old.
  The nature of the Kindred themselves hastened the ruin of the Camarilla, as well. Ever 
  scheming and jealous, few vampires who rose to prominence in the Camarilla social order did 
  so out of a sense of altruism or justice. The Kindred then as now craved power and inﬂ uence, 
  and such could be obtained by crippling rivals’ access to the same.
  It comes as no surprise, then, to see that from the remains of the shattered Camarilla came 
  several different factions, each espousing a different policy or philosophy upheld by like-minded 
  elders and charismatic demagogues. Where once a single organization had stood, a handful 
  of distinct covenants emerged from the bleakness of the era. This development even set the 
  standard for later covenants to distinguish themselves from established Kindred society.
  Many of these covenants perished through the centuries, destroyed by opposing factions, 
  absorbed into similar ones, rooted out as heretics or simply abandoned as invalid. Vampires 
  cast about for covenants with which they could align themselves in hopes of achieving power, 
  but they remained ever wary that those factions would demand too much in return or limit 
  them too greatly with dogma.
  As history progressed, two groups of European Kindred formed an alliance. As mortal 
  society’s strength hailed from the twin pillars of the Church and the state, these covenants 
  formed their own version of the balance between temporal and pious power. The Lancea 
  Sanctum, a dire and evangelical covenant claiming a Biblical origin for vampires, rose to 
  claim a position of prominence as the spiritual leader of the Kindred. Its counterpart, known 
  as the Invictus (a reference to the group’s Roman origins), positioned itself as the vampiric 
  nobility. In domains where the alliance was powerful, the Invictus served as political ruler 
  of the Kindred, while the Lancea Sanctum made sure residents were duly worshipful of God 
  and mindful of a vampire’s place in the world.
  The alliance between the Invictus and the Lancea Sanctum was an effective model and 
  was easily hidden among the layers of mortal society it emulated. The allegiance experienced 
  great success, and it soon spread across Europe not unlike the feudal model from which it 
  drew its structures.
  Not all Kindred supported the alliance’s supremacy, however. Many old domains that 
  harbored Kindred who observed pre-Christian and even pre-Roman rites and mythologies dis-
  sented. Although they never formed a uniﬁ ed front, given that their beliefs and geographical 
  locations were too disparate, an undercurrent of rebellion occasionally prevented the alliance 
  from taking hold in numerous places. Magic drawn from the Old Ways held the Lancea 
  Sanctum’s dark miracles at bay, and the pagans held their own in many cases. These faiths 
  survive tonight as a loose coalition of factions, rarely organized but deﬁ nitely powerful, and 
  
  47
  with their own spheres of inﬂ uence. United only by common belief in a female progenitor 
  or patron of the race of Kindred, the covenant known as the Circle of the Crone cultivated 
  power through appeal to less overwhelming policies than the alliance’s conquering tactics.
  Another Kindred covenant eventually reared its head in Eastern Europe, fronted by an infa-
  mous and popular leader drawn from the ranks of the mortal nobility. This covenant’s founder 
  claimed that no vampire had Embraced him, but that he had been abandoned by God. Thus 
  forsaken, he became one of the Damned. Teaching a philosophy of vampiric transcendence, this 
  leader and his followers, the Ordo Dracul, upset the balance of power between the Invictus and 
  the Lancea Sanctum and rushed in to seize what it could in the resulting instability. The idea of 
  transcendence appealed to many Kindred, so the ideals of the Ordo Dracul took root and spread 
  outward. From the covenant’s foundation sometime during the 15th or 16th century to the nights 
  of the 21st, the Order continues to grow in power and increase in inﬂ uence.
  Time passes externally for the Kindred, even if their own bodies remain locked in stasis. 
  To many vampires, the feudal model upon which the alliance had built its power was an 
  anachronism by the 18th century. As the mortal world rallied to the cause of new forms 
  of government, many young vampires adapted new systems of politics to the society of the 
  Damned. These Carthians don’t always agree on what sort of political system is best, but 
  they ﬁ nd common disillusionment with the outdated modes of governance to which so 
  many other Kindred cling unquestioningly. Such philosophy ﬁ nds a home especially in the 
  New World, whose own sovereignty was won from the clutches of aristocratic nations. The 
  Carthians believe that it can be won for the vampiric order as well.
  As the modern nights unfold, a strange state of balance exists. In the Old World, many domains 
  still honor the rule of the alliance. Here and there, small pockets of resistance cleave to the ways of 
  the Circle of the Crone, while the Ordo Dracul still reigns in Eastern Europe. In the New World, 
  however, something much more resembling an equal footing exists. The Carthian cause attracts 
  new followers, especially among the young, who have never known noble rule and who have no 
  reason to suspect one exists as the world of the Kindred opens up to them. The Invictus and 
  the Lancea Sanctum still wield power, but the alliance is far more tenuous. Individual domains 
  often belong solely to a Lancea Sanctum Prince or an Invictus Prince, with little effort made to 
  preserve the customary relationship that survives between the two in the Old World. The Ordo 
  Dracul and Circle of the Crone each has no small support, too, though their New World incarna-
  tions are steeped less in the traditions from which they hail and more in the mindset of viable (if 
  somewhat arcane) alternatives to the undying atavism of the crumbling alliance.
  It is under these circumstances that modern vampires ﬁ nd themselves Embraced. Covenants 
  that have long been allies fragment, while new alliances form nightly to oppose the existing pow-
  ers that be. The Lancea Sanctum and the Invictus are strange bedfellows — except where their 
  differences have driven them to factional war. Seemingly opposed covenants such as the Circle 
  of the Crone and the Carthians feud over ideology — except when they bury the hatchet to face 
  mutual oppression. The world of vampires is truly gothic, with barbaric anachronisms still in 
  place where they had been centuries if not millennia before. At the same time, technology and 
  the world’s cultural Zeitgeist manifests in a spirit of rebellion that offers a chance to cast the 
  old shackles aside and replace them with new and exciting ideals. The world is at once medieval 
  and modern, and the society of the Damned embodies every aspect of that paradox.
  On occasion, a group of historians, uniﬁ cation-minded Kindred or downright conspirators 
  makes some effort to reestablish the Camarilla as it was in the nights of old. To date these 
  efforts have been doomed to failure, fracturing under the weight of whatever high-minded 
  (or underhanded) politics spawned the idea. That’s not to say that some future attempt at 
  consolidation wouldn’t work, just that it has yet to.
  the camarilla
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  48
  The Carthian Movement
  Undeniably the youngest of the major Kindred covenants, the Carthians are ﬁ re-eyed 
  reformists, eager to bring the establishment to its knees if that’s what it takes to facilitate 
  positive political change. If the unbound are the irritable loners and individualists, then 
  the Carthians are the Young Turks who seek to shake up the status quo with the honesty of 
  their passion and the ingenuity of their ideas. Due to the prevalence of young Kindred in the 
  modern age, the Carthian Movement sees quite a bit of support worldwide.
  Overview
  Carthians are full of ideas. They see brave new possibilities and models for Kindred 
  self-rule that they believe were unimagined before they arrived on the scene, and they long 
  to share those ideas with others. Few stop to wonder whether the existing status quo has 
  endured for a reason. Most are content to challenge it for the sake of trying to accomplish 
  something positive in a world as bleak as the Kindred’s.
  If the Carthians have a single enemy among the Damned, it is calciﬁ cation. Change is 
  vital to all social systems. Therefore, many Carthians fear the elders of their kind. They 
  don’t think elders pose a direct threat, but that elders are the most stagnant members of 
  their race, the least capable of hearing or accepting new ideas. For this reason, many sub-
  movements of the Carthian cause have some strict policies about who can join, as they fear 
  their dreams might become the target of some elder’s crusade.
  For the most part, they’re right. Most elder vampires have little interest in seeing a bunch 
  of neonates summarily rearrange the power structure that’s been in place for centuries. 
  Vampires are nasty, predatory creatures who only grow nastier and more predatory with age, 
  and few elders appreciate this latest “fad” among neonates. As a result, the Carthian Move-
  ment has become the scapegoat of choice for powerful elders. Were it not for the presence 
  of some great minds within the Movement (as well as a few elders of other covenants), the 
  faction might well collapse under the weight of tradition. All the same, the Movement has 
  met with limited success in some areas, and much like a persistent union, the Carthians have 
  begun to show some marked gains simply by remaining patient and playing the game as it 
  must be played. Their democratic notions don’t appeal to everyone, but what the Carthians 
  lack in wisdom and support, they tend to make up for in passion and unity.
  Members
  The Carthians embody the youngest generation of Kindred, even more so than the un-
  aligned. The vast majority of self-proclaimed Carthians are neonates, with a smattering of wily 
  ancillae who have either achieved some measure of power or satisfaction from their efforts 
  
  49
  as part of the covenant, or who are simply too afraid to abandon the faction after so many 
  years and relations forged (or destroyed). Once in a while, the rare elder emerges with ties to 
  the Carthian Movement, but most elders simply scowl at the very idea.
  When a vampire comes to the Carthian cause, he typically does so out of a genuine desire 
  to see some radical changes implemented in the secret world of the Damned. As might be 
  expected, the most numerous (and vocal) clan in the Movement is the Mekhet, many of 
  whom are drawn by the opportunity the covenant presents. Many consider the covenant to 
  be the last and best chance for positive relations between Kindred and kine, and as such, 
  a few are willing to do anything to make sure the Movement thrives and survives. While 
  most Ventrue normally shy away from anything Carthian, a number of Nosferatu and Daeva 
  can be found at Carthian gatherings. The former attend out of appreciation for a venue in 
  which fear can motivate, and the latter do so from a vampiric desire to involve themselves 
  in the affairs of others.
  Philosophy
  The foundation of the Carthian Movement is the notion that vampires needn’t blindly 
  accept the status quo. While these Kindred recognize that they’re being Embraced into a 
  world with its own secret history and traditions, they don’t feel they have to accept it all simply 
  because someone older than them says so. Rather, they believe that everyone can and must 
  have a voice, in death as he did in life, and that voice must be heard.
  This philosophy revolves around two core concepts that give the cause its ﬁ re.
  Power to the People
  The primary tenet of the Carthian cause is that any model of government that works for 
  mortals is applicable to Kindred. Democracy in particular is the cornerstone of Carthian 
  thinking, because it gives each individual a say in the affairs and administration of the people 
  as a whole. Socialism is a popular model, too. Due to the relatively small scale of vampire 
  society, many consider socialism more feasible for Kindred to adopt than it might be for 
  mortals. Carthians detest the notion of rule by divine mandate, and they strive to convince 
  those in power that existing structures should be examined thoroughly, and then modiﬁ ed 
  or torn down as necessary in order to create a better world for all Kindred. Needless to say, 
  few vampires in positions of power are immediately agreeable. They understand vampiric 
  nature well and know that even when Carthians “succeed,” the result is often little more 
  than the undead equivalent of a labor union. Such artiﬁ cial contrivances are inherently 
  dangerous to Kindred society.
  Change Is Necessary
  If part of the curse of undeath is stagnation and stasis, then the Kindred must be willing 
  to change and adapt to the times if they are to endure. Dismissing new ideas out of hand 
  simply because they are not what has been done before is the folly of ignorance, and such 
  folly drives the Carthians to bloody tears. If they, at so young an age, can recognize the truth 
  of vampiric existence, then why can’t the elders of their kind? Or is it that those elders have 
  long since forgotten? Regardless, the Carthians take it upon themselves to remind their 
  hoary sires and grandsires that no kingdom is forever, and that change comes to every thing 
  in every system in time.
  Rituals and Observances
  While the Carthians are considerably less ritualistic than either the Lancea Sanctum or 
  the Circle of the Crone, they still have their share of sacred practices. More often than not, 
  Carthian “rites” revolve around politics, and what starts as a debate can easily turn into a 
  ritual depending on the Kindred involved.
  the carthian movement
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  50
  The Chain
  At almost every Carthian gathering, some Kindred (usually the Prefect) steps forward and 
  requests that everyone present take part in the custom Carthians call the Chain. The entire 
  rite ends in a matter of moments, so even the most turbulent of Kindred usually acquiesce to 
  their involvement. The idea is simple. All the Carthians present gather in a circle, and follow-
  ing a few inspirational words from the Prefect, each passes a single artifact that is esteemed by 
  the local Carthians to the Kindred beside him, thus forming a symbolic chain representing 
  that what one Kindred does affects all others. The symbolism is blunt but effective. Each 
  vampire in the circle is beholden to the next and responsible for another, but not directly. 
  Thus do the Carthians remind themselves of their outlook, common goals and objectives. 
  Artifacts can be anything, such as a relic of a fallen Carthian leader, an efﬁ gy of an enemy or 
  a personal possession of someone soon to be drawn into the Carthian ranks.
  Independence Day
  The Carthians, being fans of democracy in all its forms, hold a special fondness for Inde-
  pendence Day. The term can be misleading, however, seeing how the celebration day itself is 
  not always on the American holiday, the fourth of July. In countries other than the United 
  States, such as Mexico and France, Carthian vampires typically celebrate on the same date 
  mortals do, so the ﬁ fth of May is nearly as common a date of observance, for example. In 
  actual Carthian-dominated domains, the Kindred celebrate the night their dream of a new 
  world came to pass. The victory of an alternative political model is both rare and wondrous 
  in the world of the Damned, and the Carthians revel in remembering the night of its advent. 
  When free to do so, Carthians can get quite rowdy, and their parties are truly legendary.
  Titles and Duties
  Unlike the other covenants, whose titles often coincide with those of standard positions 
  of authority, the titles of important ﬁ gures in the Carthian Movement denote levels of re-
  sponsibility and respect, rather than true authority.
  Prefect
  The Kindred in charge of much of the night-to-night running of Carthian operations in a 
  given city is known as the Prefect. In most every case, the Prefect is elected (in whatever form 
  that takes) by a majority of other Carthians, with the exception of any active Myrmidon, who 
  traditionally abstains from such voting. The Prefect is at once the spokesperson for the Move-
  ment in his domain, the “chair” and organizer of Carthian events, and the one responsible 
  
  51
  for making sure that no single faction member’s actions jeopardize the others. Therefore, the 
  Prefect must have some public relations savvy, as it is to him that the Prince inevitably turns 
  when a Carthian is suspected of some wrongdoing. While the Prefect carries considerable 
  sway among his confederates, he is not their leader in either name or truth. Most prefer the 
  relationship that way.
  Myrmidon
  The majority of incarnations of the Carthian experiment involve Kindred getting together 
  and democratically parceling out both feeding rights and potential dispute resolutions. As 
  such, the need quickly arises for an entirely “neutral party” to help maintain order. A Carthian 
  known as a Myrmidon ﬁ lls this role. Although the Myrmidon works very closely with the 
  Prefect, he is not the Prefect’s “right-hand man,” despite appearances to the contrary. Rather, 
  he is the one who often acts as intermediary between two quarreling Carthians or between 
  a Carthian and a non-Carthian of no political importance. Given the Prefect’s duties to the 
  cause, the Myrmidon often ends up enforcing the Prefect’s duties, simply by virtue of the fact 
  that nobody else could do it without cry of foul.
  Selﬁ sh and 
  without cause
  Viciously anachronistic
  Detached 
  from reality
  Blind 
  fanatics
  Hiding 
  something 
  malignant
  the carthian movement
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  52
  THE CIRCLE
  OF
  THE CRONE
  Few vampires outside the Circle of the Crone have a complete understanding of the group’s 
  secretive beliefs and behaviors. As a covenant, the Circle is as devoted as the Carthians, more 
  tightly organized than the Invictus, and often more feared and misunderstood than the Lan-
  cea Sanctum and the Ordo Dracul. For many neonates, these mysterious Kindred are the 
  “bogeymen” of vampire society — those who gather in sequestered cabals, where they practice 
  ancient and eldritch rites in reverence to bloody gods and goddesses of cultures forgotten or 
  shunned. These are the vampires about whom elders warn their childer: the political outcasts, 
  iconoclasts and, to some, heretics of the Damned.
  OVERVIEW
  The Circle of the Crone decries what are the most widely accepted creation myths of the vampire. 
  To these cultists, the Lancea Sanctum’s progenitor is not to be revered, worshipped or even heeded. 
  Nor is the Ordo Dracul’s nigh-mythical founder anything but a grand ruse. Instead, the Circle of 
  the Crone claims a more naturalistic origin for vampires, that they have always been a part of the 
  world, spawned in the dark places where mortals fear to tread and where guarded suspicion yields 
  to open fear. Their origin stories invoke such names as the Russian witch Baba Yaga, the horned 
  god Cernunnos, the Thracian goddess of moon and magic Bendis, the animal-god Pashupati, bull 
  sacriﬁ ces in the name of Mithras, and the bloodier incarnations of the Morrigan. Members of the 
  Circle of the Crone occasionally even incorporate elements predating Lancea Sanctum dogma 
  into their philosophy through Lilith, the ﬁ rst wife of Adam. Acolytes, as members of the Circle 
  are often known, reject vampiric notions of penitence entirely. Instead, they take a more organic 
  approach to unlife, one that allows for all creatures — even the living dead — to continue to learn, 
  grow and ﬁ nd enlightenment over time. While much of Kindred tradition places emphasis on 
  guilt and penance according to the Judeo-Christian model, the Circle of the Crone sees itself as 
  outside that framework.
  Members of this covenant maintain that the primary lesson to be learned from any origin 
  myth of the undead is that a vampire is never more or less a victim than he chooses to be. 
  Empowerment and enlightenment are both well within the reach of any creature, vampire 
  or otherwise, who is truthful and dedicated enough to attain them. Although the Circle is 
  primarily a vampiric phenomenon, its ideology extends beyond the worldly borders of the 
  Kindred plight and is attractive to non-Kindred as well. As such, the Circle boasts some of 
  the most extensive and unusual contacts among similarly inclined creatures, including mages 
  and even werewolves.
  
  53
  As might be expected, Acolytes are none too popular with the fervent Lancea Sanctum, 
  which takes great offense at the Circle’s “corruption” of its dearly held ideals. Some truly 
  hard-line Kindred, especially those in power in conservative domains, go so far as to outlaw 
  the practice and spread of what they call “demon worship,” and they lay heavy penalties 
  down upon those caught in violation of the decree. Most of the time, however, even the most 
  stalwart Prince or Archbishop satisﬁ es himself with making sure that those around him are 
  free of any Acolyte heresy, thus cutting off any potential threat at the source.
  MEMBERS
  The Circle of the Crone boasts a diverse collection of Kindred among its adherents. Members 
  of every clan and those of any age are drawn to the Circle’s particular ethos, and the covenant is 
  certainly stronger because of it. If the covenant is weak in any one demographic, it is likely in the 
  number of Ventrue who share in its beliefs. The Ventrue are childer of tradition, and among the 
  more conservative members of the clan, tradition suggests that core Acolyte ideology is foolishness 
  at best and heresy at worst. Conversely, the Gangrel (who are known for their disregard of both 
  mortality and Kindred convention) are perhaps the perfect ﬁ t for the covenant’s mindset. Many 
  Acolytes do indeed hail from the ranks of the Savages, who can ﬁ nd a symbolic resonance between 
  their nature and those of the many gods and spirits in the Circle’s pantheon.
  Given the radical nature of their philosophies, Acolytes are understandably preoccupied 
  with the continued growth of their membership. In recent years, many have begun to actively 
  seek converts, particularly from among the downtrodden and dispossessed of Kindred society. 
  This search often leads to the door of unaligned Kindred, many of whom are somewhat more 
  tolerant of Acolytes than they are of the Lancea Sanctum or Invictus. And there are others 
  who view the Acolytes’ ideology as compatible with their own political outlook. As a result, 
  the Circle’s missionary efforts have been rewarded, and the number of former independents 
  who have become members grows with each passing night. After all, if vampires are real, 
  who’s to say that the blood gods and deities of the Old Ways aren’t?
  PHILOSOPHY
  At the core of Acolytes’ belief sits the Crone, a sort of vampiric mentor and lover of 
  mythological “monsters” during various stages of history and among innumerable cultures. 
  Obviously, reverence for the Crone is the source of the Circle’s name, and she’s either an 
  amalgamation of spirits or gods from whom vampires originated, or a literal ﬁ gure not too 
  vastly different from the Lancea Sanctum’s own progenitor. Acolytes revere the image and 
  teachings of various mother-goddesses, who were cast out of the company of fellow gods for 
  seeking to better herself by consuming the blood of those whom the gods had made in their 
  image. Through trial and pain, the Crone managed to uncover the secrets of creation and to 
  survive the harsh wasteland that was life outside the gods’ own paradise. All on her own, the 
  Crone is said to have created form, shape and beauty out of the barren nothingness that lay 
  beyond the ken of men and gods, and her Circle seeks to emulate her experience so that it 
  too might achieve her wisdom and power.
  Branching out from this core precept are two underlying themes.
  Creation is Power
  Vampires of this covenant are perhaps the most honest with themselves about what they 
  consider the truth of the Kindred condition. They recognize that the Requiem tears them from 
  the natural world and suspends them in a state of eternal stasis, forever unable to create life. 
  For those who let the truth of this realization destroy them, existence becomes an unending 
  spiral of manipulation toward destruction, with resources being allocated merely to fuel the 
  perpetuation of the cycle. Creation, then, becomes both the source of true power and the only 
  the circle of the crone
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  54
  way a static creature can otherwise remain a vibrant part of the earthly order. Some Acolytes 
  practice this ideology in small ways, tending gardens or breeding animals, while others take 
  the broader view, seeking instead to create things of lasting beauty or utility such as art or 
  invention. Whatever form it takes, all Acolytes strive to emulate creation in their own way.
  Tribulation Brings Enlightenment
  Acolytes believe that any creature can overcome its own weakness and moral failings by 
  continually testing its physical, mental and spiritual limitations. Only through ongoing 
  tribulation can one’s consciousness expand, and thus true understanding be reached. Cult-
  ists empower themselves by alternately exciting and challenging the senses, and through the 
  newfound comprehension that results, they ﬁ nally transform the static nature of undeath 
  into the miracle of creation. Many cultists take this to a literal level, engaging in bouts of 
  ﬂ agellation and other self-abuse that would make a mortal’s stomach churn. Others simply 
  put their bodies in new and difﬁ cult situations so that they may better understand themselves 
  and their fears and limitations. Whatever the motivation, the results are undeniable: Those 
  who endure are tempered by their experiences, making them ever more capable of enduring 
  whatever comes next.
  RITUALS
  AND OBSERVANCES
  The Circle of the Crone is a rigidly ceremonial covenant. It claims a variety of different 
  special rites, many of which are unique to the Acolytes of a given coterie or domain. Of those 
  that see more widespread observance, three stand out.
  The Crone’s Liturgy
  One of the most frequently heard recitations at cultist gatherings, this observance takes 
  the form of passages read from various accounts of mythology or creation stories. The Liturgy 
  has become the ceremonial opener (or closer) for the regular meetings of assembled Acolytes. 
  The passages themselves tell the tale of the Crone’s perseverance through adversity after 
  banishment from the company of the gods. The text has a lyrical quality to it, due to the 
  action/reaction nature of the Crone’s life, and many Acolytes have taken to employing the 
  Greek method of call and response when reciting the Liturgy. (This has the effect of making 
  everyone present feel involved, as opposed to just the speaker.) Since many passages are fairly 
  long, most Acolytes prefer to limit each recitation to whatever sub-section of the Liturgy is 
  most appropriate to the subject of the meeting at hand.
  The Winnowing
  Acolytes claim a great many holy nights, adapted from the mythologies with which they 
  most closely associate, and they tend to observe them with great sincerity and respect. The 
  most important event to the covenant is an annual rite known as the Winnowing. The night 
  itself falls upon a different date every year and is dependent upon a host of variables, includ-
  ing the alignment of the stars and the phase of the moon. On the whole, though, it usually 
  falls some time around the winter solstice. On this night, Acolytes take stock of the trials 
  they have bested, the pains they have endured and the things they have either created or 
  destroyed in the intervening year. Since these matters are speciﬁ c to each cultist, this ritual is 
  always a highly personal one, and it is usually conducted in absolute silence under starlight. 
  During the rite, each participant offers some of his own Vitae to the ground, in the hopes of 
  cleansing his spirit before the coming year. The rite concludes with the Hierophant placing 
  a wreath of laurel around the head of each participant, to represent the reestablishment of 
  each Acolyte’s connection to the natural world.
  Other holidays associated with the Winnowing and observed in their unique formats 
  punctuate the Circle’s calendar. The Feast of Samhain (October 31) represents the Crone say-
  
  55
  ing farewell to the world in preparation for 
  winter, and is celebrated with much revelry 
  and orgies of blood. Latha Lunasdal (near 
  August 1) commemorates the time of year 
  when the nights grow longer than the days, 
  and when the Kindred may claim more time 
  as their own. Those Acolytes who choose to 
  Embrace often do so on Walpurgis Night 
  (February 25) in observance of the custom 
  of fertility associated with that holy day. 
  The Pyanepsion Noumenia (September 
  26-27) marks the honoring of the Crone 
  herself, and is celebrated in all manners, 
  from vampiric celebrations that resemble 
  wild marauds to contemplation on what it 
  means to be a creature of the night.
  Crúac
  The Circle of the Crone holds the mysti-
  cal ways of Crúac, the “bloody crescent,” in 
  high regard. A form of ritual magic, Crúac 
  draws as much on shamanic systems of 
  belief, druidic practice and even arts that 
  resemble “black magic” in its performance. 
  This magic is uniformly sanguinary in its 
  practice, involving blood sacriﬁ ces at the 
  very least and occasionally mortiﬁ cation of 
  the ﬂ esh, scarring of the vampire’s body or 
  even the death of a ritual victim for its most 
  powerful effects. As fearful as the practice’s 
  trappings are, none who have seen its pow-
  ers in action can deny its effectiveness. 
  Those outside the covenant might deride 
  Crúac as “witchcraft,” but Acolytes them-
  selves would never stoop to using such base 
  terms for their spiritual sorcery.
  TITLES AND DUTIES
  The ritualistic nature of the Circle of the 
  Crone seems to lend itself to a hierarchy of 
  titles and roles, each fulﬁ lling some unique 
  niche or aspect of the covenant’s esoteric 
  dealings, but such is not the case. In fact, 
  only a single “ofﬁ cial” title sees much use 
  throughout the covenant. The rest are 
  either titles pro-tem, city-speciﬁ c titles or 
  simply convenient descriptors for duties that 
  almost any Acolyte might fulﬁ ll.
  the circle of the crone
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  56
  Hierophant
  In domains where the Circle of the Crone has a signiﬁ cant enough presence to warrant 
  it (that is, in cities with three or more members), the wisest take on the equivalent role of 
  high priest. Such a spiritual leader is called a Hierophant and is charged with a number of 
  duties. The Hierophant is responsible for calling meetings to order and for leading various 
  rites and rituals (such as the Crone’s Liturgy). The Hierophant also oversees the induction 
  of new members to the Circle, and no Acolyte may be granted full status without his leave. 
  “Hierophant” is also a term of respect, and even elders who no longer lead rituals may con-
  tinue to bear the title as a “badge of ofﬁ ce” or a sign of enlightenment.
  Among the Hierophant’s responsibilities is the actual formation of dogma observed by 
  the covenant in a given domain. For example, some Hierophants call extensively upon the 
  Celtic pantheon in interpreting the Kindred condition, while others invoke “demons” who 
  are actually nature spirits in certain Eastern European followings. Still others might have an 
  outlook that draws heavily on Judeo-Christian myth, substituting Lilith for the Crone, while 
  other groups see themselves as incarnations of the Native American wendigo or manitou. Still 
  others blend a variety of religions into their own unique view of the Kindred. This body of 
  dogma almost always grows organically over time, incorporating new Acolytes’ beliefs, chang-
  ing when the covenant’s tastes dictate, or taking into account new information or discoveries. 
  More so than any other covenant, the policies of the Circle of the Crone morph and adapt, 
  and the responsibility of keeping it all cogent rests in the hands of the Hierophant.
  The Chorus
  The chorus is not an actual title in the covenant, but rather a descriptor for a certain type of 
  member. The chorus is the collective “new converts” to Acolyte ideology, and a probationary 
  member of the Circle. Few would-be converts are capable of grasping the often painful truth 
  of the Acolytes’ mindset, so most new members go through a period of “apprenticeship” 
  during which they slowly acclimate to existence in the Circle of the Crone. As a point of 
  order, covenant secrets such as Crúac are never revealed to the chorus, and they are watched 
  just as much as guided for the duration of their probation. This introductory period exists as 
  much for the chorus’ security as the covenant’s, for once members are fully inducted, there 
  is truly no turning back.
  Lost within 
  themselves
  Misplaced values
  A foul 
  aristocracy
  Hateful 
  demagogues
  Distracted 
  from true 
  understanding
  
  57
  The Invictus
  In the eyes of those who don’t understand it, the Invictus is the despised aristocracy of the 
  undead, the gentry who did nothing to earn their position but who would do anything to 
  maintain it. They’re landlords, overseers and dictators. The Invictus might not truly hold much 
  more authority across the domains than the other covenants do, but it makes such a big deal 
  about what power it does have that many Kindred often associate it with the highest ofﬁ ces. The 
  Invictus tries to portray itself as among the oldest covenants, yet oldest or not, the covenant is 
  certainly tenured. It has vast interest — and inﬂ uence — in mortal affairs, and many outside the 
  covenant see it as the guardian (sometimes excessively so) of the Masquerade.
  Overview
  To an extent, the common perception of the Invictus is accurate as far as it goes, but it 
  leaves the greatest depths of the covenant unexamined. The so-called First Estate is, at its 
  heart, still rooted in the feudal system. It was purportedly during some stage soon after the 
  collapse of the Roman Empire that the Invictus developed into what it is tonight, cementing 
  a dogma that its elders claim actually predates the fall. Call it divine right, the natural order, 
  rule by the strong or whatever you like — the Invictus operates entirely as a system of linked 
  monarchies. Everything is about power. Those who don’t have it want it, while those who 
  have it want to keep and increase it.
  To hear the Invictus tell it, the covenant represents a meritocracy. The Kindred with the 
  greatest skill, the greatest ambition and ultimately the greatest claim to leadership eventually 
  rise to dominance. In the process, they are tempered, learning to deal with all manner of 
  impediments, political, social or martial. If the Invictus is ruled by Princes, they are Princes 
  of their own making.
  It’s a nice conceit. In many select regions, it’s even true. For the most part, however, the 
  First Estate is like any feudal government — those at the top stay there, and those at the bottom 
  are crushed. If personal strength determines political power, how can young Kindred possibly 
  advance? After all, their elder rivals already have the advantage of decades if not centuries of 
  head start. They’re stronger. They’re wiser. They’re far more experienced in the political arena. 
  And unlike mortal aristocracies, in which the up-and-comers could count on positions eventu-
  ally opening up, Invictus elders aren’t likely to die naturally anytime soon, and those who fall 
  to torpor have time to set their allies and pawns up to take their place. The Invictus, then, 
  represents the pinnacle of achievement for the aristocracy: the illusion of equal opportunity 
  the invictus
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  58
  without the reality of it. Many young Kindred aren’t fooled, but many others are — and just 
  enough of the young really do manage to carve out their own niche to make the covenant ap-
  pealing. After all, despite the apparent dearth of opportunity, the Invictus really is one of the 
  most powerful and inﬂ uential factions. Sure, it’s hard to move up the ladder, but if you can, 
  you’re going to be far more powerful than, say, someone of equivalent standing among the 
  Carthians or some would-be tyrant among the unaligned.
  The Invictus claims to have popularized the use of many of the common titles and ranks 
  in Kindred society, particularly that of Prince. In all ways, the covenant thinks in terms of 
  aristocracy, or at least gentry. In the Old World, the image remains of the noble holding court. 
  In America, that image has evolved in some regions into industrial barons and old-money 
  families, an unofﬁ cial yet no less effective elite. In either case, one thing remains the same 
  — those who have it, have it; those who don’t, don’t.
  Ultimately, then, the Invictus exists in part to maintain order among the Kindred. Like any 
  aristocracy, the First Estate suffers in lawlessness. Only through an ordered existence and the 
  rule of law can the leaders of the covenant maintain their power. With the possible exception 
  of the Lancea Sanctum, which has religious motivations for its actions, the Invictus is the most 
  draconian covenant when it comes to enforcing the letter of the Traditions and Kindred law. It 
  maintains the illusion of freedom and opportunity within the covenant, cloaking its tyrannical 
  system in metaphors of “government by the ﬁ ttest,” in hopes of appealing to those outside its 
  ranks, but the group is truly more concerned with keeping order among its own ranks. If the 
  masses don’t behave, then all the power the elders have built upon their backs must crumble.
  And that, of course, leads to the First Estate’s unstated (but hardly secret) second purpose: 
  not merely maintaining order, but keeping the elders who already hold power in charge of that 
  order. Let them speak all they want about expanding the rule of law and the noble cause the 
  Invictus represents. At the end of the night, it’s all about Princes, Primogen and other elders 
  keeping themselves at the top of the pile by stepping on the heads of those beneath them.
  Most disturbing of all to young Kindred, be they members or potential members, is the 
  nagging thought that the Invictus might have the right of it. Horriﬁ c as it sounds, this notion 
  of keeping all power in the hands of a select few undying elders, one must ask the question: If 
  not them, who? Who else would have both the knowledge and the power necessary to ﬁ ll such 
  a position and to keep a covenant of inherently selﬁ sh predators functioning? If the Invictus’ 
  oppressive and tyrannical nature has lasted this long, maybe that’s because it works.
  Members
  For what should be fairly obvious reasons, the Invictus often appeals far more to elder 
  Kindred than to neonates. In the incestuous political arena that the Invictus favors, age and 
  experience are of far greater value than anything youth might offer. Young Kindred outnum-
  ber elders, and they have a much better grasp on the changes the modern world has brought 
  about. Many elders face those facts with a dread akin to that inspired by open ﬂ ame, and the 
  notion of a government speciﬁ cally designed to keep the established strong and their childer 
  weak is one that appeals immensely.
  That said, a surprising number of ancillae and even neonates belong to the Invictus. In 
  some instances, this is purely a matter of the Embrace. Traditionally, childer are obligated 
  to serve their sires’ interests, at least for a time. More than any other covenant, the Invictus 
  enforces an astonishing degree of servility. The offspring of many Invictus Kindred remain in 
  the covenant, ﬁ rst out of duty, and then because they have either managed to eke out some 
  status for themselves, or because they know no other way.
  Other neonates join out of sheer ambition or self-conﬁ dence (or arrogance). True, most 
  young Kindred have little chance of any real advancement, but the luckiest and most capable 
  
  59
  few do indeed manage to make their mark, to obtain positions of power or to even carve out 
  their own little ﬁ efdoms. It might be challenging to advance within the ranks of the Invictus, 
  but the rewards for doing so are great.
  The Invictus makes it easy for them. After all, the covenant wants as many members as 
  possible. Not only do more members equate to a wider base of power, but even the most 
  fearful elders acknowledge that they need young vampires to understand and take fullest 
  advantage of the modern world. Of course, as with all lords, what Invictus elders really want 
  are servants and vassals, not equals. Kings don’t build roads, they inspire and command others 
  to do so. The larger a king’s retinue and army is, the more power he holds, and the Invictus 
  desires to hold all the power. Members of the covenant actively seek out other Kindred for 
  membership, expounding the strengths and beneﬁ ts of the covenant while glossing over the 
  rather substantial downsides.
  No procedure or test exists for joining the Invictus. A prospective member must often take an 
  oath of loyalty before either a covenant or local ofﬁ cial (a Prince, Primogen or a lesser “patron,” 
  for instance). Of course, the covenant has members and the covenant has members. A new 
  recruit can expect to be carefully observed for years, possibly even decades, before other Invictus 
  members even deign to listen to him or allow him access to any sensitive information.
  Given all this, the two common threads that run among almost all Invictus members, elder 
  and neonate alike, are burning ambition and a belief in the rule of law. Those who are unwilling 
  to work for every scrap of power — and to be constantly on guard against their rivals who do 
  the same — have no place in the courts and corporate boardrooms of the First Estate. Those 
  who aren’t prepared to operate within the unspoken rules, to play the games of politics and 
  trading of favors, will never acquire enough allies to succeed (or, perhaps, even survive).
  Philosophy
  If the Invictus is devoted to a single philosophy, it must be the notion that power among the 
  Kindred must remain in the hands of those most worthy of wielding it. In and of itself, that’s 
  not unreasonable. The Kindred are a violent, paranoid, ambitious race. If their society is to have 
  any hope of survival and secrecy, someone has to be in charge. Where other covenants differ 
  with the Invictus’ philosophy is largely in the notion of what “worthy” actually means.
  The Invictus believes in keeping as much power as possible in its own hands, and in constantly 
  acquiring more. A good member is one who either advances his position in society, or who 
  aids other Invictus Kindred in advancing theirs. Apathetic or ineffective Kindred are tolerated 
  only as lackeys and pawns.
  The covenant’s overarching philosophy has spawned several other guidelines, all on the level 
  of unwritten rules. That is, nobody’s going to write them down, but everyone who’s been in 
  the covenant more than a short while knows better than to casually ignore them.
  The Invictus Must Be Respected
  Without a doubt, the Invictus prefers to announce its presence, yet it isn’t stupid about it. 
  Members of the First Estate are experts at backroom deals and covert schemes, and they keep a 
  secret as well as anyone. If the Invictus holds power in a region, though, it wants the Kindred 
  to know that it’s in charge. Doing so inspires others to ﬂ ock to its banners; after all, everybody 
  likes being where the power is. Making a public show also helps squash any opposition to the 
  faction’s local goals, since many Kindred are reluctant to take on a member of so powerful a 
  covenant while they would have less objection to challenging, say, a Carthian leader. Finally, 
  displays of power are simply a social convention. The Invictus is extremely hierarchical and 
  very formal. Its members often demand the respect and status they feel they’re due. Many 
  Invictus Princes and other leaders who choose to hold formal courts announce their covenant 
  allegiance without ever saying the word “Invictus.”
  the invictus
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  60
  The Invictus, alone among covenants, considers itself to be an actual entity, worthy of ad-
  miration. The Carthians tend to eschew oaths of fealty, and the Lancea Sanctum and Circle 
  of the Crone swear oaths to higher powers such as a god or spirit, ﬁ rst and foremost, with 
  obedience to the covenant second. The Invictus not only demands oaths of loyalty to local 
  covenant leaders, but considers them paramount above all other allegiances.
  It’s probably this practice that creates the illusion that so many Princes are Invictus. Because 
  Invictus leaders often make such a point of their covenant afﬁ liation, more so than those of 
  other covenants, the First Estate is associated with the position.
  Mortals Are Power
  While all the covenants understand the need for the Masquerade, the Invictus focuses 
  most heavily on not merely inﬁ ltrating but manipulating and inﬂ uencing mortal society. In 
  the covenant’s quest for political dominance, it wastes no opportunity — and six billion kine 
  represent quite an opportunity. Most elder Kindred of all covenants wield some amount of 
  inﬂ uence in local affairs or among businessmen, but when one pictures the vampire sitting 
  at the heart of a web of corporate, political, criminal and social connections — a rare but 
  extant stereotype — one probably pictures a member of the Invictus.
  Rituals and Observances
  The Invictus has few covenant-wide observances. As a whole, the First Estate is concerned 
  more with traditions of general behavior than with speciﬁ c activities. Still, certain social cus-
  toms and mores have survived to the modern era, though they have become such a standard 
  part of the Invictus Requiem that many Kindred no longer recognize them as such.
  Oaths of Fealty
  Due to its largely feudal structure, nearly every layer of interaction within the Invictus has 
  a corresponding oath of fealty or loyalty. Followers swear oaths to leaders, childer to sires, 
  thralls to regnants. And this, of course, doesn’t even count the oaths that Invictus-aligned 
  city ofﬁ cials often demand from all their subjects, Invictus or otherwise. Rare indeed is the 
  Invictus Kindred who does not labor under at least three or four oaths.
  Recitation of Lineage
  Despite its claims that leaders are made, not born, the Invictus puts substantial social 
  stock in its members’ parentage. The farther back a member can recite her blood, the more 
  respect she is offered. Descent from a particularly notable Kindred confers great status in the 
  covenant. Descent from a notorious ancestor, or an inability to recite a vast portion of one’s 
  lineage, is grounds for scorn. Being able to claim membership in some of the more respected 
  bloodlines (such as the so-called Mithraic Ventrue) is very nearly the equivalent of royalty, and 
  the Invictus maintains a healthy regard for any bloodline or family capable of distinguishing 
  itself from the parent clan by word or deed.
  Formality of Presentation
  Most Invictus Princes hold very formal courts and rule very structured domains. Whether a 
  domain is ruled like a corporate boardroom, an old South plantation or a literal feudal court, 
  it almost certainly has formalities and procedures that must be observed. Invictus Kindred, 
  on average, make use of more of the local titles described previously in this chapter than 
  members of other covenants do, precisely because of their preoccupation with position and 
  formality. Many Invictus Princes have a Seneschal announce arriving guests by name, title (if 
  any) and lineage (if known). They insist on speciﬁ c forms of address and possibly even styles 
  of wardrobe from those who attend their courts. They might even insist on a certain degree 
  of reﬁ nement when it comes to social interaction at court (vulgar jokes and coarse language 
  could be forbidden). Mouthing off to a Prince, a Regent or any other elder is grounds for 
  severe chastisement, and more than one rebellious neonate has found himself subjected 
  
  61
  to a Vinculum, banishment or even been 
  faced with the sunrise when initial warnings 
  proved insufﬁ cient.
  In some cities where the Invictus wields a 
  majority of the power, this formality extends 
  even beyond Elysium. Kindred in such do-
  mains are expected to keep very close track of 
  social status among all those with whom they 
  interact, and to act accordingly. In such a city, 
  failing to show proper deference to one of 
  higher status can result in punishment, and 
  showing too much deference to one of lower 
  status results in substantial mockery and loss 
  of face. Harpies hold nearly as much power 
  in these cities as the Primogen, for they can 
  grant or rescind social status at whim.
  Old-Fashioned Communication
  As an offshoot of the formality issue, 
  many elder Invictus insist that most of their 
  correspondence be conducted through the 
  use of messengers or written letters. Tele-
  phones and email are considered gauche, 
  the tools of an unlettered and ill-mannered 
  youth. (Additionally, many elders are 
  rightfully concerned that they don’t know 
  enough to protect themselves from outside 
  eavesdropping.) Most elders aren’t foolish 
  about this protocol. When it comes to vital 
  news or emergencies, they don’t object to 
  receiving a call or an email (though even 
  then, Princes often prefer their Seneschals 
  or other servants to receive the informa-
  tion then deliver it in person). Using these 
  techniques for any other purpose, however, 
  is grounds for a social snubbing at the very 
  least. (Some young Kindred claim that this 
  “tradition” actually exists only so that elders 
  aren’t forced to reveal how uncomfortable 
  and incompetent they are with modern ap-
  pliances. They rarely make this claim in front 
  of their elders, though.)
  Monomacy
  Tradition states that, in years gone by, the 
  Invictus used formal duels, contests and tri-
  als by ordeal to settle otherwise unsolvable 
  disputes. These duels and ordeals are known 
  collectively as Monomacy. Some members of 
  the covenant believed, as did many mortals in 
  the invictus
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  62
  Cults of 
  the self
  No respect for tradition
  Refuse to 
  accept their 
  place
  Trustworthy but 
  sanctimonious
  Disciplined 
  but deluded
  the Middle Ages, that God stepped in and ensured that victory went to the righteous party. Other 
  members simply wanted a means whereby elders could settle personal issues without dragging 
  pawns and even entire domains into the conﬂ ict. By the modern nights, the Invictus has largely 
  abandoned its claims of divine right — even the most devout souls have difﬁ culty believing that 
  God takes a direct hand in duels — but it is still practiced by the staunchest supporters of the 
  First Estate when a just cause arises.
  Titles and Duties
  Kindred who don’t fully understand the Invictus are often surprised to discover that the 
  covenant actually has relatively few ofﬁ cial titles and positions. What these outsiders don’t 
  realize is that the Invictus doesn’t need many new titles, because it considers the standard 
  ofﬁ ces described previously to be its own creations. Most ofﬁ cers hold the same approximate 
  rank in the local Invictus as they do in the domain’s government. That is, an Invictus Prince 
  is likely the leader of the local Invictus, as well. Invictus Primogen and Prisci hold power in 
  the city and covenant. An Invictus Sheriff likely enforces order in the local Invictus as well 
  as in the domain as a whole.
  In fact, only two titles that do not correspond to political positions are commonly found 
  in Invictus domains.
  Inner Circle
  In some domains where the Invictus is not fully in control, or at least where many domain 
  ofﬁ ces are held by members of other covenants, the covenant needs a body of leadership that 
  does not consist entirely of ofﬁ cers of the city government. This is called the Inner Circle. Its 
  members can be anyone, from the Prince and some of the Primogen to Kindred who hold no of-
  ﬁ cial position in the city at all. They set policy for the local Invictus and are always on the lookout 
  for opportunities to advance their own positions. Strongly Invictus-dominant cities rarely have 
  an Inner Circle. An Inner Circle exists only where the city government and the faction power 
  structure are not one and the same. Further, this Invictus-speciﬁ c “sub-Primogen” is possible 
  only in the largest domains, where the Kindred population can support such a gathering.
  
  63
  Judex
  Sometimes members of the Invictus come into conﬂ ict with one another. Under such 
  circumstances, most members agree that turning to outsiders (such as city ofﬁ cials) for resolu-
  tion is a poor idea, as it makes the covenant appear divided. Monomacy is reserved for only 
  the gravest disputes, since few elders are willing to put their unlives on the line just to settle a 
  disagreement. Therefore, most cities with more than the tiniest Invictus presence have a Judex, 
  whose job is to rule on disputes between Invictus Kindred. Once the parties involved agree to 
  such mediation, the Judex’s ruling is binding, even over those Kindred who would normally 
  hold greater authority (such as a Prince). Judices are chosen from among city ofﬁ cials (in 
  Invictus-dominant domains), members of the Inner Circle or, at worst, from among the most 
  respected Invictus present. Some cities have a standing Judex, and the position is usually ﬁ lled 
  by a candidate on whom the Prince and Primogen can agree (or whom the Prince can force 
  the Primogen to acknowledge). Other domains choose their mediators on a conﬂ ict-by-conﬂ ict 
  basis. Tradition states that the Judex in such instances must be chosen by a respected Kindred 
  who has no obvious ties to either party. Doing so is often more difﬁ cult than it sounds, and 
  many such domains have adopted the custom of allowing a Judex, as his ﬁ nal act, to appoint 
  the next Judex, well before anyone knows what problem may arise next.
  the invictus
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  64
  The Lancea Sanctum
  To members of the Lancea Sanctum, the self-proclaimed heralds of undead morality, their 
  origin deﬁ nes everything they are and everything they do. Indeed, the modern sobriquet 
  “Sanctiﬁ ed,” by which the covenant is sometimes known, incenses many elders and tradi-
  tionalists of the covenant, who prefer to use the Latin “Lancea Sanctum” when referring to 
  the collective covenant. They are the religious and even moral backbone of the Kindred, yes, 
  but they are also self-appointed priests and inquisitors. The most inhuman of an inhuman 
  race, they exalt the role of predator. Universally respected yet universally feared, this covenant 
  constantly seeks power over all Kindred everywhere, not for political rule, as the Invictus does, 
  but to enforce the dictates, attitudes and even thoughts that they believe have been handed 
  down to them from their originator Longinus, and by extension from God Himself.
  The catechism of the Lancea Sanctum is that they are the ideological descendants of the 
  Roman centurion who used his spear to prod Christ on the cross. According to the covenant’s 
  dogma, some of Christ’s blood dripped onto the soldier, and this blood gave the centurion 
  eternal life. It also carried with it, however, divine retribution, and though Longinus’ act re-
  vealed Christ’s divinity, it did so after an act of faithlessness on the soldier’s part. Thereafter, 
  Longinus was cursed to live eternally, but he could walk only at night and subsist only on the 
  same blood that had proved his undoing. As the creation myth blends into covenant philoso-
  phy, vampires are a form of “original sin,” though God allows them to exist, and indeed even 
  charges them with the task of representing the risks of His divine displeasure.
  Overview
  Perhaps one of the single most fundamental differences between the Lancea Sanctum and 
  the Invictus is that members of the Invictus want to be the rulers of all Kindred while members 
  of the Lancea Sanctum believe that their covenant already does rule in all ways that matter. 
  The fact that its members claim dominance over fewer domains than the Invictus does is of 
  no concern. They speak for God and represent the pinnacle of what the undead should be. 
  Clearly, in the ﬁ nal analysis, true power is theirs.
  If the Invictus represents the nobility and aristocracy, then the Sanctiﬁ ed are the priests, 
  bishops, paladins and the religious and spiritual advisors. (Members of the Invictus occasionally 
  refer to the Lancea Sanctum as the Second Estate, in extension of their own metaphor, itself a 
  perversion of the historical ﬁ rst and second estates.) Most of the covenent’s members take their 
  
  65
  role as ecclesiastical guides to their fellow undead very seriously. Many of the Damned — the 
  Lancea Sanctum prefers the older and more severe term to the more recent “Kindred” — advise 
  Princes and other leaders on religious and moral matters. They discuss theological ramiﬁ ca-
  tions of decisions, and point out how a proposed action or an alleged crime violates (or fails 
  to violate) the Traditions as interpreted by Longinus. Some members of the Lancea Sanctum 
  take their duties further still, counseling younger Sanctiﬁ ed on what it means to be a vampire, 
  educating them about the mythology and spirituality of the race, and even advising them on 
  how to be more effective predators. This, they feel, is part of their duty as decreed by their 
  founder — to make sure that all of the faithful understand their place in God’s creation.
  And if this were all the Sanctiﬁ ed did, it’s unlikely the Lancea Sanctum would wield the fear-
  some reputation it has acquired. The Sanctiﬁ ed are determined that all their brethren should 
  follow Longinus’ philosophies. And more speciﬁ cally, that they should all follow the Lancea 
  Sanctum’s interpretation of those laws. The covenant does not merely advise, it enforces. Its 
  members do not merely preach, they demand. Members of the faction are known for their 
  zealotry not only because Longinus himself was cursed by God, but because they maintain 
  that violence and bloodshed are perfectly acceptable means of conversion.
  The Lancea Sanctum is not mindless in its devotion to covenant principles, however, or at least 
  most of its members are not. Violence is not necessarily their ﬁ rst resort. It is far better to convince 
  other vampires of the wisdom and righteousness of their cause than to cut down a potential brother 
  or sister. Nor is the covenant anxious to deplete its numbers in hopeless or unnecessary conﬂ ict. 
  In domains where other covenants hold clear dominance, the Lancea Sanctum is often willing 
  to work with them. Sanctiﬁ ed members advise the current leadership in hopes of both steering 
  its decisions and gaining their own status. They also circulate among the Kindred on the streets, 
  preaching their message of a better way, drumming up support for future activities. The Sanctiﬁ ed 
  are as patient as a cult of the undead can afford to be. Violence is not to be avoided, but neither is 
  it to be engaged in without purpose. Once the Lancea Sanctum has determined that bloodshed is 
  the best route to an objective, however, God be merciful to anyone who stands in the way.
  Of course, as frightened as many Kindred are of the Lancea Sanctum, they can take comfort 
  in the notion that mortals have it even worse. The Sanctiﬁ ed have a reputation for being 
  vampires in the truest sense of the word. They are not the mindless, bloodthirsty vandals 
  who represent the worst of the unbound. Nor are they the brooding erstwhile generals of 
  the Invictus, sending followers to their deaths on a whim. No, Sanctiﬁ ed are so frightening 
  because they are so matter-of-fact, even reverent, about their vampiric nature. Ever since 
  the covenant’s founding in the nights following Longinus’ curse, one of their fundamental 
  precepts stated that the true Sanctiﬁ ed must fully acknowledge that he is no longer mortal. 
  Vampires occupy a higher level. They are predators, feeding on mortals as those same Canaille 
  do upon cows and sheep. To be true to the teachings of Longinus and the purposes of the 
  Almighty, a Sanctiﬁ ed has to be a predator and no longer even pretend to be one of the kine 
  from which he came. The Lancea Sanctum has no particular love of cruelty (or at least most 
  of its members do not), nor do their beliefs or laws permit them such wantonness. They 
  simply treat their prey as no better than animals, and this cold ruthlessness is often far more 
  disturbing than any random outburst of conscious malice.
  FROM THE TESTAMENT OF LONGINUS
  One: That though you are Damned, your Damnation has purpose. It is the will of 
  God that you are what you are, and the will of God is that the Damned exist to show 
  the evils of turning from Him. The evil become Damned; God has taken those worthy 
  of His love to His own side.
  the lancea sanctum
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  66
  Two: That what you once were is not what you now are. As a mortal is a sheep, so 
  are the Damned wolves among them. That role is deﬁ ned by nature — wolves feed 
  on their prey, but they are not cruel to them. The role of predator is natural, even if 
  the predator himself is not.
  Three: That an ordained hierarchy exists. As man is above beasts, so are the Damned 
  above men. Our numbers are fewer so that our purpose is better effected.
  Four: That with the power of Damnation comes limitation. The Damned hide among 
  those who still enjoy God’s love, making themselves known only to exemplify fear. 
  The Damned shall make none of their own, for such is a judgment of soul that is the 
  purview only of God. The Damned shall suffer yet more should they slay a fellow to 
  take his soul from him.
  Five: That our bodies are not our own. Our purpose is to serve, and when we 
  stray from that purpose, we are to be chastened. The light of the sun excoriates; the 
  ﬂ ames of a ﬁ re purify ﬂ eshly evil. The taste of all sustenance other than Vitae is as 
  ash upon the tongue.
  Members
  Unlike the Invictus, which appeals more to elder vampires than young, or the Carthians, 
  who tend toward the reverse, the Lancea Sanctum projects an equal appeal to undead of 
  all ages. What an elder looks for in the covenant, however, is often not the same as what 
  interests a neonate.
  Most elders join for religious or spiritual reasons. Some come to the Sanctiﬁ ed seeking 
  enlightenment and understanding. They have walked this Earth for many mortal lifetimes and 
  have come to see that they — and their race — must have some higher purpose. They believe 
  that God must have had some reason for making them what they are, and that Longinus’ 
  philosophy offers them at least the ﬁ rst few steps on a path toward answers. Others join the 
  covenant not to seek answers, but to provide them for others. Religious zealots often believe 
  that the entire world would be better off if everyone simply turned to their own way of think-
  ing, and the fanatics of the Lancea Sanctum are no exception. Many elders join (or remain 
  with) the Sanctiﬁ ed not for their own sake, but for the sake of others. They would make all 
  vampires everywhere understand what they are, what they should be and what they must do. 
  They’ll all be better off, then — and those who must suffer and die in the process, well, it’s 
  all for the best of reasons.
  Of course, it would be foolish to imply that all Sanctiﬁ ed who seek the conversion of the 
  entire undead race do so for altruistic reasons. Some want to convert their brethren only to 
  exalt their own position. Surely God will eventually reward them. All they must do is prove 
  themselves worthy by converting just a few more nonbelievers.
  The majority of young vampires who are drawn to the covenant are enticed not by any deeply 
  held religious convictions, but by a lack of those selfsame convictions or any other solid sense 
  of identity. The Lancea Sanctum, more than any other covenant (except possibly the Circle of 
  the Crone), allows and even demands members to accept what they are. For a neonate seek-
  ing direction in something so drastically different from mortal life — casting about not only 
  for someplace to belong but for someone who can provide answers for “Why?” and “How?” 
  — few things are as comforting as being told that it is acceptable to be a monster. Even if the 
  newcomer doesn’t believe it yet, being told that she has become something greater than she 
  was is comforting in an unlife otherwise punctuated by new and alien urges.
  Obviously, these are generalities, not hard-and-fast rules. Many neonates join the covenant 
  because they already hold certain religious convictions, and many elders seek the same sense 
  of belonging that attracts childer. And, of course, Sanctiﬁ ed of all ages join simply out of am-
  bition, as advancement is often easier among the Lancea Sanctum than in other covenants.
  
  67
  New members of the covenant are required to make many gestures of commitment to 
  Longinus, to God and to the goals of the faction. They engage in many rites and rituals, and 
  undergo trials to test their fortitude and faith. These tests consist of everything from torture to 
  theological debate. Trials aren’t necessarily used to determine whether a recruit may join the 
  Lancea Sanctum, but those who make a good showing earn the respect of their new fellows. 
  Those who do poorly face months, if not years, of derision and mockery, often sufﬁ cient to 
  drive a new member away.
  Philosophy
  The Lancea Sanctum believes that its members are the chosen of God. Sanctiﬁ ed are not 
  inherently superior to other vampires, but they exalt themselves by accepting the teachings 
  of Longinus wholeheartedly. One night, all vampires will come to worship God and vener-
  ate Longinus as the Sanctiﬁ ed do. The Lancea Sanctum maintains that it is the duty of all 
  good and faithful Sanctiﬁ ed to hurry that night along. Thus do they constantly proselytize, 
  seeking converts to their way of thinking long past the time that other covenants might give 
  up and move on.
  Longinus himself occupies the position of Dark Messiah. While he is not the “ﬁ rst of the 
  undead” according to sect beliefs, he was certainly one of the ﬁ rst to be something other 
  than a self-motivated monster, little more than an animal. With Longinus arose a code of 
  ethics. His act of prodding Christ with the spear is more important than the man or vampire 
  — Longinus’ import follows that act, not vice versa. He is a “sin eater,” representing the evils 
  that man commits in the absence of faith, and his punishment is its just repayment.
  This philosophy leads to a strange dichotomy of beliefs that rivals the most extremist and 
  even bizarre of mortal faiths. The philosophical precepts governing members of the Lancea 
  Sanctum seem almost mutually exclusive, yet the covenant has managed to hold them together 
  for what might be centuries or even millennia.
  Commandments and Traditions
  The ﬁ rst and foremost rule the Lancea Sanctum observes is that the Traditions are absolute 
  and inviolate — mostly. The covenant seeks to encourage all vampire society to adhere strictly 
  to those precepts, for only by doing so can the Lancea Sanctum honor its progenitor and 
  bring the rest of the undead closer to understanding him.
  At the same time, however, most Sanctiﬁ ed are pragmatic, and their leaders know that the 
  covenant will never succeed at its divinely appointed task if they allow themselves to become 
  weak. Therefore, Sanctiﬁ ed Embrace childer, although it ﬂ ies in the face of the Traditions. 
  They prefer to convert other vampires where possible, but they know that the covenant would 
  atrophy without the occasional infusion of new blood. Similarly, the Lancea Sanctum does not 
  hesitate to kill those who threaten its objectives (though again, Sanctiﬁ ed would often prefer 
  to convert or circumvent such enemies where possible). Murder, too, is permitted because 
  the covenant could not survive otherwise. True believers among the Lancea Sanctum do not 
  claim that they are exempt from the Traditions they break, though. Rather, they maintain that 
  they willingly risk God’s displeasure for the sake of the larger community, much as Longinus 
  himself was cursed for making the mark on Christ that proved his divine nature. They accept 
  whatever judgment is ﬁ nally levied upon them for doing so.
  The Lancea Sanctum will not choose to violate the Tradition of Secrecy, however, at least 
  not in the sense that it lets mortals know exactly what vampires are. Members of the covenant 
  understand how vital the Masquerade is for the survival of the race, and thus the satisfaction 
  of their divine charge. Of course, having taken philosophical lessons of superiority over the 
  kine to heart, violent members consider killing witnesses to vampiric acts an acceptable means 
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  chapter one: society of the damned
  68
  of maintaining secrecy. Covenant leadership 
  frowns on such brazen behavior and has been 
  known to chastise or dispose of Sanctiﬁ ed 
  who draw too much attention. They know, 
  however, that to rein in the entirety of the 
  young generations would vastly curtail their 
  recruiting power — assuming they could do it 
  at all — so they grit their teeth and make every 
  effort to clean up after careless childer.
  Guidance
  All Sanctified are worthy of spiritual 
  guidance. True believers in the covenant’s 
  cause never turn away any vampire, of any 
  afﬁ liation, who seeks aid or advice on reli-
  gious matters. In fact, covenant law prohibits 
  members from refusing any such petition. 
  Obviously, this stricture allows for reason-
  able interpretation. A Sanctiﬁ ed need not 
  invite a known enemy into her haven with 
  open arms, nor must she stop in the middle 
  of a gun battle to comfort a companion 
  who’s having a crisis of faith. Where pos-
  sible, however, the Lancea Sanctum serves 
  the entirety of vampire society as priests and 
  advisors, and it is through this reaching out 
  that the group gains many of its most faithful 
  adherents. Even if conversion is not viable, 
  the covenant believes that by providing aid, 
  it can only bring other vampires that much 
  closer to God.
  Conversion
  Those who will not voluntarily open their 
  eyes must be forced to see. Violence is never 
  the ﬁ rst choice, but if the undead refuse to 
  come to the Lancea Sanctum, and if the Sanc-
  tiﬁ ed believe they can do so with minimal 
  danger to their own standing, they have no 
  qualms about shedding blood. Strictly speak-
  ing, conversion by the sword is impossible. A 
  vampire can easily claim to have converted, 
  and then ﬂ ee at the ﬁ rst opportunity. Those 
  who do not die can afford to wait for their 
  chance. In regions where the covenant holds 
  dominance, the Lancea Sanctum can enforce 
  its laws and the Traditions with the most dire 
  and horrifying of penalties. Other vampires 
  in the territory might not actually believe as 
  the Lancea Sanctum does, but by God they’re 
  
  69
  going to act as though they do! And who knows, maybe when they’ve been forced to behave 
  like Sanctiﬁ ed for long enough, they’ll see the wisdom in such an unlifestyle.
  Rituals and Observances
  Few organizations, be they Kindred or kine, can match the Lancea Sanctum for sheer quan-
  tity of rituals. As the primary religious faction among the undead, the Sanctiﬁ ed have a rite, 
  an observance or a tradition for many aspects of the Requiem. It would be impossible, even in 
  many times the space available, to describe them all. Presented here, then, is a small selection 
  of some of the more important or common rites and traditions. It’s important to note that 
  while these practices are observed wherever the Sanctiﬁ ed can be found, they often differ in 
  detail from domain to domain or even from coterie to coterie. Like all religious ceremonies, 
  they are deﬁ ned as much by their performers as by their intended meaning. Note that the use 
  of the term “Priest” in these descriptions represents a formal position, not the more general 
  concept that all Sanctiﬁ ed should “serve as priests” to their brethren.
  Theban Sorcery
  To hear the Sanctiﬁ ed tell it, its members are capable of no less than miracles themselves. 
  In truth, the Lancea Sanctum does possess a potent form of spiritual magic, though whether 
  it performs literal miracles is up for debate. At some point after the covenant formed — pur-
  portedly in the third century AD — some of its members followed a Roman army into Thebes 
  (“Thebias” according to fragments of a journal supposedly recovered from the march). There, 
  a legion of Christian soldiers was drawn from the local ranks. When members of the covenant 
  accompanied the Theban legion on its march to Gaul, one of their number brought with her 
  the secrets of this magic, which she claimed to have learned from an angel on the journey. 
  To this night, the covenant studies and practices this sorcery, which it uses to demonstrate 
  its power, “prove” its chosen nature and punish transgressors against its dictates.
  Creation Rite
  The induction of a new childe to the Requiem is a powerful event for the Sanctiﬁ ed. On 
  one hand, it symbolizes the continued growth of their covenant and the birth of another 
  disciple of the faith. On the other, it is a violation of the very Traditions that the Lancea 
  Sanctum has sworn to uphold. The Creation Rite, then, is a combined celebration of the 
  new childe and an act of penance for his sire. It must be conducted as soon as reasonably pos-
  sible after the childe is Embraced, ideally at the very time of that Embrace. A Priest or other 
  high-ranking member of the Lancea Sanctum conducts the rite, which involves substantial 
  prayers and recited litanies. The childe is then anointed and blessed with a burning brand. 
  The brand does not touch the ﬂ esh of the childe. Rather, the Priest waves it over her not 
  unlike the Catholic christening. The sire, however, is exposed to the brand, which is placed 
  directly against his chest. Contact lasts only a moment, but crying out or lapsing into a fear 
  frenzy from the ﬂ ames is a mark of shame. Only when this rite has been completed is the 
  childe considered “truly” Sanctiﬁ ed, and a childe whose sire holds up well is accorded more 
  respect than one who does not.
  Multiple variations on this rite exist, as few Lancea Sanctum domains and coteries operate 
  in exactly the same fashion. Some Creation Rites involve the sire exposing herself to the rising 
  sun or to night-long sessions of ﬂ agellation with barbed whips. One particularly dangerous 
  variation involves the childe (after being blessed) staking his own sire and then setting one 
  of her extremities alight. The purpose is for the childe to let his sire burn just long enough 
  to leave a wound, yet not so long as to risk Final Death. If the childe performs well, the sire 
  is lauded for her choice. If the childe does not perform well, the sire usually isn’t concerned 
  with anything else said on the topic.
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  chapter one: society of the damned
  70
  Anointing/Blood Baths
  Used whenever a Sanctiﬁ ed obtains a new rank or position, the Anointing, which must be 
  conducted by a Priest or recognized covenant ofﬁ cial, involves little more than a recited litany, 
  a series of formal responses offered by the supplicant and the drawing of any one of several 
  religious symbols on the supplicant’s head. The drawing is done in blood, and the supplicant 
  is forbidden from washing it off until the next night. (Recently Anointed Sanctiﬁ ed do not 
  frequently go out among kine.) This ceremony is why many Lancea Sanctum ofﬁ cers, ofﬁ cials 
  and agents are referred to, collectively, as the Anointed.
  Among some young Sanctiﬁ ed, the Anointing assumes a more primal form. They celebrate 
  such events not with a simple touch of blood but with what is called a Blood Bath. The Blood 
  Bath serves the same purpose, but the subject (often along with the other participants) is 
  literally drenched in blood. Those who do not enter frenzy are accorded great respect, while 
  those who succumb are mocked for their lack of control. Elder Lancea Sanctum members 
  consider the Blood Bath a corruption of an ancient tradition, but as long as young Priests 
  do not conduct it in such a way as to threaten the Masquerade, critics bite back their distaste 
  and “let the whelps play.”
  Midnight Mass
  Led by one of the highest Lancea Sanctum ofﬁ cials in a city, a Midnight Mass is simply 
  that: a prayer service to God, held in the dark of night. Some truly devout Sanctiﬁ ed domains 
  hold such a mass several times a week, but they occur only once or twice a month in most 
  Sanctiﬁ ed-dominated cities. All covenant members in the region are expected to attend on at 
  least a semi-regular basis. Many other rites, rituals and celebrations, often including Creation 
  Rites and Anointings, occur at Midnight Mass.
  Others
  Among the dozens if not hundreds of other rites not listed here are the Fire Dance (a cer-
  emony popular among young Sanctiﬁ ed in which they dance around or even through ﬁ re to 
  prove that they can master the vampiric weakness), the Mysteries (a yearly festival of celebra-
  tion and thanksgiving that all local Sanctiﬁ ed are expected to attend), and acceptance and 
  allegiance rites (trials and sworn oaths when ﬁ rst joining the covenant or a particular coterie). 
  In addition to those rites that are more or less universal, domains and even individual coteries 
  often have their own rites, developed internally and not shared with the rest of the faction.
  Titles and Duties
  As with the Invictus, many of the Lancea Sanctum’s titles overlap with local positions of 
  authority. Many do not, however, and those that appear common often have a unique take 
  on them.
  Bishop
  The religious leader of the Lancea Sanctum in a domain is called the Bishop. The Prince 
  may rule the city, but the Bishop is the highest authority where the Lancea Sanctum is 
  concerned. Many Bishops hold other positions in the city power structure (such as Regent, 
  Seneschal or Primogen), even if that power structure is not Sanctiﬁ ed-dominated, as most 
  Princes are wise enough to recognize the substantial power a Bishop holds.
  Bishop duties include all those of a Priest, but he is also responsible for managing the local 
  activities of the covenant as a whole.
  Archbishop
  This is simply the title that most Sanctiﬁ ed Princes choose for themselves, as Archbishop 
  ﬁ ts the Lancea Sanctum mentality far better than the secular title of Prince. The Archbishop, 
  surprisingly enough, is usually not the same person as the Bishop, as the responsibilities of 
  
  71
  Iconoclasts and 
  apostates
  Faithless but determined
  Heretics, 
  witches and 
  worse
  Overly focused 
  on temporal 
  strength
  Spirituality 
  gone wrong
  running a city usually do not leave time to serve as Bishop as well. The Archbishop does 
  outrank the Bishop, however, so he can overrule the Bishop when necessary.
  Cardinal
  In those few cities where a single leader is powerful enough to serve as both Archbishop 
  and Bishop, she often chooses to take the title of Cardinal. Cardinal isn’t a “formal” covenant 
  title the way the other two are, though. It’s really just a vaunted way of saying, “I hold greater 
  ofﬁ ce than any two of you. Who would dare challenge me for it?”
  Priest
  A Sanctiﬁ ed responsible for the spiritual teaching and guidance of other vampires is known 
  as a Priest. Some Priests serve as advisors to their local government. Others serve as Priest 
  to a speciﬁ c coterie (and many coteries larger than three members have one). This position 
  is largely informal, but occasionally has the formal recognition of Lancea Sanctum leaders 
  behind it.
  Inquisitor
  Answering only to a Bishop or Archbishop, an Inquisitor is responsible for hunting down 
  heresy, disobedience and treason within the covenant. He has power to investigate anyone 
  or anything, and all wise Kindred fear him. Although he technically has only low rank, his 
  authority while conducting an investigation borders on absolute. In cities where a separate 
  Sheriff exists, these two are often at odds. If an Inquisitor is not supported by the local Prince, 
  he had better be careful how he handles relations with other covenants. The Inquisitor might 
  ﬁ nd himself isolated in accusations or charges levied against vampires of other followings.
  the lancea sanctum
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  72
  THE ORDO DRACUL
  The curse of vampirism is but an obstacle, a hurdle before achieving true power. Granted, 
  it’s a daunting hurdle, and one that most Kindred are ill equipped to even see as surmount-
  able. For those with the necessary devotion, tenacity and intelligence, the Ordo Dracul, the 
  Order of the Dragon, can provide the means. The vampires of the Ordo Dracul run the 
  gamut from dogged fundamentalists with just as much zeal as any fanatic to coldly secular 
  theosophists simply seeking the means to destroy an enemy. The covenant as a whole welcomes 
  both mentalities, for both have much to teach.
  This faction claims an infamous founder — Vlad Tepes, Dracula himself. Dracula is notewor-
  thy because he acknowledges no sire. According to Dracula’s account of becoming a vampire, 
  God turned His back on him and cursed him with undeath in order to punish him for his 
  wicked acts. The most widely accepted story of Dracula’s origin is that God punished Vlad 
  Tepes for his abuse of faith in mortal life. According to certain historical records, Tepes was 
  appointed as a “defender of Christianity,” a charge he then used as a means of advancing 
  his own political agendas and as an excuse for atrocities. In addition to all his crimes against 
  humanity, Dracula ultimately put his own desires before his holy oath, the act that Damned 
  him.
  The veracity of these statements remains unproven, of course, not the least obstacle to 
  which is that Dracula himself hasn’t been seen in over a century. Legends of Dracula also 
  ascribe to him strange circumstances. By knowledgeable members of Kindred society, he is 
  suspected of siring a very few childer — but if Dracula wasn’t Embraced himself, what clan 
  could he possibly be, and what does that make his get? By other accounts, he has never sired 
  childer at all, or those he has sired are somehow “failed,” little more than hideous horrors 
  doomed to slake their thirsts in a constant state of mindless rage.
  Indeed, the organization that has grown up surrounding Dracula’s teachings is easily as 
  enigmatic as its founder.
  OVERVIEW
  The Order’s roots are something of a matter of debate — even within the covenant itself. It 
  is undoubtedly one of the youngest of the major Kindred factions. The Dragons, as they are 
  fearfully (or hatefully) known, have records of apprenticeships as early as the 16th century. 
  With the advent of the printing press, the covenant was better able to disseminate the vast 
  
  73
  amount of archaic and arcane writings that members require in order to learn and perform 
  their transcendental studies. The covenant experienced a sudden jump in power and mem-
  bership during the Industrial Revolution, then another in the late 19th century, then yet 
  another in recent decades. It is believed that the covenant grew to power in Eastern Europe, its 
  philosophies traveling with the development of transportation technology, but just as credible 
  theories place the group’s origins in Victorian London and even early New York.
  The Ordo Dracul reveres its founder, but in a very different way than, say, the Lancea Sanc-
  tum honors Longinus. The Dragons believe that the curse of vampirism can and should be 
  surpassed, that the Embrace is a judgment that can be overturned and even exceeded. Nothing 
  is permanent, the Order argues, not even the lingering undeath that all Kindred experience. 
  Of course, no known vampire has ever escaped the Requiem through the Order’s rites in a 
  manner that others would ﬁ nd satisfactory. (It’s quite possible to reduce oneself to a pile of 
  ash or a torpid wretch through an ill-performed observance, though.) Regardless, Kindred are 
  perfectly willing to admit that such things take centuries, if not millennia. Some crucial piece 
  of knowledge must yet be missing, and with the world growing smaller and more integrated 
  as technology uncovers more of it, that knowledge won’t be long in coming. 
  In that regard, the Ordo Dracul is much more comfortable with the modern world than the 
  Invictus is, though not nearly so comfortable as the Carthians are. Technology isn’t something 
  to be feared, but another tool to be used, and since the covenant prizes mental evolution as 
  much as spiritual progression, elders who wish to retain their standing must shake off the 
  inertia of years and learn how to use a telephone or a scanner. Hidebound traditionalists 
  aren’t overtly snubbed, but they do tend to be left alone in their havens to experience the 
  Requiem and perform their research in solitude.
  The search for knowledge is a commonly stated goal of the Order, but it’s deliberately vague. 
  Members of the Ordo Dracul are interested in knowledge, true, but that has more to do with 
  the kind of personality the covenant attracts than with its actual goals. The Dragons seek 
  information about the truth of the vampiric condition, and to that end, they enjoy talking to 
  other Kindred about their experiences, their feelings upon receiving the Embrace, how their 
  bodies have changed, and how their attitudes toward morals have progressed. (The Gangrel 
  in particular interest the Order, and those Savages who join the covenant quickly become 
  some of their most respected members.) The Dragons seek to establish patterns in God’s 
  plan, in the curse of undeath and in any other facet of the Requiem that will lead them to 
  the answer they seek — how to transcend the limits of vampirism. 
  The Ordo Dracul has a hierarchical structure unique to it, known internally as the Dragon’s 
  Tongue. The Order involves numerous rites and initiations, the completion of which symbol-
  izes the member’s passage from one “circle of mystery” or level of achievement to the next. 
  Progression through the hierarchy seems to correspond to mastery of the Coils of the Dragon, 
  but whether this is true or simply a non-member’s misunderstanding remains uncertain. This 
  structure also serves to protect the covenant’s secrets. The Ordo Dracul is loath to let anyone, 
  even low-ranking members, leave the faction. The higher one’s rank in the covenant is, the 
  more she has invested and accomplished and, thus, the more reluctant she will (theoretically) 
  be to leave. Yet, defections and renunciations occur with more frequency than the Order 
  would have outsiders believe.
  MEMBERS
  The Ordo Dracul doesn’t need to proselytize. While it welcomes new members, it isn’t as 
  open as the Invictus because its strength depends on the intelligence of its Kindred, rather 
  than on their loyalty. The Order isn’t out to overthrow the existing status quo or to enforce 
  the ordo dracul
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  74
  it, nor does it mean to adhere to an ancient set of laws or to venerate a god. Its members seek 
  simply to move beyond, and that attracts a certain class of vampire. Kindred who are dissatis-
  ﬁ ed with their lot but who attribute that dissatisfaction to a spiritual or mystical state rather 
  than to a political or temporal one make good candidates for the Ordo Dracul. Vampires who 
  believe in some sort of origin for the Kindred, but who lack the zealotry or dogma necessary 
  to join the Lancea Sanctum do so as well. The most accomplished Dragons of the Order tend 
  to come from those Kindred who are open-minded and realistic before the Embrace. They 
  see what they have become and do not immediately accept that the Requiem is the ultimate 
  end of their existence. These sorts of Dragons are the cream of the crop. 
  Most, however, join the covenant to cheat the curse of undeath, pure and simple. The 
  lure of the group’s high rites draws all clans, and even members of the Lancea Sanctum have 
  been known to leave their covenant, thus committing unthinkable blasphemy, to join the 
  Ordo Dracul. The reverse is also true. Occasionally a member of the Order decides that the 
  ceremonies she observes are sins against nature or a higher power and resolves never to call 
  upon her hard-won knowledge again, passing the rest of her nights in quiet penance for her 
  dabbling in forbidden mysteries. The Order has even noticed that certain speciﬁ c areas of 
  study induce this response more than others, and these texts and formulae offer a tempting 
  target for young Dragons looking to make names for themselves. 
  The Ordo Dracul boasts members from all clans. The covenant hasn’t seen that any one 
  widespread lineage has any particular advantage over another. Of course, a given bloodline 
  might spawn members of the Order as one sire trains his childe in the ways of the covenant, 
  and that childe does likewise, but on the whole, the Dragons look past clan when considering 
  members. The decision process has more to do with temperament and intellectual ability. 
  While not all or even most members of the Ordo Dracul are bookish or scholarly, the vast 
  majority are literate and educated at least moderately well.
  The hardest part about joining the covenant is ﬁ nding members who trust other Kindred 
  enough to be willing to teach. That in mind, the ﬁ rst task a prospective Dragon has is to 
  get a potential mentor to notice her. Investigating the Ordo Dracul, experimenting with the 
  vampiric form and with the various Disciplines, and trying the limits of the Requiem are good 
  ways to go about gaining attention. If an entire coterie wishes to attempt to ﬁ nd a mentor, its 
  members’ chances improve dramatically. The Order approves of this approach for a number 
  of reasons. Aside from the obvious advantage of having peers with which to trade ideas, a 
  coterie can protect itself better than a lone vampire can, from both enemies and potentially 
  disastrous mystical errors. Also, a bit of healthy competition is ultimately good for the covenant, 
  as it weeds out members who are only in it to cheat undeath for its own sake.
  Once a prospective Dragon ﬁ nds a mentor, the apprenticeship period begins. This period 
  never really ends. Since all members of the Ordo Dracul are meant to learn constantly, all 
  members can teach constantly. The Order observes “graduation” ceremonies of the most 
  elaborate kind. Indeed, it relishes the fact that even an elder might still be able to learn at 
  the feet of a wiser and more powerful member of the Order (a fact that frightens the other 
  covenants more than they’d ever admit). 
  Just as it performs graduation ceremonies, the Ordo Dracul also performs initiations as 
  a covenant (though individual mentors might elect to test would-be pupils privately before 
  fully introducing them). It becomes clear within the ﬁ rst few weeks of training whether a 
  student has the right mettle to learn the Coils of the Dragon, which the Dragons regard as 
  the ﬁ rst necessary step in joining the covenant. If the pupil cannot learn at least the basics 
  of this esoteric body of ceremonies — and the reasons for doing so range from simple lack 
  of intelligence to an unwillingness to surrender their souls to spiritual study — the mentor 
  
  75
  simply stops the training. The pupil might continue to practice what she has already learned, 
  but advancement without instruction is profoundly difﬁ cult. 
  PHILOSOPHY
  The Ordo Dracul is as much a religious society as a secular one, but only insofar as the 
  vampiric condition cannot be explained without the existence of God. According to members’ 
  beliefs, Dracula was himself cursed by God, much as the Sanctiﬁ ed of the Lancea Sanctum 
  claim that their progenitor was. The difference, of course, is that Dracula became a vampire 
  long after many other vampires had already existed in the world. The Ordo Dracul doesn’t 
  require the fanaticism of the Lancea Sanctum or the Acolytes, because its tenets do not demand 
  it. The Dragons’ philosophies are as rigorously tested as any of their ceremonies, so they work 
  their miracles without worship or reverence to a higher power. Respect, they feel, is enough.
  To the uninitiated, the philosophy of the Ordo Dracul is a mire of theosophical and even 
  neo-Victorian postulation. Some Kindred liken the order to a secret society such as the Ma-
  sons or the Golden Dawn, and such speculation isn’t far from the truth. One cannot argue 
  the facts, though. Those who achieve rank in the Order certainly gain beneﬁ ts and are able 
  to perform acts that other vampires cannot.
  The main tenets of the Order of the Dragon are as follows.
  Nothing Is Permanent
  Members of the Ordo Dracul know better than to consider themselves “immortal.” Vampires 
  do indeed die, and without beneﬁ t of plotting enemies or slavering werewolves. All it takes 
  is a ﬁ re burning out of control or a miscalculation in determining the exact time of sunrise, 
  and centuries of unlife and experience can come to an end. But the Dragons don’t look at 
  this fragility as a vulnerability. They regard their condition as mutable. After all, they reason, 
  if God had truly wished for vampires never to change, He wouldn’t have made the means 
  of their destruction so readily available, and He certainly wouldn’t have given any of them 
  ability to change their forms. As such, the Order looks at sweeping change, even change that 
  seems to harm more than it helps, as ultimately beneﬁ cial. A building burns, a plane crashes, 
  the Prince of a city falls, covenants scheme, werewolves attack, and the Ordo Dracul simply 
  reminds its members that nothing lasts forever. This isn’t a bleak, fatalistic lament so much 
  as a challenge. “What can we take away from this change?” If nothing else, every change is a 
  reminder that change is possible. 
  Change Must Have a Purpose
  Central to transcending the vampiric condition is an understanding of why it is necessary 
  to do so. The Order looks at the Requiem as a challenge more than a curse, but its members 
  never forget or deny that it is a curse. In researching and realizing the Coils of the Dragon, 
  the Dragons work toward their ultimate goal of leaving their vampiric shells behind.
  This tenet has a broader application, as well. Every action has a reaction, and until a Dragon 
  can understand the reactions that a given course causes, she is discouraged from taking action 
  at all. This lesson is reﬂ ected most keenly in the Order’s spiritual power. The Coils of the 
  Dragon distinguish members from their peers quickly, providing a superb object lesson in the 
  nature of causality. The more power you gain, the less power you understand. Young members 
  of the covenant, eager for the beneﬁ ts that the Coils can grant them and enthralled with the 
  notion of going beyond the limits of their state, don’t usually understand that paradox. Many 
  Ordo Dracul mentors regard it as the harshest, but most necessary lesson of the Requiem. If 
  every action isn’t guided by purpose, it soon spirals into entropy and eventually destruction. 
  The Order doesn’t believe in causing foolish chaos and then shirking responsibility for its 
  actions by saying, “Change is good.”
  the ordo dracul
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  76
  RITUALS AND OBSERVANCES
  The most important relationship in the covenant is that of the mentor and pupil. Rites 
  and practices vary greatly among mentors. While one might keep lessons extremely informal, 
  another might treat her pupils like novitiates in a monastery, forcing them to copy manu-
  scripts or perform menial tasks for most of the night and instructing them in the ways of 
  transcendence for only the last hour before sunrise.
  The covenant as a whole does observe a few important rituals, however, and some individual 
  teaching methods have become widespread enough to mention.
  The Coils of the Dragon
  Central to the Ordo Dracul is the philosophy of transcendence, the desire to rise above the 
  limitations of the cursed vampiric form. Learning the Coils of the Dragon allows a Kindred 
  to “cheat” certain aspects of the Requiem. For instance, a vampire might be able to slow his 
  mystical metabolism, consuming less blood than normal when he rises each night. Another 
  aspect of transcendence might allow a Kindred to slake his thirst on animal blood, no mat-
  ter how potent his own blood is. By defeating these incarnations of vampirism, the Order 
  believes it is on the right path toward eliminating or escaping vampirism entirely — with the 
  goal of attaining the next level, whatever form that takes.
  The Dragon’s Tongue
  A forked line of progression, the Dragon’s Tongue is the structure through which covenant 
  members progress as they learn more secrets and master greater aspects of their condition. 
  While comprehension of the hierarchy by those outside the covenant is cloudy at best, it 
  appears that all members follow a single path of progression up until a certain point, after 
  which the member chooses a specialty to follow. Various members of the covenant lay claim 
  to numerous titles, but whether these are actual functions and responsibilities or mere hon-
  oriﬁ cs has yet to be ascertained by outsiders. The Dragon’s Tongue is an oblique concept. It 
  is distinct from the Coils of the Dragon, but knowing the Coils of the Dragon seems to be 
  requisite for advancement in the Dragon’s Tongue. In layman’s terms, the Dragon’s Tongue 
  seems to roughly equate to rank while the Coils of the Dragon are similar to capability or 
  potential.
  Finding the Wyrm’s Nests
  The world is constantly in ﬂ ux, on levels that not even the Kindred can perceive. Long 
  ago, the Ordo Dracul noticed that certain places hold magic better than others. These areas, 
  variously called “nexuses,” “holy sites” or “dragon nests” by different cultures, don’t stay 
  static. They migrate as ﬂ ows in the mystical energies of the world push them. Likewise, new 
  sites of power spring up every year. The Order has determined that many places that mortals 
  consider haunted or cursed (or blessed) are simply the result of this energy being “washed” 
  into a new locale. Every few years, then, the Dragons re-draw the mystical maps of the world, 
  plotting sites and the current of mystic power toward them (sometimes called “ley lines”). 
  This practice takes place over the course of weeks and months, normally beginning with the 
  week preceding the winter solstice, as it gives the map-makers the most time to work. A certain 
  amount of reverence, if not outright ritual, accompanies these mapping efforts. The mystical 
  cartographers are treated with the utmost respect, and being sent to verify the existence of 
  a nexus is considered something of an honor among the Order. It’s generally accepted that 
  any mystical artifacts discovered at such an investigation remain property of those who ﬁ nd 
  them (after the covenant has a chance to catalog and examine them, of course).
  Following the Dragon’s Tail
  A teaching technique that has become popular as mortal populations increase, Following 
  the Dragon’s Tail is meant to illustrate that no change happens in a vacuum. The mentor 
  
  77
  accompanies her student on a hunt, and 
  instructs her to kill one mortal in the course 
  of feeding (not usually a problem, especially 
  if the student has taken well to her studies). 
  The mentor then instructs her to follow the 
  innumerable chains of events that death 
  causes. Who does the mortal leave behind? 
  What does her obituary say? Does anyone 
  mourn her? Who shows up at her funeral? 
  Does a police investigation ensue? How 
  much effort do the police put into it? Do 
  other vampires become involved? Reportedly, 
  the ﬁ rst Kindred of the Order to enact this 
  lesson still follows the effects that the murder 
  he committed had on mortal society… more 
  than 200 years later. In less formal terms, a 
  member of the Ordo Dracul said to be “fol-
  lowing the dragon’s tail” takes care of loose 
  ends, or plots some scheme and attempts to 
  predict results for every stage of the plan.
  Honoring the Mentor
  Not required, but certainly not discour-
  aged, the practice of annually honoring 
  one’s superior(s) among the Ordo Dracul 
  hierarchy has become commonplace. Every 
  covenant member who chooses to partake in 
  this custom has a different method of show-
  ing reverence, and of course it very much 
  depends on the mentor in question. For 
  some teachers, a gift (books, a favored type 
  of vessel, an archeological ﬁ nd stolen from a 
  museum) is best. For others, a demonstration 
  of what the pupil has learned in the past year 
  makes the best present. Coteries of Dragons 
  who study under the same mentor sometimes 
  collaborate on a way to honor their teacher… 
  but just as often they compete to decide who 
  can elicit the most appreciation from her. 
  TITLES AND DUTIES
  As mentioned previously, the mentor-
  student relationship is the backbone of the 
  Order of the Dragon. Many members intro-
  duce themselves as their mentors’ protégés 
  (if a mentor is well respected), and an elder 
  Dragon with an especially promising student 
  might even reverse the compliment, calling 
  herself “[so-and-so]’s master.”
  the ordo dracul
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  78
  Usually 
  beneath notice. 
  Usually.
  Cannot comprehend 
  the value of self
  Idolaters without 
  enlightenment
  Emphasize 
  order instead of 
  improvement
  Strong out-
  side, hollow 
  within
  Not all members of the Ordo Dracul are constantly embroiled in the process of learning, 
  however, and the covenant has great respect for those who take up the other duties that the 
  Dragons consider important.
  Guardians
  Among the reverent Ordo Dracul, the Guardians are responsible for looking after the 
  aforementioned mystical sites. The covenant has several reasons for wanting to keep other 
  beings out of these nexuses. First, an uninformed fool with a bit of mystic talent but no 
  proper training (by which the Dragons mean any magical being who is not a member of the 
  covenant could destroy the site’s power and wreak havoc on an entire area. In fact, vampiric 
  urban legend perpetuates tales of ill-performed rites on a particularly powerful site, courtesy 
  of covens of mortal wizards, Lupine shamans and satanic cults. Second, places of power are 
  valuable resources, and when the Order possesses one, that is both an asset for itself and an 
  asset denied to rivals. As counterpoint to this, the Ordo Dracul knows that many of the other 
  covenants of Kindred would destroy such sites rather than let the Dragons make use of them, 
  or at least make them bargain for access. Third, such mystical sites are always changing, and 
  while they normally change over the course of years or decades, sometimes magic takes a great 
  leap forward and the Order likes to know about such events as soon as possible. Finally, the 
  covenant asserts that some sites are truly symbolic or spiritual and deserve protection from 
  deﬁ lement as well as from simple destruction. 
  Guardians are usually those Dragons with a bent toward martial prowess and stealth. They 
  are rarely prepared to end their unlives in pursuit of their duties, however. After all, nothing 
  is permanent, and throwing away an unlife over something that might change in a mere 50 
  years is just foolish.
  Kogaion
  Every city with a signiﬁ cant Order presence has a pre-eminent Guardian known as a 
  Kogaion. He protects the city’s maps of ley lines and nexuses, the locations of its greatest 
  mystical treasures (if not the treasures themselves), and a roster of all Dragons in the area. 
  Most often, the Kogaion memorizes this information or records it in riddles, codes and dead 
  languages to keep it from falling into enemy hands. The title itself seems to be of Thracian 
  origin, meaning “the magniﬁ cent’s head.” A new Kogaion is elected only when an old one 
  dies, steps down or becomes untrustworthy (and being declared untrustworthy requires a 
  
  79
  statement to that effect from at least seven other Kogaions). Being declared a Kogaion is one 
  of the greatest honors of the covenant, but it also effectively cuts the vampire off from other 
  members of the Order. Everyone respects the Kogaion, but since she is an obvious target for 
  enemies of the covenant, no one wants to associate closely with her. Kogaions are frequently 
  hermits, sought for consultation and advice but very rarely for long-term apprenticeships. 
  Kogaions also tend to be frighteningly powerful with regard to the Coils of the Dragon… 
  though some simply believe they are.
  The Sworn of Dracula
  Little is known of the Sworn — from the outside, they appear to be sub-factions or sub-cov-
  enants within the Ordo Dracul. A few Kindred suspect that the Sworn of Dracula number three 
  distinct groups, each of which is associated with some higher branch of the Dragon’s Tongue. 
  Most vampires outside the covenant don’t even know the names of the Sworn, though three 
  distinct titles do seem to be consistent where the Order grows to any appreciable numbers: 
  the Sworn of the Axe, the Sworn of the Mysteries and the Sworn of the Dying Light.
  the ordo dracul
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  80
  The Unaligned
  When one hears a vampire refer to the existing Kindred order as the “despised aristocracy of 
  the undead,” the speaker is probably one of these free-thinking spirits — those whom the vampire 
  world has dubbed “unaligned” or “unbound.” They are the rebels, outlaws and iconoclasts of 
  vampire society, those who freely ﬂ out the rule of the elders among their kind. Independent 
  Kindred can also simply be apolitical vampires, those who acknowledge only their own authority 
  but who don’t necessarily make a grand show of deﬁ ance against Princes and Regents. There 
  are as many reasons to renounce the notion of covenants as there are Kindred among the un-
  bound, everything from paper-tiger rebellion to acknowledging no greater authority than the 
  self to free will to downright bizarre mystic philosophies and even heresies.
  The unaligned are ﬁ ercely independent, and many would sooner face the rising sun with a 
  smile than spend eternity in submission before another creature of the night. While they do 
  not truly compose a covenant, the unbound are often overlooked individually and considered 
  in a collective rabble with others of their mindset, despite the fact that they have no shared 
  organization. Still, enough commonalities occur that they can be discussed as a phenomenon, 
  even if their status as a formal covenant is nonexistent. If a vampire disdains the prevailing 
  governmental structure but doesn’t belong to any structured covenant, the rest of Kindred 
  society almost always considers her one of the unaligned.
  Overview
  “Independent” Kindred resent or otherwise reject the neofeudal establishment of modern 
  Kindred society. They’ve been around as long as any of the covenants by virtue of the fact that 
  as long as a political movement is going on, someone will oppose or take no interest in it. 
  In nights past, some politically independent vampires were occasionally known as “anarchs” 
  or “autarkis,” a reference to their disregard for ironclad laws and orders among the Kindred. 
  Those vampires cared nothing for the proclamations and decrees of heavy-handed Princes, and 
  to a great extent, wished nothing more than to be left alone. In those nights, the unaligned 
  were considered foolish, but ultimately harmless, as long as each individual member was smart 
  enough not to jeopardize himself and his kind through his lawless actions.
  The spread of an informal unbound sympathy would change all this. Many lawless, prac-
  tically careless Kindred did much to shake up the world of vampire society in a very short 
  time. Lines were blurred, boundaries crossed and dreadful decisions made, all in the name of 
  
  81
  independence from the established order, and that was the part that caused a stir. Although 
  what passes for an unaligned “movement” has since settled down a bit (or at least retreated 
  to the shadows), the damage wrought upon the unbound was done. Tonight, more than a 
  few elders among the covenants have taken the actions of particularly truculent unaligned as 
  representative of the gestalt… or at least capitalized on the aftermath thereof in an attempt 
  to clamp down on such rogues.
  Members
  Just as the Invictus is plainly attractive to elders, so too is unaligned existence a magnet for 
  the young and downtrodden among the Kindred. Neonates make up the preponderance of 
  the unbound, and new believers discover independent urges with every passing night. Many 
  would-be unbound renounce their afﬁ liations following eye-opening or humiliating experi-
  ences in one of the covenants. Sometimes this occurs early on, with a bitter neonate loudly 
  claiming independence for succor and release. Other times, the taste for freedom attracts 
  ancillae who tried for decades to play the vampiric political game but were simply outma-
  neuvered or disgusted by the toll it took on them over time. The independents probably see 
  more “converts” than any of the covenants, which is yet another reason why these outcasts 
  are often held in such low regard by the established covenants.
  Although a great many unaligned Kindred are neonates or young ancillae, this is not to 
  say that no elders renounce sectarian ways. A number of older Kindred, primarily those of 
  the Mekhet and Gangrel, prize the unbound for their freedoms, and might even seek to turn 
  their inﬂ uence toward uniting local unbound under a common banner in hopes of forming 
  a neo-covenant that advances their own agendas. In fact, these few manipulative elders are 
  responsible for the hostile attitudes that certain cells of independents harbor toward more 
  formalized groups of Kindred. This isn’t to say that every elder goes independent in hopes of 
  building a private army. Many elders among the unbound are quite content simply to ignore 
  social strictures that they personally ﬁ nd distasteful. In the eyes of many “established” Kindred, 
  with elder power comes responsibility, and interpersonal pressures occasionally force into 
  covenants those elders who would be more satisﬁ ed if they were freed from such duties.
  Philosophy
  The guiding philosophical principle behind the unaligned mindset is the fundamental conceit 
  that every vampire — like every man — is free. Regardless of clan or age, no Kindred should be forced 
  to bow like some lowly serf before the feet of a provincial undead governor. Not surprisingly, the 
  unbound ﬁ nd the notion of vampiric titles and duties contemptible. They recognize no “Prince” 
  to whom they should show self-effacing obeisance, and they regard the entire notion of formal-
  ized social debts as wholly unnecessary. Each of the Damned is an individual, removed from the 
  brotherhood of mankind and thrust into solitude for all eternity. The unaligned tend to feel that 
  vampire-kind needs no phony system of forced indenture to make sure that each Kindred keeps 
  his word and honors his promises. As alone as they are, vampires realize that all they truly have 
  is their word — without the aid of unnatural and artiﬁ cial hierarchy — and they act accordingly. 
  Those who don’t are weeded out naturally, and not by the arbitrary will of an elder.
  This sole idea forms the approximate basis of the independent ideology, but like any solid 
  foundation, it embodies itself in a number of night-to-night practical principles. These trends 
  of the unbound mindset give individual Kindred a sense of self, while providing a necessary 
  grounding in the realities of unlife.
  Again, note that these aren’t formalized codes of belief among the unbound. Each indepen-
  dent Kindred is her own Prince, or at least wishes to be. These are simply the most common 
  points of agreement among a non-covenant of ruggedly individual vampires.
  the unaligned
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  82
  Vampiric Nature Is Solitary
  To the unbound, the twin notions of vam-
  piric freedom and individuality have their 
  roots in the simple truth that vampires are 
  solitary creatures. The soul of a Kindred is 
  solitude. It is shut out from the world it knew 
  before the Embrace and forced to survive the 
  Requiem as a wolf among the ﬂ ock, dipping 
  in and out of the fringes of mortal society 
  while never truly integrating with it.
  The same applies to the new world into 
  which a Kindred is thrust upon his Embrace. 
  While many view vampire society as a sub-
  level resting beneath and within mortal soci-
  ety, the unaligned tend to reject this view on 
  the whole. To them, the notion of a “vampire 
  society” is a shamefully forced contrivance, a 
  deliberate attempt by power-hungry elders to 
  enforce structure and order where none ex-
  ists. Vampires are bestial, undead predators. 
  Forcing them to coexist under fabricated 
  pretense is a recipe for disaster. Only by 
  respecting the natural Kindred state — that 
  of isolated, independent equality — can har-
  mony be found among the Damned.
  Power Corrupts
  The unaligned see how terribly power 
  corrupts among the living. Compound the 
  problem with undeath, literal bloodthirst 
  and the prospect of an eternity of the same, 
  and the result is disaster waiting to happen. 
  The unbound can believe that the Kindred 
  are the last creatures who should be in a posi-
  tion to wield great power over themselves, let 
  alone over one another. They’re called “the 
  Damned” for a reason, and the Damned 
  should not be leading the Damned. That’s 
  a caravan that can only travel straight to the 
  gates of Hell, and the unbound know better 
  than to fall into such an ill-fated line. Better 
  that each vampire concern himself primarily 
  with his own progress along his own road.
  This is not to say that independent Kin-
  dred eschew power and inﬂ uence. They are 
  still vampires, and many feel that the only 
  way to ﬁ ght ﬁ re is with ﬁ re. Even those 
  who don’t can still appreciate the beneﬁ t of 
  amassing great amounts of wealth or sway 
  
  83
  in various mortal circles. The important distinction is how and in what manner their power 
  negatively affects those of their kind. Being aware of one’s solitary nature does not mean 
  pretending that other Kindred don’t exist. This very mistake has earned more than one well-
  intentioned unbound her share of trouble. The trick is to learn how to balance the acquisi-
  tion of power with the legitimate needs and desires of one’s neighbors. And, of course, the 
  acquisition of vampire-speciﬁ c power and inﬂ uence is considered dangerous ground among 
  the unaligned, which is why many prefer to stick to mortal spheres of inﬂ uence.
  the unaligned
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  84
  Not every covenant is as fully structured as the rest. Indeed, some covenants are local 
  phenomena or simply too small to merit the elaborate systems that the larger ones have in 
  place. With Belial’s Brood, however, covenant law is unnecessary because, “Do as thou wilt 
  shall be the whole of the law.”
  A loose confederation of Satanists, demon-worshippers and overt miscreants, Belial’s Brood 
  claims that the origin of the Damned is literally from Hell itself. Vampires are not their own 
  unique species, they are “demons” given mortal form or devils who have found passage from 
  the Pit’s sulfurous depths to the surface of the world. The purpose of the Damned, in the 
  opinion of this covenant, is to indulge the dark urges that the Beast imparts.
  The Brood is truly a hellish faction of Kindred. Members exult in their wickedness, inﬂ ict-
  ing pain and misery with no remorse and even less discretion. While Belial’s Brood is about, 
  buildings burn, mortals die under overturned cars, and shocked victims covered in blood 
  stagger down streets before collapsing. The Damned should be the Beast incarnate, they 
  preach. Vampires serve none but the Devil himself!
  Belial’s Brood rarely survives long in any given domain. Its behavior is antithetical to the 
  continued existence of the Kindred, both under literal and interpretative understandings of 
  the Masquerade, so few Princes suffer its ilk to establish havens or stay in their demesnes. 
  Even if Princes didn’t rally entire domains against them, members of the Brood would prob-
  ably bring their own Final Death about sooner rather than later. Their overt acts and blatant 
  wickedness tend to earn them the attention of witch-hunters, mortal authorities and other 
  groups who don’t want the demoniacal murderers threatening them.
  The truly remarkable aspect of Belial’s Brood is that, even with all right-thinking Kindred 
  efforts to stamp them out, the same Satanic ideology survives to take root elsewhere. Belial’s 
  Brood is seldom sophisticated enough to remain secret or hidden for long, and Princes who 
  have destroyed cells to their last member are often surprised to see the phenomenon return a 
  score of years later. The group’s chaotic philosophy is too manic for the covenant to truly have 
  a center anywhere, but if that’s the case, how does the same sectarian philosophy keep resurfac-
  ing if the covenant’s many enemies are so vigilant in rooting it out and destroying it?
  Belial’s Brood
  
  85
  One “covenant” among the world of the undead has no name. Although this faction com-
  prises vampires, those beings seem to hate all Kindred who are not part of their mysterious 
  order, and literally attempt to destroy them on sight. The notion of this group as a covenant 
  might even be mistaken, as it is unknown whether the group is a true covenant, its own insular 
  clan or just a particularly zealous cult. “Seven,” the name by which other Kindred recognize 
  the sect, comes from occasional iconography that its vampires leave behind after particularly 
  heinous or noteworthy attacks — the Roman numeral seven.
  By all accounts, members of Seven are few, and not every city harbors their genocidal popula-
  tion. What they lack in numbers, however, they make up in fervor and burning hatred of the 
  Kindred. A few of their organization have been captured by other vampires, and from their 
  testimonials (most gleaned under pain of torture or through supernatural means), more than 
  a few shuddersome details arise. Members of Seven reportedly do not suffer the same pangs 
  of possible frenzy upon seeing other undead for the ﬁ rst time. They can, however, identify 
  other vampires on sight, as they claim to be able to see “the mark of the Betrayer” upon the 
  Kindred. Even the artiﬁ cial understanding of the group’s “name” is a murky translation at 
  best. When asked under supernatural compulsion to speak the truth, these creatures cannot 
  deﬁ ne what they are, and probes into their minds yield only mental images of the Roman 
  numeral “VII” or a character from what seems to be an unknown alphabet that the vampire 
  so questioned cannot properly explain.
  Despite the mysteries of their origins and purposes, one thing is certain: Members of Seven 
  are fanatical in their drive to destroy other vampires. Seven believes it is the lost legacy of a 
  king who was wronged centuries or even millennia ago, and that its purpose is to destroy the 
  Damned. Only by removing the taint of the Kindred from the world can they achieve their 
  “Sabbath,” which they understand as the ability to reclaim that lost kingdom. Details differ. 
  Some members believe that the kingdom shall emerge from a mystic curse, while others be-
  lieve the kingdom is metaphorical, and they are the chosen workers of God’s will to remove 
  the scourge of the Kindred from the world. Without a doubt, Seven consists of vampires. 
  Its members consume blood just as other undead do, and the true nature of their fanatical 
  mission remains unknown.
  Whatever the cause of its caustic hate for the Kindred is, Seven isn’t stupid. It knows 
  that the world at large sees no difference between it and its hated foes, so it practices what 
  amounts to a Masquerade. It doesn’t blindly leap into conﬂ ict if it feels it would be doomed 
  belial’s brood • vii
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  86
  — it chooses its ﬁ ghts carefully in order to gain as many advantages as possible. Given its 
  relatively small numbers, overt conﬂ ict with groups of Kindred is rare, but not unheard of. 
  Assassinations, murders and stealth tactics are more suited to the covenant’s capabilities, but 
  considering Seven to comprise nothing but ﬁ endish skulkers sorely underestimates its abili-
  ties. Too many Kindred have met their end at the claws of a coterie of Seven after thinking 
  the killers destroyed.
  Kindred Mythology
  Undying, blood-drinking predators with abilities that defy the laws of science as mortals 
  know them, the Kindred are creatures of myth, legend and folklore. Most mortals would 
  undoubtedly be surprised, then, to learn that vampires themselves have their own myths 
  and legends. In fact, the greater portion of Kindred history is known only in the blurred and 
  distorted form of myth. Mortal civilization by and large understands its past far better than 
  the Kindred do their own.
  It seems illogical, at ﬁ rst glance. For all intents and purposes, the Kindred are undying. 
  Surely, some of them experienced these historical events ﬁ rsthand. Mortals must rely on 
  written records and archaeological evidence to piece together bits of the past, but it should 
  be possible for the Kindred to simply ask someone who was there. Shouldn’t it?
  No. As the Kindred age, they ﬁ nd they need far more potent blood to survive, until ﬁ nally 
  they can feed only on other vampires. This inevitably drives the Kindred into torpor, either 
  voluntarily, with the intention of slumbering long enough for the blood to thin, or involun-
  tarily, due to simple lack of available sustenance.
  During torpor, the Kindred dream. Whether it is due to some mystical link through 
  the Blood that connects all the undead, or something inherent in the vampiric mind, all 
  Kindred tend to experience similar dreams. That is, they experience all they have done and 
  all they have seen over and over again. The images continue, unending, inescapable — and 
  ever-changing. The Kindred dream of events past, but never see them exactly as they were. 
  At the end of a mere two or three decades in torpor, a vampire has a slightly skewed memory 
  of his entire Requiem. After centuries of slumber, an elder’s memory might bear little more 
  than a coincidental resemblance to historical fact.
  This means that for every Kindred who witnessed an event ﬁ rsthand, there exists a slightly 
  (or not so slightly) warped accounting of that event. No single Kindred can possibly know the 
  entire truth of a speciﬁ c era or occurrence. Nor can outside investigation ever piece together the 
  actual truth from many different events, as each Kindred is absolutely certain that his version 
  of events is the correct one and is highly unlikely to accept anyone else’s as more accurate.
  The Kindred must therefore turn to mythology, ancient beliefs and written records passed 
  down through the ages and generations, even as mortal writings have been. Some of these 
  records contain elements conﬁ rming the memories of many elders, sufﬁ cient commonalities 
  to suggest that at least some of those memories are partially accurate, as with the beginnings 
  of vampiric society in Rome. Others come from times and places that no modern vampire can 
  claim to have witnessed, thus forming the only surviving record. As to whether they should 
  be believed, well, only the most shamelessly naïve individual would hope that the Kindred 
  might ever come to universal accord on that score.
  These ancient texts are essentially the basis for various Kindred religions or at least creation 
  myths, as the Bible, the Koran and others form the basis for many human faiths, and are 
  
  87
  exceptionally difﬁ cult for some Kindred to accept. The Kindred relationship with faith is an 
  odd one. Their existence serves as sufﬁ cient proof, at least to most of them, that something 
  must exist beyond the realms of science. Most vampires do believe that, yes, some sort of 
  God or higher power exists. To attribute to Him an innate benevolence and sense of order, 
  however, as most religions do, is something else entirely. Few vampires truly accept what they 
  are, or even the very existence of their race. Can this be the work of a kindly deity, one who 
  wants only what’s best for His creations? Many Kindred believe in God, in some form or 
  fashion. Not so many of them consider Him worth worshipping, however.
  Consider as well the inherently deceptive and manipulative nature of the Kindred. Rare is 
  the vampire who hasn’t made lying and deceit a common practice. So what if The Testament 
  of Longinus says what’s true or how the Kindred should behave? Rites of the Dragon says the 
  exact opposite. Who’s to say who actually wrote any book that puts forth an origin for the 
  Damned? The Kindred have nothing but the word of other Kindred to trace any rumor or 
  writing back to a given source. Few Kindred accept even the most minute piece of informa-
  tion at face value if it was given them by another vampire. Why should something so major as 
  the origins, beliefs and even purposes of their race be any different? Of course, as with many 
  things in the Requiem, the ﬁ nal arbiter is the Blood itself, which enforces the Traditions 
  more thoroughly and efﬁ ciently than any institution ever could.
  Thus are the majority of Kindred divided into distinct camps. The Lancea Sanctum and the 
  Invictus believe that The Testament of Longinus represents a good approximation of the truth, 
  and they modify their behavior and religious beliefs accordingly. (It must be said, however, 
  that the Invictus pays these beliefs lip service when they come into conﬂ ict with members’ 
  own interests. Most of the time Invictus Kindred seem not to care at all.) The Ordo Dracul has 
  its own writ, Rites of the Dragon, that, while it doesn’t rule out the possibility of the Longinus 
  theory, certainly doesn’t require it to make its own position valid. The Circle of the Crone 
  rarely bothers with formal works of vampiric origin, relying instead on oral traditions far older 
  than either the Sanctiﬁ ed’s or the Dragons’. Others reject such postulation on the origins of 
  their kind as utterly meaningless, ﬁ ction or propaganda penned by manipulative elders for 
  their own inscrutable purposes. Very few vampires fall into the middle ground. As a whole, 
  Kindred tend to either believe strongly in one myth or none at all.
  MYTHOLOGY, FAITH AND KINDRED BEHAVIOR
  The faith espoused by Kindred who do ﬁ nd one of the many theories particularly poignant or 
  resonant is so prevalent that it has spawned many of the vampire laws, acknowledged and obeyed 
  even by those who don’t accept a given philosophy’s dogma as gospel. For instance, the three 
  formal Traditions by which almost all Kindred society operates are mandated and spelled out in 
  (purportedly) Longinus’ own words as well as those of the now-defunct Camarilla. Many local 
  traditions are also inspired, though less directly, by passages from the Testament. (See p. 91 for more 
  on the Traditions.) The Masquerade in particular is often touted as a prime example of Longinus’ 
  wisdom and foresight. His followers maintain that if the progenitor could foresee the need for 
  the Kindred to hide from mortals, even back when the living did not outnumber the undead to 
  nearly the extent they do now, then surely his other commandments are equally wise.
  On the other hand, many regional groups of the Circle of the Crone draw precepts from 
  cultures and mythologies that existed long before the Cruciﬁ xion, or entirely independently 
  of it. Their own theologies have developed concurrently with the same limitations of the 
  Kindred form that members of the Lancea Sanctum experience. To their mind, even if Longi-
  nus did exist, his only claim to fame was setting his commentary down in written form, not 
  explaining the genesis of the Kindred.
  kindred mythology • mythology, faith and kindred behavior
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  88
  Likewise, the Ordo Dracul doesn’t deny the Longinus theory but rather corroborates it, if 
  its own creation myth is true. If Dracula’s entrance to the Kindred world happened without 
  a sire, so could Longinus’ — and so could that of anyone before them whose name or deeds 
  the Kindred do not remember.
  Further muddying Kindred’s proof of origin are the clans. Whence did they take their 
  names? Who were their progenitors? Did they all hail from the same place, or did they arise 
  independently, mingling only in the relatively recent memory of a world that is far older 
  than anyone suspects? Clans obviously predate the covenants, but do they all hail from the 
  same period?
  These questions have no answers, of course, just like those seeking the origins of the Kindred 
  themselves. None of the matter is eminently provable — or so it has been to date. Certainly 
  Kindred with faith, drive or the burning desire to know ceaselessly research the origins of 
  their kind. Hidden temples in forgotten lands, domains older than history acknowledges, 
  abandoned havens beneath cities ruined long ago… All of these and more house relics that 
  have the potential to answer the ultimate question of why the Kindred exist. Then again, 
  they may simply engender a different question… or perhaps the answer was never meant to 
  be known.
  REASONS AND RATIONALE
  The Lancea Sanctum, of course, is the most closely and obviously linked to the creation 
  story of a messianic founder. Members of the covenant usually interpret The Testament of 
  Longinus in its most literal sense, and Sanctiﬁ ed Priests often carry copies of passages, if not 
  the entire text itself, for conducting rituals. The covenant’s warriors often quote from The 
  Testament of Longinus before (or even during) battle, enhancing their reputation among the 
  other factions as fervent champions.
  The Invictus’ interpretation of its origin is less rigid but no less important to the covenant. 
  The elders of the First Estate use frequent passages from The Testament of Longinus — refer-
  ences to rule by eldest, accomplishments of some clans over others, and the like — to justify 
  their position as leaders of the Kindred community. It is nothing less than divine right that 
  they rule their domains and will eventually rule others. It is unlikely that few believe in this 
  canon with any degree of true faith, but faith certainly was the hallmark of the era from 
  which more than a few elders hail, and belief in a higher power answers many questions that 
  an unnatural, deathless existence provokes.
  The Carthians (and many independent Kindred) often share a somewhat cynical interpreta-
  tion of the origin of the species. Namely, that it is a tool used by those in power to oppress 
  those who are not. This isn’t to say that no members of the covenant believe in a creation 
  myth, or that they don’t believe in it devoutly. A great many of them do. They simply believe 
  that the Kindred can’t necessarily explain who the ﬁ rst vampire was, or that even if a single 
  Kindred proved the origin of the species, it came as a result of divine intervention. Longinus 
  most likely did not even scribe “his” book itself, and even if he did, systems of order that 
  worked at the dawn of civilization are simply inapplicable to the modern world. They point 
  to various other mythologies, particularly those upheld by local Acolytes, and their own inap-
  plicability to the modern state of the world, as proof that the Kindred must change with the 
  times despite their inherently unchanging natures.
  The Circle of the Crone, naturally, goes its own way in an almost limitless number of old my-
  thologies and new amalgamations of existing and new ones. The Testament of Longinus is little more 
  than a corruption of the older ways, much as the Church adopted pagan rites and observances 
  into its own body of holy days. In covenant members’ eyes, the abuse and impious invocation of 
  
  89
  whatever faith they choose to invoke is a travesty perpetrated upon the Kindred by blasphemous 
  elders. They cannot ignore the faiths or philosophies of other Kindred, for they have shaped so 
  much of Kindred society, but many consider them the epitome of everything that’s wrong with 
  Kindred both past and present. Other Kindred believe that vampires have existed since Creation, 
  that they were part of God’s plan from the beginning. More shamanistic or even necromantic 
  vampires often believe that the ﬁ rst Kindred were spirits of the dead who, due either to hostile 
  sorceries or some sort of spiritual turmoil, could not depart their bodies after death.
  For the Ordo Dracul, the question represents both power and limitation. Many of the mys-
  teries mastered by the covenant certainly have their echoes in the times reﬂ ected in the various 
  creation myths, but the group as a whole is a bit more secular than many of its counterparts. 
  The Coils of the Dragon and Order philosophy don’t rely on passages from any document, 
  much less one that requires supplication to a power higher than the self. All mythologies 
  contain their share of wisdom, but in an era of miracles performed by creatures as mysterious 
  as the Kindred, who’s to take any account purportedly written by any of them at face value? 
  Rites of the Dragon can be taken literally or ﬁ guratively, and the result is still the same.
  Of course, groups far smaller than the great covenants shape themselves according to the 
  precepts of the largest of their kind. Just as all religions have their factions and cults, so too do 
  the Kindred divide themselves further still. Some vampires, fanatics even among the Lancea 
  Sanctum, spend every waking moment behaving only as they believe the Testament commands 
  them to, accepting its authority even over that of the local Prince or Archbishop, or even 
  insisting that Longinus was the ﬁ rst vampire, historical evidence to the contrary. Many Invictus 
  vampires, for whom religion would otherwise be a minor concern at best, congregate with those 
  who share their interpretations of convenient philosophies as a means of ﬁ nding common 
  ground among potential allies. Some religious groups, often derided as doomsday cults by 
  other Kindred, are drawn together solely by their belief that the ancient Kindred progenitors 
  will arise some night and destroy the Kindred race. Of course, no evidence exists to indicate 
  that such an event will ever occur, let alone that it might happen soon. Most Kindred tend to 
  view these covenants with much the same exasperated disdain that the average mortal views 
  people carrying “The End Is Extremely Fucking Nigh!” signs on street corners.
  Still others are determined to ﬁ nd some sort of scientiﬁ c rationale for the existence of the 
  Kindred. These last are normally found among fairly young Kindred, and many shift from 
  such a belief system when they ﬁ nally accept what they are and what they can do.
  Coteries, factions, clans, covenants (at least on a local level) and even entire domains often 
  ally with, or oppose, other such groups based solely on religious doctrine. These disagree-
  ments rarely erupt into open conﬂ ict, but when they do, they are no less fanatical and no 
  less violent than any religious wars among mortals.
  It’s important to note that most Kindred mythology is not a replacement for religion, but 
  rather an addition. Acolyte mythologies add to or adapt from extant pantheons observed by 
  mortal cultures. Those Kindred who honor Longinus as an object lesson also believe in the 
  God of the Abrahamic religion. Kindred are usually observant of their own faiths and phi-
  losophies as well as Buddhist, Christian, Hindu or Muslim beliefs, rather than instead of.
  GOLCONDA
  One concept that appears only brieﬂ y in both Rites of the Dragon and The Testament of 
  Longinus, but more frequently in other texts (including the Rakta Veda and The Cycle of De-
  meter) is the notion of Golconda. According to myth, Golconda is something of a vampiric 
  state of enlightenment, in which a Kindred perfectly balances the needs of the Beast and his 
  Hunger with his conscious mind. A Kindred in Golconda does not frenzy, does not succumb 
  reasons and rationale • golconda
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  90
  to Rötschreck, and can even access abilities that are normally available only to vampires of 
  surpassingly potent blood. Some legends even suggest that a vampire who attains Golconda 
  can become mortal once again. The speciﬁ c details have not ever been set down, because 
  Golconda is not only rare, but it’s unique to those who achieve it. The exact effects of this 
  higher state of vampiric existence likely vary from one vampire to the next.
  Few Kindred tonight believe in Golconda, considering it a myth, a mistranslation or an 
  indicator of how religious Kindred should conduct themselves, as opposed to an actual goal 
  to be achieved. Still, a select few Kindred strive to ﬁ nd this legendary perfect state of balance, 
  seeing in it the promise of redemption, or at least escape from an eternity of need.
  To those who see beyond the pleasant-seeming connotations of Golconda, a frightening 
  consideration lies beneath the surface. A vampire in this state doesn’t necessarily become 
  “nice.” Indeed, almost the opposite might be true. A vampire who achieves Golconda might 
  well be one of the most fearsome creatures another Kindred could hope to meet, as her soul is 
  in a perfect state of balance with regard to vampirism. Golconda might not be a state of natural 
  serenity, but could instead elevate one to the status of a consummate predator. In nature, a 
  wolf and shark are both in tune with what they are, and a creature with more cognitive ability 
  than these killing machines might be more terror than saint.
  PROPHETS AND ORACLES
  No discussion of vampire mythology would be complete without a mention of 
  a particular group of Kindred occultists, scholars and prophets who might be little 
  more than myth.
  They are called the Moirai and are said to be a bloodline unto themselves, though 
  from which clan they might descend is open to serious speculation. (Common 
  mythology ascribes their lineage to either the Mekhet or the Daeva, but more 
  obscure legends link them to other clans, or even to a Kindred familial group now 
  long forgotten.)
  It is said that the Moirai have somehow kept records from before the nights of Christ, 
  that they have found some way to resist the dreams of torpor and have maintained 
  their elders’ memories of ages past. They possess hidden libraries of occult lore to 
  
  91
  arouse the envy of any Mekhet or Dragon. And strangest of all, it is said they have 
  the gift of prophecy and oracular vision. They know not merely the past, but also the 
  present and future of every Kindred to walk the Earth. Supposedly far more common 
  in ages past, they were deemed mad by other vampires due to their visions and 
  prophecies, and allegedly exterminated. Indeed, few Kindred awake tonight earnestly 
  claim to have knowingly met anyone of this mysterious bloodline, and most vampires 
  consider them long gone or a myth that never existed at all.
  And yet, some Kindred maintain that the Moirai were true prophets. Surely they 
  would have seen their own end coming, and surely they would have taken steps to 
  hide themselves away, where none could ever ﬁ nd them…
  The Traditions
  Vampire society, such as it is, would have collapsed under its own weight long ago were it not 
  for the ties that bind it. Like any society, the Kindred world survives on the rules established 
  and agreed upon by its residents. Vampire “laws” are even more essential to the society they 
  concern because of the nature of that society. The Kindred are manipulative killers whose 
  mutual survival depends on their ability to get along well enough to remain sufﬁ ciently hidden 
  from the eyes of their prey. As conservative covenants are fond of saying, lawlessness among 
  the undead is perhaps the greatest threat facing the Kindred tonight.
  As a result, the Kindred have a body of vampire laws known as the Traditions. The three 
  most important of these laws are curiously universal, given that no common origin story is 
  accepted for the Kindred. They are immutable rules of the Blood, passed down as liquid truth 
  by way of the curse of undeath, and are hardwired into the very physiology of the Damned. 
  Upon the Embrace, each Kindred knows each of these laws intuitively.
  Beyond the Traditions are the less ofﬁ cial, more fallible customs that arise within Kindred 
  society over time. After weathering centuries upon centuries of nominal adherence, a few of 
  these customs have become unofﬁ cial traditions of their own. Some of these latter-day laws 
  are provincial in outlook or unique to a particular clan or region, while others are observed 
  only within a particular covenant of Kindred. Three of them in particular are considered 
  nearly as important as the Traditions themselves, but without the fundamental connection. 
  They merely serve to further gird and bolster society as the Kindred know it. Each of the 
  Traditions gave rise to one such custom, and each is discussed after the relevant law.
  A great many of the Kindred take the Traditions to heart. Others justify them beyond “That’s how 
  things have always been,” while still others accept them blindly as part of the Kindred condition. 
  Kindred who have studied such things often suggest that though these physiological conditions have 
  existed for as long as the Kindred themselves have, the actual wording of the Traditions as they are 
  understood tonight was one of the efforts of the now-defunct Camarilla. This is the most widely 
  accepted theory. Particularly fervent members of the Lancea Sanctum, unsurprisingly, sometimes 
  claim that the actual codiﬁ cation of these customs is part of Longinus’ original dogma. Other 
  scriptural, quasi-religious or philosophical wordings also exist, such as those held by the members 
  of the hoary Circle of the Crone and the Ordo Dracul, but the core ideas of the Traditions remain 
  unchanged. True “heretics” against the laws of all Kindred were few and far between in the early 
  nights of the Damned. Despite their differences (and they had many), most of the Kindred were 
  in agreement about what was and was not a good idea for their kind, especially when their own 
  bodies told them it was so. They might disagree on theory or implementation, or even on basic 
  precepts, but few argued with the wisdom of such incontrovertible laws.
  golconda • the traditions
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  92
  THE FIRST TRADITION: MASQUERADE
  Do not reveal your true nature to those not of the Blood. Doing so forfeits you 
  your claim to the Blood.
  THE SECOND TRADITION: PROGENY
  Sire another at the peril of both yourself and your progeny. If you create a childe, 
  the weight is your own to bear.
  THE THIRD TRADITION: AMARANTH
  You are forbidden from devouring the heartsblood of another of your kind. If you 
  violate this commandment, the Beast calls to your own Blood.
  THE FIRST TRADITION
  Arguably the single most important aspect of Kindred society worldwide is the ﬁ rst Tradi-
  tion: that of the Masquerade. Without it, the existence of vampires among the Canaille would 
  quickly come to light, putting the unlife of the entire race in jeopardy. Given Kindred feeding 
  habits, the world of mortals would never understand or permit their continued presence. 
  It would be a pogrom the likes of which has not been since the ﬁ ery nights of the Spanish 
  Inquisition, when mortal witch-hunters ﬁ rst proved how unity and faith were a match for 
  even the undead. 
  Before the dawn of the modern era, this Tradition was signiﬁ cantly less enforced, and in 
  some cases, even scoffed at by the more haughty (and foolish) among the undead. Vampires 
  of old could freely roam their demesnes, ﬂ aunting their damnation before the terriﬁ ed 
  mortals who huddled in the dark at their feet. No phones existed with which the kine could 
  call for help, with nobody to call even if there were. Once upon a time, the Damned truly 
  were lords of the night.
  But it is a different time now, a different world. Mortals could not run in fear of the 
  predators among them forever. As the living world grew and advanced, the world of the 
  undead shrank. Tonight, it is a small world indeed, for the Damned — but only from the 
  outside. Although the planet itself is largely unchanged, the mortals upon it are smarter, 
  more advanced and more numerous than ever before. And now, the advent of the Internet 
  and wireless communication has brought each mortal that much closer to the rest, putting 
  the entire Masquerade at risk with but the touch of a button. The Damned, as powerful as 
  they are, have never been so exposed or vulnerable.
  Given this precarious state of affairs, breaching the Masquerade is usually viewed as one of 
  the most grievous transgressions one of the Kindred can commit. Depending on the Prince, 
  more damaging breaches can be viewed as grounds for the Final Death of the transgressor, 
  and a number of Princes have amassed no small amount of notoriety for their unwavering 
  enforcement of this rule. This, then, has become a source of heated debate in Kindred circles, 
  due to the subjective nature of such determinations. Some Princes are not above using the 
  Masquerade as justiﬁ cation for the removal of political opponents, and those who displease 
  a Prince must be careful about how they act in public and what company they keep.
  THE LOST VISAGE
  Despite the terrible fate that would befall the Kindred were their existence to 
  be uncovered, the Masquerade continues to hold fast. Part of the reason lies in the 
  fact that the Curse itself has given the Damned a means by which they can better 
  uphold the Masquerade (and, thus, hide themselves from mortal scrutiny). Upon 
  
  93
  receiving the Embrace, a ﬂ edgling vampire’s reﬂ ection begins to fade away. After 
  rising for the third night in a row as a vampire, the change is complete, resulting in 
  a sort of blurry occlusion of the Kindred’s image in any reﬂ ective surface or medium. 
  Therefore, vampires’ features do not appear in photographs or on video (though vocal 
  recordings are unaffected). Kindred can counteract this aspect of the Curse through an 
  effort of will (which “solidiﬁ es” their image in any reﬂ ective surface), but the effect 
  usually lasts only for a brief duration. A vampire’s visage may be ﬁ lmed or recorded 
  during this time, but in most cases, the image will blur immediately thereafter. The 
  potency of a Kindred’s blood seems to factor into just how long his image remains on 
  photographic media, with less robust Vitae indicating a longer duration. Exceptions 
  do occur every now and then, but Kindred scholars are at a loss to explain why or 
  under what circumstances they’ll repeat.
  DOMAIN
  Another long-standing tradition is the right of domain. In nights past, when they were 
  more spread out than they are now, Kindred staked claims to vast amounts of territory. When 
  disputes arose, the results were often bloody, as the undead squabbled with one another over 
  slights both real and perceived. Over time, civility demanded that the notion of domain become 
  a universally respected aspect of Kindred society. Vampires needed to come to some basic 
  accord, if for no other reason than to avoid inﬁ ghting and unnecessary destruction of their 
  fellows. The accord that was reached (informally and over time) was the right of domain.
  According to the tradition, a vampire may claim a given area — one that is not already under 
  the purview of another Kindred — as his personal domain. Within that domain, his word is 
  law among the undead, and he can expect not to be challenged. If another vampire wishes 
  to stake a claim to some part or all of the domain, he must either negotiate the terms under 
  which the owner will cede control or else take the entire domain by force. This situation was 
  the norm for centuries upon centuries of Kindred existence, and though it, too, often led to 
  inﬁ ghting and kinslaying, the custom itself was largely respected.
  Come the modern era, the old ways have seen a signiﬁ cant pattern shift. As the Kindred huddle 
  together in increasingly more claustrophobic environs, the concept of domain has split and polar-
  ized into two extremes. Tonight, the Kindred recognize only two deﬁ nitions of domain (as per the 
  traditional sense). First is the notion of domain in the larger sense — the domain of a Prince, for 
  example, which generally includes one city or metropolitan area. The Prince is the ﬁ nal arbiter 
  of all issues arising within this area, including who will and will not receive feeding grounds and 
  ofﬁ cial protection. Within the larger domain, however, exists the smaller “individual” domain, 
  the modern remnant of the old ways. Each vampire’s personal haven beneﬁ ts, as per custom, from 
  the protections established by this tradition. Therefore, even though a given Kindred’s haven may 
  be situated within the larger domain of the Prince, that Kindred might still invoke the customary 
  protections of tradition. A vampire’s home is his castle — even if that castle sits on the lands of a 
  powerful elder liege. Only in the most savage domains will a Prince attempt to claim one of his 
  subjects’ personal havens once those havens have been granted and established.
  THE SECOND TRADITION
  The Second Tradition is the one that causes perhaps the most debate, confusion and con-
  sternation among the Kindred. According to the wording of the Tradition, no vampire may 
  create a childe. And yet, look how many Kindred exist! It is, perhaps, the greatest paradox of 
  the Kindred as a species (at least to those who keep faith with the Traditions).
  The Kindred world cannot even agree as to the origins of the Tradition itself. To this very 
  night, no satisfactory answer has been put forth to the simple question of, “Why?” If what-
  the ﬁ rst tradition • the second tradition
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  94
  ever ﬁ gure responsible for the creation of the undead was so adamant about ensuring the 
  earthly lack of propagation of the Damned, why did it create one itself and give it the ability 
  to propagate? Many speculate that the ﬁ rst Kindred, cursed to forever walk the night alone, 
  grew lonely, as all creatures do, and that he took for himself a mate, as many creatures do. 
  Some maintain that it is this mate, the world’s second vampire, who betrayed his or her sire’s 
  wishes and created the ﬁ rst actual brood of the Damned. Some consider this ﬁ rst brood to 
  be the true progenitors of the modern Kindred. In most cases, those who believe in various 
  origin stories yield the principle that God (in whatever form) intended for the ﬁ rst Kindred 
  to suffer in solitude, a lesson the Damned have had to learn through betrayal and loss.
  Whatever the Tradition’s origins are, the fact remains that its message has been corrupted 
  in the time since. While few Kindred would deny that it is wrong (or at least complicated) 
  to perpetuate the race of the Damned, many take issue with how the Tradition is enforced 
  tonight. Many among the unbound (and a few members of formal covenants) believe that 
  the Curse itself is enough to limit the numbers of new undead in the world, naturally and 
  without need of politics or hierarchy. For their part, the Carthians generally take the stance 
  that the issue should be one for the entirety of Kindred society to debate and decide upon, 
  rather than be the purview of an outdated Tradition. Naturally, some in the Invictus believe 
  in the right of the “elder” of a domain to decide upon such matters, and the Sanctiﬁ ed point 
  to key passages of The Testament of Longinus as proof of their claims. The Order of the Dragon 
  sometimes Embraces for the sake of bestowing its secrets upon an apprentice in order to per-
  petuate its knowledge. Of all the Kindred, followers of the Circle of the Crone are perhaps 
  the most deﬁ ant of the Tradition, and are occasionally known to create new childer as part 
  of their sacred beliefs.
  THE SHAKEN WILL
  Every time one of the Kindred plans to create a childe, he intends to willfully violate 
  one of the understood commandments of the Damned. Like the Masquerade, this edict 
  is an aspect of the Kindred condition, and it cannot be summarily ignored by vampires. 
  The act of damning another to undeath is a strain on the Kindred soul, requiring the 
  sire to invest a signiﬁ cant amount of will over the course of the Embrace.
  TUTELAGE
  A societal by-product of the Second Tradition, the tradition of tutelage has its roots in antiq-
  uity, when the Kindred’s numbers were fewer and the social system more rigid. In such times, if a 
  vampire was going to violate Kindred physiology by propagating the numbers of the Damned, he 
  was expected to make sure that his progeny understood all the rules and customs of the Requiem 
  (not the least of which was the Second Tradition, itself). Siring progeny is merely the bestowal 
  of responsibility, granting one vampire the right to take a considerable burden upon his own 
  shoulders. Until such time as the new vampire is released from his sire’s tutelage, his education (or 
  miseducation) is the responsibility of the sire. There is no “village” among the Damned. It takes an 
  individual to raise a neonate, and any mistakes the young one makes until he reaches the time at 
  which his sire releases him need not be forgiven by society at large. Otherwise, what would be the 
  point of releasing him in the ﬁ rst place? This same rationale is often abused by controlling sires 
  as justiﬁ cation for the excessive periods of indenture or servitude they require of their progeny: “I 
  can keep you safe only as long as I don’t release you.” Needless to say, some childer would rather 
  take their chances with the Prince.
  From the moment of his release, a childe’s sins are his own to endure. No ill may befall the 
  sire as a result of the childe’s deeds (except in a looser social sense). As such, the childe no 
  
  95
  longer beneﬁ ts from the sire’s protection, at least not in any ofﬁ cial societal capacity. He is 
  his own Kindred and must stand as such. Such, however, is also the beneﬁ t of release. Once 
  a childe is on his own, he is no longer beholden to the whim, desire or name of his sire. For 
  good or ill, he is now free.
  THE THIRD TRADITION
  Given the predatory and deceitful nature of the Kindred, the third and ﬁ nal “command-
  ment” — the prohibition against the diablerie of other Kindred — is the one most often 
  violated and warped to serve the interests of the individual. Indeed, this single law has 
  been the cause of more controversy in and around the halls of power than any other, and 
  its interpretation and administration are two of the most ﬁ ercely contested issues facing 
  the Damned tonight.
  As with the Second Tradition, the phrasing of this tradition is the primary cause of 
  complaint, as well as the primary justiﬁ cation for use and abuse. Many believe that the 
  original intent of the law was to give sires the right and responsibility to destroy the childer 
  they had made (in violation of the Second Tradition) when those childer ran afoul of those 
  same Traditions. Destruction, however, does not necessarily entail the consumption of the 
  destroyed Kindred’s soul. Those who destroy their enemies utterly often claim to drink their 
  fallen foes’ essence “to be sure” that those enemies never return, though this practice is at 
  once primitive and false, at least in the context of modern Kindred society.
  Mortal death is both inevitable and necessary, but only God Himself may judge those He 
  has cursed. Therefore, the Kindred condition inhibits the ﬁ nality of diablerie in all its forms. 
  According to some versions of The Testament of Longinus, Longinus’ ﬁ nal words to the collected 
  brood he left behind were a simple but sobering warning: “Teach your progeny to heed my 
  word, and tell them to likewise teach their own. When my line can no longer contain the blood 
  it spills — the night the broods of your broods can no longer hear their brothers’ heartsblood 
  cry unto them from the ground — that is the night when all hope for you is lost.”
  As a parenthetical result of this passage, many Kindred use the words of the Testament 
  as support for the custom of the Lextalionis — the blood hunt in modern parlance. These 
  Princes claim the title of “elder” mentioned in the text and use it to invoke the “right” of 
  destruction upon any Kindred who sufﬁ ciently rouses their ire. They rarely perform the deed 
  themselves, of course, for the act itself is damaging to the spiritual strength of a vampire. 
  Thus has the custom of involving every Kindred in the domain in the hunt arisen (rather 
  conveniently) over time. In many domains, all Kindred are expected to do their part in 
  consummating a blood hunt.
  THE LOST HUMANITAS
  As with the ﬁ rst two Traditions, the Third Tradition is thoroughly hardwired into 
  the psyche of all Kindred. In fact, most Kindred agree that the prohibition against 
  diablerie is one of the most fundamental aspects of being Damned, due to the steep toll 
  exacted on all those who violate it. Each time a vampire consumes the soul of another 
  vampire, his morality erodes signiﬁ cantly. The corrosion of the self is automatic, as 
  with cold-blooded murder it is assumed that the killer feels no immediate remorse 
  about the act. (If he did, he wouldn’t have committed it.)
  DEFERENCE
  A natural outgrowth of this tradition is the custom of vampiric respect. When the race as a 
  whole endeavored to bring itself up from savagery with the notion of domain (and the rights 
  the second tradition • the third tradition
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  96
  granted therefrom), the next step was to ingrain the idea that every aspect of the existence 
  of Kindred domains must be respected. From this effort arose the notion that a vampire 
  should present himself whenever he travels into the domain of another vampire. After all, 
  one doesn’t really respect the tradition of domain if one hunts on another’s land without 
  permission. One doesn’t have to actively challenge the rightful claim of another vampire in 
  order to disrespect both the domain and its owner.
  Of course, even this seemingly well-intentioned tradition has its controversy. Modern 
  Princes invoke this code as a means by which to keep track of who is and who is not within 
  their demesnes at all times, by asking that each visitor or would-be resident present himself 
  upon entering. Once the visitor does, the Prince either acknowledges him — in which case he 
  may remain in the domain (under the Prince’s protection) — or refuses to acknowledge him 
  — in which case, he is expected to depart the domain immediately. As a result, this tradition 
  has come to be ignored the most by young Kindred, many of whom don’t even know of its 
  existence (usually because they were not properly educated after their Embrace).
  One of the most common reasons for these violations is the gray area that deﬁ nes visi-
  tors and would-be residents. Kindred who just pass through often feel no obligation to stop 
  just so they can potentially put themselves at risk by coming before the local Prince. Only 
  those who intend to remain for any length of time are required to present themselves, and 
  some feel that it is up to personal interpretation just what a “length of time” might involve. 
  Some Princes have been known to specify a duration (in terms of nights), so that there is no 
  confusion when the Prince’s Scourge or Sheriff brings newcomers forward for questioning. 
  As a result, this practice tends to complicate already complex social dynamics while further 
  widening the gulf between elder and neonate.
  Technically, this tradition applies to only those who intend to hunt within a domain. If a 
  vampire can establish that he’ll not be a drain on the domain’s resources (by demonstrating 
  access to a private blood supply, for example), then he could argue that the tradition doesn’t 
  apply to him on any practical level and that presentation before the Prince is merely a social 
  courtesy. Obviously, this situation does not arise very often, and when it does, most Princes 
  aren’t thrilled with the idea of being snubbed by the letter of the law. To them, it is better to 
  just present one’s case during rather than instead of presentation.
  For a less formal interpretation of the tradition of deference, see “Presentation” on p. 28.
  THE MARK OF DAMNATION
  Many wonder about the true nature of the Curse, given the way the Traditions 
  interact with it. The Traditions are tied so closely to the vampiric condition that each 
  one actually carries with it a physiological expression. The Tradition of the Masquerade 
  is reﬂ ected in the fact that no Kindred appears in any recording device or reﬂ ective 
  surface unless he wishes to be seen that way. The Second Tradition, the prohibition 
  against the proﬂ igate creation of vampires, manifests in the difﬁ culty with which 
  vampires create new progeny. A considerable investiture of personal will and energy 
  is required to even consider violating the decree.
  Perhaps most interestingly, however, is the third restriction, the Tradition prohibiting 
  the destruction of another Kindred with the intent of consuming his heartsblood and soul. 
  Unlike the physiology of the ﬁ rst two Traditions, which are preventive in nature, the true 
  weight and message of the third manifests only after it has been violated. Some suspect 
  that the prohibition is tied to the divine or diabolical origin of the Kindred. Obviously, 
  the element of personal choice remains for the undead. By the same token, removing the 
  onus of a decision to kill from vampires would, some might argue, defeat the purpose 
  of vampires in the ﬁ rst place. Historical accounts of vampires, even among the Kindred, 
  depict them as cursed for the terrible and selﬁ sh decisions they have made.
  
  97
  No, the Third Tradition’s power manifests after a vampire has already made the 
  choice to engage in diablerie, the Kindred’s name for this act. Upon consuming the 
  soul of another vampire, one’s sense of moral control — the spiritual compass that 
  keeps a being from falling to his Beast — wavers considerably. He is not pained by 
  the experience, and indeed, he might even relish the newfound “freedom” he sees 
  in no longer being as restrained as he once was. But this illusion is the nature of the 
  Curse. The vampire has made his choice, and by forcing him to regret that choice, 
  the higher power responsible for vampires would encourage the idea that personal 
  choice was not the issue’s crux. 
  To this night, many believe that the telltale black streaks in a diablerist’s aura do 
  not come from any lingering effect the victim’s heartsblood may have on the killer’s 
  soul, but are rather a spiritual reﬂ ection of the mark of damnation. Due to the First 
  Tradition, vampires cannot be branded upon the forehead or otherwise visibly marked 
  for their crime. No, it is a far more secret and subtle mark that exposes them to their 
  brethren for the monstrosities they truly are.
  THE BLOOD HUNT
  Sometimes, when a Kindred outlaw is considered too dangerous to be allowed to survive, 
  and the Prince’s own agents prove unequal to the task of locating and capturing or executing 
  the criminal, the Prince is forced to resort to the ancient Kindred tradition of Lextalionis, the 
  law of justice stating that those who violate the laws must die, and all Kindred of a domain are 
  responsible for carrying out that sentence. This results in the blood hunt, when the Kindred of 
  a domain set out to locate and destroy a speciﬁ c quarry.
  Only the Prince or other city leaders can formally call a blood hunt (though some Primo-
  gen or Prisci have the political strength to do so over the Prince’s head). The blood hunt is a 
  powerful political tool, and a vampire must have matching inﬂ uence to use it. If the Kindred 
  evoking Lextalionis has sufﬁ cient clout or personal power that local vampires will respond, 
  and he can do so without the Prince coming down on him, he may call the hunt. If he doesn’t, 
  he won’t survive to repeat his impertinence, nor will many of those who answer his call.
  Failing to participate in a blood hunt, particularly one called by a Prince, is not normally 
  a crime, except in the most extreme circumstances, but it frequently results in a loss of status 
  in the eyes of the court. Actively aiding and abetting a subject is a crime, however, and it can 
  result in banishment or execution.
  The Masquerade is still paramount during a blood hunt, of course. Indeed, the Kindred 
  spread out across the city in something not unlike a police dragnet, coordinating their efforts 
  (at least ofﬁ cially) with the Sheriff or other representative of the Prince. The hunters converge 
  on suspected sightings, and things often get quite messy if and when the quarry is ﬁ nally run 
  to ground. The hunt is rarely carried out openly, with Kindred racing down the streets lead-
  ing barking dogs, guns held aloft. While some Princes prefer to retrieve the subject intact, 
  most blood hunts contain a provision stating that no participating Kindred will be charged or 
  punished if the subject is slain or, in the case of truly dangerous criminals or truly desperate 
  Princes, even diablerized. In this fashion, the Prince skirts the issue of the Third Tradition 
  — after all, he himself is hardly guilty of diablerie if a subject carries it out.
  The Kindred use all the tools at their disposal when engaging in a blood hunt, including 
  inﬂ uence in the mortal world. Police might put out an APB on the subject, he might ﬁ nd 
  himself on “no ﬂ y” lists at airports, and his ﬁ nancial accounts might be frozen. In recent nights, 
  some Kindred have begun using the Amber Alert system — a coordinated barrage of radio 
  announcements and electronic roadside signs intended to alert the public to a kidnapping 
  or missing child — as a means of slowing a fugitive’s escape. A few truly powerful (or foolish) 
  the third tradition • the blood hunt
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  98
  Kindred even use connections in the local religious community to attract Church-sponsored 
  vampire-hunters, which is an exceedingly risky move.
  Ultimately, very few criminals ever escape a blood hunt unscathed. They are either tracked 
  down and slain or manage to ﬂ ee the city, which is often a death sentence in and of itself.
  Technically, a Prince is not supposed to call a blood hunt for personal reasons, only when 
  a truly heinous lawbreaker is on the loose. Some Princes are better about following this tra-
  dition than others, and a few of the most dictatorial ones actually use the hunt as a means 
  of squashing dissent. Sure, it ﬂ ies in the face of tradition, but who are the Kindred going to 
  complain to? That said, some Princes have found the calling of an unnecessary blood hunt to 
  be the spark that ﬁ nally triggers revolution among their subjects, so even the most tyrannical 
  Kindred ruler doesn’t invoke the Lextalionis lightly.
  Very rarely, if a fugitive is considered an enemy of a speciﬁ c covenant, a blood hunt might 
  extend to more than once city. For instance, all the Invictus-dominant cities in a speciﬁ c area 
  might exchange information via email and phone in an attempt to run a criminal to ground. 
  For the most part, however, a blood hunt is strictly a local thing, and no hunt that has expanded 
  beyond the borders of a single domain has ever lasted more than a few nights. Multiple cities 
  simply cannot maintain cooperation for longer than that, especially since each Prince has her 
  own issues to deal with, the wishes of her covenant notwithstanding.
  Strains of the Requiem
  These overarching concerns of the Kindred condition aside, the world of the Damned is 
  complex even in the minutiae. Whether an issue involves Kindred from one Prince’s domain 
  to the next is not the question. Myriad small concerns potentially face every vampire from 
  the moment she rises at nightfall.
  SLAVES TO THE BLOOD
  It’s a simple, fundamental fact that no vampire, however determined or powerful, can escape: 
  The Blood is all. It deﬁ nes everything the Kindred are, and ultimately everything they do. It 
  also deﬁ nes many of their relations with mortals and the Kindred around them.
  VESSELS
  By its most basic deﬁ nition, a vessel is simply a source of Vitae. The vast majority of the 
  time, Kindred use the term to refer to mortals, but those elder Kindred who can feed only 
  on the blood of other vampires use it to refer to undead fodder as well. Mortal vessels are 
  often called “Licks” by young Kindred.
  As much as the Kindred might prefer to deny it, vessels are often far more than merely a 
  covered dish. The act of feeding is extremely intimate, perhaps the most intimate experience 
  either participant will ever have. For the subject, the vampire’s Kiss brings exquisite pleasure, 
  comparable to or even greater than the pinnacle of sexual release. Some mortals become liter-
  ally addicted to the experience and — if they can ever piece together precisely what happened 
  through hazy memories and the cloak of the Masquerade — they even seek out vampires, or 
  the particular Kindred who fed on them, in hopes of repeating it. For the undead, the act 
  of feeding is the sum total of who and what they are, the very purpose for which they exist. 
  Mortals simply cannot comprehend the need the Kindred feel or imagine the satisfaction, 
  relief and release the Kindred experience in fulﬁ lling that need.
  
  99
  Therefore, while some are able to separate the experience from the individual, many Kin-
  dred become emotionally attached to their vessels. They return to the same speciﬁ c people 
  continuously, growing ever closer to them. Sometimes, if the individual is properly cooperative, 
  this behavior can result in the formation of a herd, but it’s also dangerous, as it increases the 
  vampire’s risk of exposure. These Kindred are often extremely protective of their stock, even 
  to the point of challenging anyone else, mortal or vampire, who threatens them.
  HERDS
  A herd is a group of vessels, usually but not always mortals, from whom a vampire can feed 
  regularly with minimal difﬁ culty. A herd might be a group in the literal sense of the word, an 
  assembly of Licks who gather for whatever reason. It might be a religious cult that worships 
  the Kindred as an angel, members of a bondage club who consider biting and blood drink-
  ing kinky, or any other assembly in which the Kindred can hide or pass off her activities. On 
  the other hand, a vampire’s herd might be scattered farther abroad, consisting of multiple 
  unconnected but willing vessels across the city. Some herds might not involve people at all, 
  instead comprising multiple accessible animals. Some Kindred even consider access to stores 
  of donated Vitae in blood banks or hospitals to be part of their herd in the loosest sense.
  Not all Kindred have herds, but those who do ﬁ nd it much easier to hunt. Few vampires 
  have herds so large that they can afford to feed from them all the time, so most hunt anyway, 
  but it’s always good to have them available to fall back on when one is in a hurry or other-
  wise unable to hunt. As with lone vessels, many Kindred develop a reciprocal attachment to 
  members of their herd, due to the emotional power of the Kiss.
  THRALLS AND REGNANTS
  Kindred society treats thralls differently depending on the domain. In some cities, elders use 
  their thralls as proxies, and a thrall is considered to speak with her master’s voice at court and on 
  other matters of import. In other domains, thralls are messengers and pawns but are not permitted 
  to wield any of their domitor’s authority. In some particularly dictatorial domains, Kindred are not 
  even permitted to subject one another to the Vinculum without the Prince’s permission (though 
  secret trysts and abuses of the system occur). In any event, a regnant is held responsible for the 
  activities of his thrall and may be punished along with the thrall if the servant misbehaves.
  GHOULS
  Far more common than Kindred thralls are mortal ghouls, kine who have been imbued 
  with the mystic power of Kindred Vitae. In mortals, the blood of a vampire spawns not 
  merely the artiﬁ cial love represented by the Vinculum, but also substantial physical strength 
  and stamina. The ghoul does not age as long as at least some Kindred blood remains in her 
  system, and old or strong-willed ghouls can even develop some other Kindred Disciplines 
  beyond brawn and hardiness.
  Ghouls are quite common in some Kindred domains, and are often considered essential 
  servants. A vampire might choose a ghoul for a speciﬁ c skill or position the mortal possesses, 
  or he might select a mortal simply out of some obsessed affection. Kindred use their ghouls 
  as messengers, bodyguards, soldiers, proxies at court, fronts through which they can inﬂ u-
  ence mortal institutions, butlers, drivers, menservants, travel planners and daytime security 
  — potentially anything the Kindred himself cannot or would prefer not to do himself. Given 
  the quantities of blood ghouls require to maintain their abilities, most vampires have only 
  one or two such servants, and only a very rare few Kindred can maintain more than a hand-
  ful. As with Kindred thralls, some ghouls bitterly resent the tasks they are forced to perform, 
  but few have the willpower to protest.
  strains of the requiem • slaves to the blood
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  100
  Rumors suggest that some few ghouls do manage to escape their bonds, whether through 
  the Final Death of their masters or by other means. These ghouls typically become rogues, 
  seeking out vampires from whom they can acquire blood. These ghouls serve adopted Kindred 
  brieﬂ y and then depart for greener pastures, or physically assault vampires for their precious 
  Vitae. Rogue ghouls are sufﬁ ciently rare that most Kindred never worry about them — many 
  doubt they even exist — but when they ﬁ nd occasion to travel in groups, they can be danger-
  ous to lone neonates or even elders who aren’t prepared to deal with them. A handful of 
  ghouls sometimes ﬁ nd themselves subjected to a Vinculum by a subsequent vampire, but 
  many don’t, either becoming true rogues on their own, or meeting their end in the process 
  of seeking “unattached” blood to support their ghoul states.
  REGIONS AND TERRITORIES
  The average Kindred domain is not a single, monogamous entity. As cities have districts and 
  neighborhoods, so too do the Kindred divvy up their domains into smaller regions. Many of 
  these divisions are entirely artiﬁ cial or political in nature, but that makes them no less real, 
  and the petty lord of a tiny territory granted her by the Prince might punish trespassers or 
  violators more strictly than does the Prince himself.
  THE BARRENS
  The Barrens are those areas of the city unﬁ t for or otherwise absent of human habitation 
  — and, by extension, Kindred habitation. These regions include industrial wastelands, cer-
  tain abandoned buildings, graveyards and the like. Some truly desperate Kindred hunt the 
  Barrens, hoping to encounter the occasional homeless person or lost tourist. For the most 
  part, however, “beating the Barrens” is an expression that has come to mean that a Kindred 
  is horribly down on her luck and attempts desperate and largely doomed measures.
  Some Princes have been known to grant the Barrens to other Kindred as personal feeding 
  grounds as a form of public chastisement for wrongdoings that were unworthy of more seri-
  ous punishment. More than just a humiliation, this “award” can lead to worse problems for 
  the unfortunate Kindred down the road. As lord of the Barrens, she is now responsible for 
  everything that goes wrong there — and as the Barrens attract only those Kindred in desperate 
  straits, things go wrong with remarkable frequency.
  THE RACK
  The opposite of the Barrens, the Rack is that portion (or those portions) of a domain 
  most suitable for hunting. It includes bars, nightclubs, high-crime neighborhoods, crack 
  houses, brothels, homeless shelters. Basically, it’s any place where the kine are distracted 
  or discomposed, where strange behavior can be hidden or passed off, and where mortals 
  go missing on a frequent basis. Hunting the Rack is nearly effortless, and any “accidents” 
  are easily disposed of. Many Kindred treat the Rack as ﬁ ne restaurant or wine cellar, where 
  they can go if they seek a particular “vintage” of Vitae. Sooner or later, all sorts of Licks pass 
  through the Rack.
  In those domains where the Prince parcels out feeding grounds, elders are in constant 
  competition for the right to the Rack. Most Princes refuse to grant anyone exclusive rights 
  to the Rack, preferring to make it available to the entire city. Others keep such feeding rights 
  for themselves, demanding favors from any who would hunt there. Still others choose to offer 
  portions of the Rack as territory to favored allies, granting them substantial power among 
  lesser Kindred.
  Because the Rack attracts so many Kindred, and because vampires are at their least alert when 
  feeding, many potential Masquerade breaches occur there. The very nature of the region often 
  
  101
  covers such violations naturally — people expect odd behavior from meth-heads, for instance 
  — but wise Princes and Sheriffs have eyes and ears in the Rack at all times. These agents watch 
  for any breaches to stop them before they occur, or move swiftly to cover them up.
  FEEDING GROUNDS
  As rewards for service, or bribes to those whose power the Prince wishes to either exploit or 
  mitigate, many Princes grant portions of their city to other Kindred. In these territories, only 
  the “landholder” is permitted to hunt. She may, of course, grant permission to hunt to anyone 
  she chooses, but those who poach in her territory are considered criminals. Most Princes 
  demand that any such lawbreakers be brought before them, but some permit a landowner to 
  levy her own punishment. Needless to say, this is rarely a good thing for the poachers.
  Hunting rights over a particular region do not necessarily convey any additional political 
  power. In practical terms, however, many Kindred parlay control over territory into a web of 
  substantial inﬂ uence. Obviously, if a vampire holds title to an unimportant area, there’s not 
  much he can do with it. On the other hand, a Kindred who holds the rights to a portion 
  of the Rack, or an area of town where many vampires make their havens, has considerable 
  inﬂ uence. She can demand favors or tasks in exchange for permission to feed in her territory, 
  and many Kindred agree if the price is worth the privilege.
  SECURITY
  Given the precarious nature of the Kindred in the scope of the World of Darkness, the issue 
  of security is paramount. While the tacit arrangement among all Kindred addresses some of 
  this concern, a great deal more remains. After all, no such arrangement, tacit or otherwise, 
  exists between the Kindred and the natural world around them. Indeed, it can be said that 
  the greatest threats to the security of the Damned come not from the Danse Macabre, but 
  from the realms of the ordinary, the routine and the mundane.
  THE DAMNABLE HUNT
  As powerful as they are, the Kindred play a most dangerous game. It is their lot to hunt 
  among the kine, to prey on and feed from the mortal world. Yet they must also realize that 
  they are not always as wolves among a ﬂ ock of sheep, but are often as jackals among a pack 
  of wild dogs. The individual dog is usually no match for the scavenging jackal, but should 
  the entire pack turn its attentions toward the predator in its midst…
  Such is the case with the Kindred among the kine. If the eye of Man was to turn its bale-
  ful stare upon the monsters skulking in the shadows, the resulting pogrom would very likely 
  wipe the Damned from the face of the Earth. Therefore, the most powerful assets in Kindred 
  hands are the complementary tools known as ignorance and belief. These weapons do more 
  to keep vampires safe than any combination of unholy powers ever could.
  In the world of the kine, ignorance truly is bliss. In the world of the Kindred, it is power. 
  The bid to keep humanity ignorant of vampire existence is known as the First Tradition, 
  the Masquerade. The Kindred condition itself mandates that this must be the single most 
  important goal of the race, lest discovery shatter the existence of mortal and Kindred alike. 
  Whoever created vampires clearly intended for the Damned to be a part of the world, but that 
  entity also clearly intended for them to remain forever separate from those upon whom they 
  prey. Such is the nature of the Requiem. And so, each scion of the Kindred line endeavors 
  to make sure that mortal ignorance remains a top priority of unlife.
  The ﬂ ip side of this, and the weapon that helps the Kindred ensure continued ignorance, is 
  belief and the nature thereof. Ironically, it was belief that nearly spelled doom for the Kindred 
  during the burning times of the Inquisition. Yet the Age of Reason (and the subsequent Indus-
  regions and territories • security
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  102
  trial Revolution) arrived not long thereafter, which turned belief itself into the very tool with 
  which the Kindred might reinforce the Masquerade. By cultivating belief in logic, science and 
  reason, the Kindred subtly support humankind’s weaning itself from belief in the supernatu-
  ral. In the modern era, the mortal world views the existence of the undead as an unthinkable 
  notion. Vampires are things of fancy — big-screen entertainment or novel fare, at best, and the 
  ramblings of frightened children or pathetic lunatics, at worst. And why? Belief in reason has 
  stolen from them the capacity to fathom even the possibility of the existence of the undead.
  Despite these brilliant campaigns, however, despite all the considerable resources devoted 
  to maintaining the Masquerade worldwide, mistakes happen. Even vampires get sloppy on 
  occasion, and when they do, the results are nasty. Sometimes it’s a careless feeding error. A 
  slip of the mind, where a vampire forgets to lick a wound he’s made, thereby beginning the 
  chain reaction of curiosity leading to investigation leading to action. These occasions, while 
  certainly not desirable, are often at least manageable given the resources of many Kindred 
  domains. But sometimes a careless error leaves witnesses — mortal witnesses — and in almost 
  every case, it leaves such witnesses with two of the most damning banes of the undead: hatred 
  and a little knowledge.
  Arising from “mistakes” such as these is the phenomenon known as witch-hunters. Whether 
  by accident, Kindred error or simple mortal moxie, these ordinary men and women take up 
  the struggle to beat back the darkness to which their minds have been exposed. For whatever 
  reason, they’re onto the Kindred and they mean business.
  These individuals, often known simply as “hunters,” are often more dangerous to the undead 
  than anything else. As mortals in a mortal world, they’re under no compunction to remain 
  hidden themselves (except from the eyes of certain authorities who might not understand 
  their calling). Unlike werewolves or other supernatural creatures, hunters need be concerned 
  only with the hunt, and that gives them a distinct advantage in a shadow conﬂ ict such as this. 
  In addition, hunters can move by day, and they aren’t nearly so restricted in their activity 
  cycles as are the creatures they hunt.
  
  103
  As might be expected, the Kindred don’t take too kindly to ﬁ nding themselves on the 
  reverse end of the predator-prey dynamic. Most are taken by surprise, as they have grown ac-
  customed to being the ones to startle mortal prey with savage revelations before the moment 
  of consummation. Indeed, some vampires are so taken aback that they never have a chance 
  to recover from the shock — all it takes is one well-aimed strike, even against a vampire. Those 
  who survive their initial encounter with a hunter (or group of hunters) often descend into 
  panic, unless they’ve experienced such a situation before. The ﬁ rst thought to race into a 
  vampire’s head is, “Do they know the location of my haven?” Until there is a satisfactory 
  answer, that question continues to occupy his mind, while awake and asleep.
  The other danger that hunters pose is that they can organize, often in a disturbingly short 
  amount of time. A single hunter created after one encounter with the Damned might lead 
  an entire cell of well-informed, well-equipped vampire-hunters after six months. To the Kin-
  dred mind, which remains static and patient as the years wear on, this nearly ant-like level of 
  cooperation and efﬁ ciency is startling.
  KINDRED IN A WORLD OF DARKNESS
  Despite the fervent wish of some to the contrary, the Kindred have more with which to 
  be concerned than their fellow Damned. The World of Darkness might be the consummate 
  nesting ground for the Kindred, but it is hardly a private paradise. The world contains much 
  that would trouble a vampire, including the likes of other supernatural creatures, mortal witch-
  hunters and even time itself. If the World of Darkness is a home to the Kindred, then it is a 
  home they must share grudgingly and cautiously with horrors both internal and external.
  CELLMATES IN THE GILDED CAGE
  The fact of the matter is, most Kindred with more than a few years behind them are aware that 
  the undead are not alone in the world. An equal fact is that most of them care only as much as 
  they absolutely have to. Vampires are damned creatures, most of whom have an eternity’s worth of 
  problems to sort out, on top of the night-to-night struggle of continued existence. As any Prince can 
  attest, maintaining the Masquerade is a full-time job, and any activity that jeopardizes the success 
  of that endeavor is either a waste of time, far too great a risk to Kindred society, or both.
  As a result, even the most erudite Ordo Dracul scholar knows better than to preoccupy 
  himself with the affairs of other supernatural beings. Study? Yes, where possible. But pry-
  ing into the activities of creatures known for their savagery is considered unwise by all but 
  the most powerful of Kindred. Given this mindset (on both sides, as best the Kindred can 
  ﬁ gure), a sort of détente has been reached over time, a tenuous understanding that amounts 
  to a universal wariness of the other supernatural denizens of the World of Darkness. By and 
  large, the Kindred know that there are angry, shapeshifting beasts out there. They’ve even 
  given them a name — Lupines. But they don’t really want to know a whole lot more than 
  that, because once they open that door, the next step is to go inside.
  The same applies to the wonder-makers, the ones the scholars call mages. What little the 
  Kindred have seen of these enigmatic beings has scared them enough to recognize that discre-
  tion is the better part of valor. No one knows the full extent of these beings’ powers, motiva-
  tions or capabilities, and ﬁ nding out the hard way is just reckless. Sure, rumors of mortals 
  calling down sunshine at midnight are probably just that, but what if they’re not? What if 
  some Kindred actually saw one of these mages ignite a member of his coterie like a piece of 
  kindling? In that case, would a vampire actually want to pursue the matter further? If mages 
  don’t actively come after the Kindred (and most of them probably don’t), then the Kindred 
  are bound to return the favor. By and large, Kindred know little about such creatures, so until 
  something gives them reason to worry, they’re content to leave well enough alone.
  kindred in a world of darkness
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  104
  Exceptions exist, of course. Every now and then, a vampire sets up shop in the wrong 
  part of town and irritates existing occupants, with predictably unpleasant results. Likewise, 
  a werewolf or mage might decide to dip his toe into a domain that a particular Kindred has 
  claimed as his own private sphere of inﬂ uence. In these cases, conﬂ ict is likely inevitable, 
  but more often than not, both sides know better than to let a true blood feud ensue. What 
  usually happens is that once the initial matter has been settled (whether by peaceable means 
  or by someone’s demise), the case is closed. Those most likely to violate this arrangement 
  are the Lupines, whose pack mentality demands restitution on occasion, but even they tend 
  to stop short of all-out war against the entire race to which the offender belonged. No, the 
  supernatural denizens of the World of Darkness are signiﬁ cantly (and perhaps surprisingly) 
  more realistic about the nature of conﬂ ict than are the mortals who surround them.
  Learned Kindred also know that werewolves and wizards are not the only creatures with 
  whom the undead share the night. Certain Kindred are known for trafﬁ cking with the spirits 
  of the restless dead, though they remain tight-lipped about the hows and wherefores of it. 
  These beings surely know of the Kindred, but only the mediums themselves can say with any 
  surety what feelings, if any, the dead have toward the undead. Upon learning of the existence 
  of the restless, some concerned Kindred grow obsessed with them, eager to discover just what 
  makes one soul pass on to its ﬁ nal reward but forces another to stay behind. (Surely no earthly 
  crime deserves such punishment, so some Kindred say.) Alas, the curiosity of such individuals 
  is rarely if ever satisﬁ ed, as few necromancers are known for their open discourse.
  And then come rumors of even stranger cohabitants amid the Kindred’s strange land. 
  Sorcerous vampires tell of eldritch beings from the hoary host of Hell itself — demons, with 
  whom no sane Kindred would ever knowingly interact. Most believe such tales to be nothing 
  more than the Order of the Dragon’s macabre sense of humor, an attempt on the part of 
  one damned race to terrify its kin by means of an even more damned race. If so, the irony is 
  lost on most Kindred, who would just as soon prefer the Dragons stopped talking about it. 
  All the same, stories surface with just enough regularity to be generally disconcerting about 
  entities to whom Kindred can go for assistance, if the conviction is strong enough. Creatures 
  who carry the promise of power, prestige and anything else one desires.
  Although all of these entities (and more) are known to vampires, it is important to note 
  that the Kindred don’t truly understood any of them. Vampires are an insular, self-absorbed 
  lot, and most are too preoccupied with their own schemes, fears and apprehensions to even 
  be put in a position where they might glean some true understanding of these other creatures. 
  No, most undead are content to adhere to their ordained role as participants in the Danse 
  Macabre, moving to the somber sounds of their own private Requiems.
  
  105
  Lexicon
  The secret world of the Damned commands its own entire subculture, and this subculture 
  includes language. In addition to the various proper names and titles that exist only among the 
  undead, a complete lingual set of vampire-speciﬁ c words and phrases has arisen over time, result-
  ing in a sort of Kindred “dialect.” Like all language, this dialect grew and expanded, resulting in 
  the eventual break-off of another, more modern style of speech. These two vampire dialects are 
  referred to as “old form” and “common parlance.” A third vocabulary, the language of the Kindred 
  “street,” is new to most everyone and is considered vulgar by all but the most brash of neonates. 
  Being creatures of stasis, the Kindred loathe unnecessary change, and one can often tell the age 
  if not the vampiric origins of a speaker by the way in which he uses the terms of his kind.
  COMMON PARLANCE
  The following terms are used freely and frequently by both neonates and those elder Kindred 
  familiar with vernacular (or who wish to disguise their true age). Some of the newer words 
  have come into circulation only in the last few years, but due to their utility or style, they are 
  not considered vulgar argot. The common parlance lexicon includes a pronunciation guide 
  for its uncommon vocabulary.
  Acolytes: A common nickname for members of the Circle of the Crone.
  Ancilla (an • SILL • uh): Kindred too old to be considered neonates, but not yet elders, whose 
  Requiem has lasted roughly 50 to 150 years. (The plural term is ancillae (an • SILL • eye).)
  ancient: The rare vampire who has existed for over a millennium.
  Avus (AY • vuss): A character’s “grandfather” or patron in a bloodline from which she is 
  not truly descended. (See p. 366.)
  Barrens: Portions of the city unﬁ t even for hunting.
  Beast: The inchoate urges that drive vampires away from the Man.
  Belial’s Brood: A raucous, reckless covenant of vampiric Satanists.
  blood hunt: A citywide hunt for a particular Kindred fugitive, in which most if not all local 
  Kindred are expected to participate.
  bloodline: A group of vampires that splits off from a parent clan to form a distinct lineage 
  of its own. Some bloodlines do not differ from the parent clan in signiﬁ cant ways, while 
  others claim different powers or weaknesses.
  Carthian (KAR • thee • enn): A vampiric idealist who believes in reconciling the Requiem 
  with the politics and society of modern mortals.
  childe (CHILD): Kindred “offspring”; also used to refer to particularly young neonates, or 
  as a minor insult (akin to calling someone a “child” in mortal circles). The plural is childer 
  (CHILL • der).
  clan: One of ﬁ ve families of Kindred whose lineage links back to times beyond Kindred 
  memory.
  Circle of the Crone: A covenant of ritualistic Kindred that reveres pagan gods, spirits, 
  pantheons and/or progenitors.
  Coils of the Dragon: A mystic way of learning that allows vampires to ignore certain aspects 
  of their curse, as practiced by the Ordo Dracul.
  coterie: A group of allied Kindred.
  covenant: A faction of Kindred who share certain political and theological beliefs. The 
  covenants exist worldwide, though details differ from domain to domain.
  lexicon • comman parlance
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  106
  Crúac (KREW • ack): The bloody, witchcraft-like magic practiced by the Circle of the 
  Crone.
  Daeva (DAY • vuh): A clan of vampires known for being emotional, sensual and desirable.
  Damned, the: The race of Kindred; vampires.
  Danse Macabre: The state of eternal inﬁ ghting between and among the Kindred of differ-
  ent clans, covenants and age distinctions.
  diablerie (dee • AHB • ler • ee): Kindred “cannibalism”; draining another vampire of 
  not only his blood but his soul.
  Disciplines: The preternatural abilities and edges the Kindred possess, allowing them to 
  vanish, turn into bats and perform myriad other inhuman feats.
  domain: A region ruled (ostensibly) by a single Kindred authority. The largest domains 
  correspond to cities and often contain smaller domains within them.
  Dragons: A common nickname for members of the Ordo Dracul.
  elder: A vampire who has survived for over 150 years; also a term of respect.
  Elysium (ell • ISS • ee • um): A location used for Kindred gatherings and declared a 
  neutral, “no violence” sanctuary by the Prince.
  Embrace: The act of turning a mortal into a vampire.
  Final Death: A Kindred’s real, true, ultimate death; when her unlife ceases and she never 
  again rises as a vampire.
  First Estate: A common nickname for the Invictus.
  frenzy: A berserk state in which the Beast takes total control over a vampire. Rage, fear and 
  hunger can induce frenzies; when precision is needed, the term is qualiﬁ ed by cause (rage 
  frenzy, fear frenzy or hunger frenzy) or by a special term (Rötschreck or Wassail). Unqualiﬁ ed, 
  the term generally indicates rage frenzy.
  Gangrel (GANG • grell): A clan of vampires known for being primal, hardy and savage.
  ghoul: A mortal fed Kindred Vitae and possessed of various supernatural abilities, though 
  far weaker than most vampires.
  Harpy: A Kindred in a position prominent or estimable enough to raise up or put down 
  others in vampire society.
  haven: A vampire’s residence; where one ﬁ nds sanctuary from the sun.
  Herald: A spokesman for the Prince.
  herd: A collection of mortals from whom a vampire feeds regularly.
  Hierophant (HI • row • font): A ranking member of the Circle of the Crone.
  Hound: A personal agent of the Prince; assassin, leg-breaker, capo.
  Invictus (in • VICK • tuss): One of the largest of the Kindred covenants, which believes 
  in rule by a vampiric “elite” made up mostly of elders.
  Kindred: The modern (and most frequent) term by which vampires refer to themselves and 
  their race.
  kine: A term for mortals; the phrase “Kindred and kine” refers to everyone.
  Kiss: Both the act of biting and taking blood from a mortal, as well as the pleasure it 
  provides both participants.
  Kogaion (KO • guy • on): A ranking member of the Ordo Dracul. 
  Lancea Sanctum (LAN • kay • uh SANK • toom): A covenant of vampires, consisting 
  of vampiric religious zealots who honor the Roman centurion Longinus, whom they have 
  adopted as a form of “patron saint” for the act of testing Christ’s divinity.
  Lupine: A werewolf.
  Man, the: The humanity a vampire maintains (or tries to); the spark of mortality that 
  distinguishes him from the Beast.
  
  107
  Masquerade: The efforts and system of laws required by the Tradition of Secrecy to hide 
  Kindred existence from the mortal world.
  Master of Elysium: The Kindred responsible for places of Elysium, who also makes sure 
  that everything is prepared, that nobody ﬁ ghts and that word gets out about events.
  Mekhet (MEK • et): A clan of vampires known for being quick, discreet and wise.
  Myrmidon (MER • meh • don): A negotiator of the Carthian Movement.
  neonate (NEE • oh • nate): A young vampire, engaged in his Requiem for less than 50 
  years.
  Nosferatu (noss • fur • AH • too): A vampire clan known for being stealthy, strong and 
  terrifying.
  Ordo Dracul (OR • dough drah • KOOL): A covenant of vampires known for its mystic 
  studies and desire to transcend the vampiric condition.
  poacher: One who feeds in another Kindred’s domain without permission.
  Primogen (PRIM • oh • jen): An elder who advises the Prince of a domain (also plural).
  Prince: The ruler of, or most powerful Kindred in, a domain.
  Priscus (PRISS • kuss): The informal “head” of a speciﬁ c clan within a domain. The 
  plural is Prisci (PRISS • key).
  Rack: The best parts of the city in which to feed, including nightclubs and other loud, 
  crowded areas.
  regnant: The Kindred who holds regency over a thrall; the dominant member of a Vin-
  culum. Also “domitor.”
  Requiem: The Kindred condition; the whole miserable, cursed song of a vampire’s unlife, 
  whether singularly or metaphorically.
  revenant: A vampire who has lost all Humanity and exists in perpetual frenzy.
  Sanctiﬁ ed: A common nickname for members of the Lancea Sanctum, singular and 
  plural.
  Seneschal: The Prince’s right hand and assistant.
  Seven: A clan, covenant or other group of vampires that detests the Kindred race and seeks 
  to destroy it, its own members excepted.
  Sheriff: The Kindred responsible for enforcing the Prince’s laws and dictates.
  sire: A vampiric “parent,” one who has Embraced a childe; alternatively, a verb, meaning 
  “to Embrace.”
  Theban (THEE • ben) Sorcery: A mysterious form of blood magic practiced primarily by 
  members of the Lancea Sanctum.
  thrall: One who is bound to a regnant; the enslaved member of a Vinculum.
  torpor: A death-like sleep into which Kindred fall if they are injured severely or starved for 
  too long. Kindred can also enter torpor willingly to escape the world for a time.
  Traditions: The three primary Kindred laws, passed down through the ages and observed 
  inviolate due to the Kindred condition.
  unbound: A vampire who refuses to accept the local rule of a Prince or other governing 
  Kindred body. Also known as an unaligned or independent Kindred.
  Ventrue (VENN • true): A clan of vampires known for being regal, commanding and 
  aristocratic.
  vessel: Any source of blood for the Kindred to feed on; usually but not always used to refer 
  to a mortal.
  Vitae (VIE • tay): Blood, particularly the blood of a vampire.
  Vinculum (VIN • cue • lum): The artiﬁ cial love and loyalty spawned by feeding from the 
  same vampire three times. Also known less formally as a blood bond.
  lexicon • common parlance
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  108
  Whip: One who keeps his clanmates in line in order that they be taken seriously.
  witch-hunter: A mortal who seeks out Kindred and destroys them.
  OLD FORM
  The following terms have been in circulation for as long as most elders can remember, and 
  they are still considered the “proper” usage for the ideas they describe.
  abactor: Literally, a “cattle thief;” a poacher.
  Amaranth: Diablerie; the act of consuming another Kindred’s blood and soul.
  anarch: Historically, a Kindred rebel who opposed vampiric tyranny. Some anarchs sought 
  to tear down the feudal systems of Kindred society in nights past, but many merely wished to 
  be left to their own devices. Arguably the forerunners of the modern unbound.
  blood oath: The Vinculum.
  caitiff: A vampire of unknown clan. Usage: Am I to understand that this caitiff is truly a Nos-
  feratu of Wellington’s brood? How could I not have guessed?
  Canaille: The masses of humanity, especially the uncultured or unsavory. Typically connotes 
  a reference to sources of sustenance.
  cauchemar: A vampire who feeds solely on sleeping victims.
  cockalorum: A loud-mouthed iconoclast, or any weak vampire who acts the big shot.
  comprador: A vampire who works for some other creature, such as a mage or even a mortal 
  organization willing to uphold the Masquerade; also indicates the reverse (a supernaturally 
  awakened creature in the service of a vampire).
  consanguineous: Literally, “of the same blood,” especially regarding lineage. Usage: That 
  vampire is consanguineous with the Ventrue Prince.
  co-sanguineous: Being brothers in the Blood; sharing the same sire. Usage: We’re rumored 
  to be co-sanguineous but my sire is actually Maxwell, whereas his is not.
  cunctator: A Kindred who avoids killing whenever feeding from mortals.
  draugr: The term for revenants in antiquity; still widely used by some Gangrel.
  ﬁ ef: A domain; still the favored term among many Ventrue, even numerous young ones.
  footpad: One who feeds from vagrants, derelicts and other dregs of society.
  ﬂ edgling: A neonate; a newly created vampire under his sire’s protection.
  gallant: A vampire who feeds from other vampires out of necessity or perversion.
  gentry: The collective group of Kindred who prefer to prey at nightclubs, bars and other 
  “red-light district” establishments.
  Golconda: A fabled state of complete oneness with the vampiric condition; the true com-
  prehension of both Beast and Man within a vampire’s soul, wherein balance can be found. 
  Rumored to be similar to mortal Nirvana, Golconda is only very rarely achieved.
  inceptor: The founder of a new Discipline, a new bloodline or both. Such feats carry some 
  measure of prestige among the Kindred.
  Leech: A mortal who drinks vampire blood but acknowledges no regnant.
  Lextalionis: The tradition of the blood hunt.
  lineage: A vampire’s bloodline; one’s sire and the line of sires before him.
  Osiris: A vampire who builds a mortal cult following around himself, as a means by which 
  he can better feed or inﬂ uence the mortal world.
  Papillon: The red-light district; an area of a city that is punctuated by bars, whorehouses, 
  gambling casinos and other places of debauchery. Also refers to a city’s prime hunting grounds, 
  where mortal disappearances go largely unnoticed.
  praxis: The right of Princes to govern; one’s claim to domain. Can also refer to a Prince’s 
  matter of policy or individual edicts.
  retainer: Any individual who serves a vampiric master (whether under thrall or not). The term 
  
  109
  hails from a time when many vampires kept large estates with entire entourages of servants.
  Rötschreck: The “Red Fear”; a fear frenzy, usually instigated by the presence of ﬁ re.
  siren: A female vampire who seduces mortals in order to feed from but not kill them.
  Suspire: The rumored moment of epiphany a vampire experiences just before attaining 
  (or failing to attain) Golconda.
  Wassail: Hunger frenzy, during which a vampire seeks to feed until sated.
  whelp: Derogatory term for a young Kindred, originally used in reference to one’s own 
  progeny.
  whig: Contemptuous term for a vampire who retains interest in mortal trends.
  VULGAR ARGOT
  The newest of terms, those rising out of the grime and crime of the modern-gothic streets, 
  reﬂ ect both the times and the attitudes of tonight’s brash neonates.
  alleycat: A vampire with no permanent haven, who sleeps in a different place each day. 
  Also refers to one who feeds exclusively from the homeless.
  banking: The practice of “withdrawing” blood from blood banks and hospital reserves. Such 
  refrigerated blood has very little taste, but it provides some small nourishment nonetheless. 
  Banking is frowned upon by older or more reﬁ ned Kindred.
  blister: A vampire “Typhoid Mary” who contracts a mortal disease and spreads it to the 
  vessels upon whom she feeds.
  blood doll: A mortal who freely gives blood to a vampire, gaining a perverse satisfaction 
  from the Kiss and actively seeking out vampires to give it to them.
  butterﬂ y: A Kindred who mingles among mortal high society and prefers to feed from the 
  rich and famous.
  Casanova: A vampire who seduces mortals to feed but does not kill them. Most prefer to 
  erase the memory of their presence from their vessels’ minds, if possible.
  Cleaver: A vampire who tries to maintain the illusion of a human family life.
  donor: Sarcastic term for a vessel, typically a mortal.
  farmer: Derogatory term for vampires who prefer to feed from animals alone.
  head: A vampire who feeds on drug or alcohol-laced blood. Those with a fondness for speciﬁ c 
  drugs have their preference added as a preﬁ x (e.g., crackhead, pothead, smackhead).
  headhunter: A Kindred who hunts and feeds on other vampires.
  juice: Human blood, often modiﬁ ed by a descriptor, usually one indicating either the origin 
  of the blood or some chemical within the blood (e.g., “cranberry juice” indicates Irish blood, 
  while “happy juice” is mortal blood laced with stimulants).
  juicebag: Contemptuous term for mortals.
  Lick: A mortal, especially one from whom a vampire feeds.
  lush: One who feeds regularly from drugged or drunk mortals to experience the euphoria 
  or inebriation in the blood.
  pedigree: A sarcastic term for lineage, typically used to make fun of another vampire’s 
  Kindred family tree (or the self-importance drawn therefrom).
  rake: The newest euphemism for gentry; a habitual visitor to the Rack.
  ripper: Modern term for a revenant, based upon the condition in which such creatures 
  typically leave their victims.
  sandman: A cauchemar.
  slumming: The practice of feeding from derelicts and other dregs of society.
  tease: A siren.
  turf: Modern term used in reference to a domain; can also refer to the area under one 
  gang or coterie’s inﬂ uence.
  lexicon • old form • vulgar argot
  
  chapter two: character
  110
  
  111
  Chapter Two: 
  Character
  He does not think his natural thoughts, or 
  burn with his natural passions. His virtues are 
  not real to him. His sins, if there are such things 
  as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of 
  some one else’s music, an actor of a part that has 
  not been written for him.
  —Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
  
  chapter two: character
  112
  Now that you’re familiar with the setting of the Kindred’s World of Darkness, it’s time to 
  take a look at the traits and systems that bring vampires to vital unlife. This chapter details 
  the systems by which you create your character to participate in stories and chronicles. It 
  also includes information on the ﬁ ve clans from which all vampires claim descent. Finally, 
  it thoroughly explains Disciplines, the supernatural powers upon which vampires can call to 
  aid them in their Requiems.
  Character Creation
  The character-creation system offers a set of tools with which players can craft ﬁ ctive perso-
  nas rather than a mechanical device that churns out generic, assembly-line stereotypes. The 
  development of a vibrant back story and a true depth of character takes precedence over dots 
  on a page, but some framework must be established so that players’ characters can interact 
  in a meaningful way with regard to the game.
  Try not to look simply at a character’s traits in black and white, gauging  how higher scores 
  in certain areas afford her greater success in the coming chronicle. Don’t chase a ﬁ ctitious 
  notion of “perfect” stats, or attempt to make a character who has everything. Instead, make 
  an effort to understand the character’s history and persona, then choose those traits that 
  most accurately represent her personality and abilities. Always let her story dictate the dots 
  she receives, not the other way around. Storytellers should work closely with their players 
  during character creation, making sure that choices made involving game mechanics have 
  justiﬁ cation and rationale in terms of a character’s developed persona.
  In the end, remember characters who have absolutely everything they want and have no 
  fear of losing it are dull, one-dimensional and static. Stories about such characters are the 
  height of tedium, because with all their needs already satisﬁ ed, those characters don’t have to 
  go anywhere or do anything of interest. They’re already fulﬁ lled, and frankly quite boring to 
  play. Rather, remember that need creates action, action creates conﬂ cit, and conﬂ ict creates 
  drama. Good characters should always need something, even if it’s just to hold on to what 
  they have already in the face of some (perceived) threat. 
  CHARACTER-CREATION PROCESS
  Use the character-creation rules from the Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook, and add 
  the following template to Kindred characters during Step Five.
  Choose a clan (see p. 136)
  For beginning Disciplines, allocate three dots, two of which must be spent on clan 
  Disciplines.
  Vampires can have additional Merits from a special list (see p. 128).
  Morality is now called Humanity in The Requiem (see p. 258).
  Draw a card to determine how much Vitae your character has at the beginning 
  of the story.
  STEP ONE: CHARACTER CONCEPT
  Concept is the stone from which well-developed characters are sculpted. Before thoughts of 
  game mechanics focus a player’s attention on microcosmic details of his character’s personal-
  ity, it is important to hammer out a rough-hewn form, seeing the whole before concentrating 
  on the parts. 
  
  113
  Concept need only to be a general idea — renowned socialite, musical prodigy, heroic 
  savior — but it should be enough to spawn ever more complex ideas about the character’s 
  motives, environment and relationships. Of course, a concept can be far more complex: “My 
  character was a disenchanted New-Age believer who was tired of the watered-down rites she 
  was exposed to there, and went looking for more visceral practices in some scary places. Her 
  Embrace into the Gangrel clan and initiation into the Circle of the Crone has connected 
  her with the kind of primal magical traditions she feels she’s been seeking for so long and 
  transformed her into a conﬁ dent, powerful mystic and predator.”
  As shown in that example, some players might want to include clan and covenant at this 
  time. Information regarding clan and covenant is detailed in Step Five. Players creating pre-
  lude characters would forgo the selection of clan and covenant entirely, instead arriving at 
  those choices through play.
  STEP TWO: SELECT ATTRIBUTES
  After the more qualitative aspects of a character have been solidiﬁ ed, players must assign 
  numbers that support their decisions. The ﬁ rst step in determining a character’s numeric 
  traits is to prioritize his Attributes. Attributes represent raw, natural ability. How strong is 
  the character? How smart? How agile? What impression does he make as he enters a room? 
  Attributes take these questions and more into account, ultimately providing the foundation 
  upon which a character is built. Characters have nine Attributes, divided into three catego-
  ries: Mental (Intelligence, Wits, Resolve), Physical (Strength, Dexterity, Stamina) and Social 
  (Presence, Manipulation, Composure).
  First, you must decide in which of these categories your character excels the most (primary). 
  You then select the group of Attributes in which your character is average (secondary). Fi-
  nally, the remaining category is designated as the character’s weakest area of natural talent 
  (tertiary). Is your character a scrawny intellectual, or possibly a brute lacking in social graces? 
  Your character concept should provide insight into where to assign your priorities, but you 
  may decide to break with that mold — say, by creating a short, sinewy mob enforcer whose 
  intensity and rage more than make up for his lack of size.
  character creation
  
  chapter two: character
  114
  All characters begin with one dot in each Attribute, reﬂ ecting the basic capabilities of all 
  human beings. The priorities established in the preceding paragraph determine how many dots 
  are allocated for each Attribute cluster. Five additional dots are added to the primary group, 
  four additional dots to the secondary group and three dots to the tertiary group. For example, 
  the scrawny intellectual mentioned previously would have ﬁ ve dots in his Mental category, 
  four in his Social and three in his Physical category, while the tactless brute would have ﬁ ve 
  dots in his Physical category, four in his Mental and only three in his Social category. 
  The ﬁ fth dot in any Attribute costs two dots to purchase. So, a player who wants his char-
  acter to have a Dexterity of 5 needs to spend ﬁ ve dots. (He starts with one free dot, spends 
  three more to achieve a score of 4, and then spends two more for the ﬁ fth dot.)
  STEP THREE: SELECT SKILLS
  Skills are divided into the same three subcategories as Attributes: Mental, Physical and 
  Social. Mental Skills rely on knowledge of the world and are improved through study and 
  practical application. Physical Skills rely on training, improved mainly through practice and 
  repetition. Finally, Social Skills rely heavily on interpersonal experience and improve through 
  interaction with others or through trial and error. 
  Like Attributes, Skill groups must be prioritized during character creation. Players should 
  select primary, secondary and tertiary categories for their Skills. The primary group receives 
  11 dots, the secondary group gets seven, and the tertiary group receives four. Note that, un-
  like Attributes, characters do not begin the game with an automatic dot in any Skill, as Skills 
  dots are obtained through dedication to a ﬁ eld, not natural talent alone. As before, the ﬁ fth 
  dot in any Skill costs two dots to purchase.
  STEP FOUR: SELECT SKILL SPECIALTIES
  While characters might have considerable training in Firearms or expertise in Medicine, 
  they excel in certain aspects of these Skills more so than in others. For instance, Shane 
  might have a special proﬁ ciency with pistols but not with riﬂ es or mounted guns. He might 
  understand the basic principles of using these ﬁ rearms, but the bulk of his training has been 
  with his favorite pistol. Represented in game terms, such a character may have three dots in 
  Firearms, with a Specialty in 9mm automatic pistols.
  Players choose three Skill Specialties during character creation. These should be very speciﬁ c, 
  though players may choose more than one Specialty for any given Skill. So, using the previous ex-
  ample, Shane might have Specialties in both 9mm automatic pistols and 12-gauge shotguns.
  STEP FIVE: ADD VAMPIRE TEMPLATE
  Here is where your character sloughs off her mortal coil and truly becomes a creature of 
  the night. The Embrace changes a character into something no longer mortal, endowing her 
  with special abilities and unique advantages unimagined in her previous existence. Aside from 
  entering a new world based on clan and covenant, supernatural changes affect her Attributes 
  and allow her access to the powers of the Blood.
  CLAN
  A character’s clan serves as a sort of extended family of the night, bound by lineage and 
  responsible for certain similarities among its members. Vampires are always of the same clan 
  as the sires that Embrace them, though it is possible to later start a new bloodline that deviates 
  slightly from other close blood relations. Examine the ﬁ ve clan descriptions presented (see 
  pp. 136-150), and determine which clan to which you want your character to belong. Your 
  Storyteller may place restrictions on your choice at the start, depending on the limitations 
  
  115
  of her planned chronicle. Preludes concerning the Embrace might take this decision out of 
  your hands entirely, basing it solely on the Storyteller’s discretion.
  When choosing a clan, you might wish to choose a speciﬁ c bloodline that deviates slightly 
  from the norm, a subset of your vampiric family that holds to different ideals and behavioral 
  standards. Be sure to confer with your Storyteller before making such a decision, as certain 
  bloodlines might not be allowed in her chronicle, or might not exist at all. Alternatively, it is 
  possible to create an entirely new bloodline, provided your Storyteller approves.
  COVENANT
  A covenant is more social than familial, concerned with a character’s worldview and rela-
  tionship to other Kindred rather than the advantages and bonds of the Blood. Each of these 
  societies seeks different goals using (sometimes dramatically) diverse methods, all sure in the 
  knowledge that their way is “right,” or at least more right than all the others. Covenant is 
  not governed by clan or sire, though childer often begin their Requiems in the covenants of 
  their sires, either out of familiarity or promise of Status.
  If a covenant is chosen during character creation, there is no reason it can’t be changed 
  as a character comes to more fully understand her place in the world. While a character’s 
  covenant is not set in stone, those who change allegiances are often viewed with suspicion 
  and might have difﬁ culty gaining trust or status within the new social hierarchy. Characters 
  who attempt to “covenant hop” in order to learn the proprietary secrets of each covenant 
  discover very quickly that as much as different covenants may dislike each other, they all 
  share one common hatred: traitors. And that is exactly the label applied to characters who 
  attempt to change covenants solely in pursuit of power. If there is one thing no Kindred 
  will permit, it is traitors in possession of their secrets. So while switching covenants is by 
  no means an automatic death sentence, characters can certainly expect reprisals as harsh as 
  they are swift against themselves and their students if they dare to teach outsiders their old 
  covenant’s secrets. Discretion is therefore essential for those who have switched covenants, if 
  only to reassure members of their former covenant that they are not sharing any information 
  they shouldn’t be. 
  So in the end, don’t come crying to your Storyteller if your “clever” scheme to have your 
  character repeatedly switch covenants in order to become an über-vampire with mastery of 
  all their proprietary secrets like Crúac, the Coils of the Dragon and Theban Sorcery instead 
  results in your character being destroyed by a vampiric lynch mob long before your master 
  plan is close to complete. After all, the members of these covenants are perfectly within their 
  rights to attempt to discredit or destroy those who seek only their powers and disregard their 
  actual teachings. Covenants are social groups of Kindred with their own rules, beliefs and 
  traditions — they are not simply the means to provide your character with cool superpowers. 
  You have been warned. 
  Your character’s covenant need not be chosen at character creation, though your concept 
  should give some clue as to which covenants are most or least comfortable. Storytellers may 
  disallow this choice at the start of a chronicle, intending characters to handle this decision 
  during play. A character who chooses not to have even nominal membership in a covenant at 
  all is considered unaligned. These apolitical Kindred receive no special beneﬁ ts, but neither 
  are they beholden to superiors or bound to act according to a particular dogma.
  Covenants grant certain beneﬁ ts to their members. A character must have at least a single 
  dot worth of the Status Merit in a covenant (see p. 133) to avail himself of its beneﬁ ts. Note 
  that a character may still be considered a member of the covenant without purchasing the 
  Status Merit. While part of the covenant, he is simply not fully trusted or initiated yet. Cov-
  enant advantages are as follows:
  character creation
  
  chapter two: character
  116
  • The Carthians: Members of the Carthians may purchase the Allies, Contacts, Haven 
  and Herd Merits at half the normal experience-point costs (rounding up). This cost break 
  does not apply to purchases of these Merits during character creation.
  • The Circle of the Crone: Members of the Circle of the Crone may learn the Discipline 
  of Crúac.
  • The Invictus: Members of the Invictus may purchase the Herd, Mentor, Resources and 
  Retainer Merits at half the normal experience-point costs (rounding up). This cost break does 
  not apply to purchases of these Merits during character creation.
  • The Lancea Sanctum: Members of the Lancea Sanctum may learn the Discipline of 
  Theban Sorcery.
  • The Ordo Dracul: Members of the Ordo Dracul may learn the Coils of the Dragon.
  FAVORED ATTRIBUTES
  The Embrace forces drastic changes upon the human body, altering its aspects to that of a 
  vampiric predator. While all vampires possess the same vulnerability to ﬁ re and the need to 
  consume blood, their bodies adapt more subtly based on the blood of their sires. Each clan 
  has adjusted somewhat differently to the rigors of the Embrace, choosing a divergent path of 
  development toward becoming a more successful predator breed. These adaptations are carried 
  through the blood of the clan, altering the natural abilities of newly Embraced childer.
  Each clan has a pair of favored Attributes, enjoying a more acute development of certain 
  natural aspects of the body. Once a clan is chosen, choose one Attribute from a clan’s favored 
  pair and add one dot to it.
  DISCIPLINES
  When vampires are Embraced, their sires teach them certain blood-based mystical powers 
  known as Disciplines. Disciplines are those mysterious and often terrifying capabilities that 
  the Kindred can manifest at will. Taking the shape of an animal, running at superhuman 
  speeds or bending a victim’s will to one’s own are examples of Disciplines in use.
  Each character begins with three dots of Disciplines, which can be allocated as the player 
  chooses. At least two dots must be devoted to a character’s clan Disciplines, however, before 
  any thought is given to an out-of-clan or bloodline Discipline. (That is, you may choose to 
  spend two dots on clan Disciplines and a single dot on an out-of-clan or bloodline Discipline, 
  but not two dots on out-of-clan or bloodline Disciplines and only one on a clan Discipline.) 
  Each clan description that appears later in this chapter lists the Disciplines practiced by that 
  lineage, along with some of the more prevalent bloodline variations.
  BLOOD POTENCY
  A character’s Blood Potency represents how much innate, mystical power has concentrated 
  within her dead veins. Characters with high Blood Potency possess both great mastery over 
  their Vitae and much inherent potential in that Vitae. Characters with low Blood Potency are 
  either unpracticed or their Blood is so young or inert as to have little connate potential.
  Clan 
  Favored Attributes (choose one)
  Daeva 
  Dexterity or Manipulation
  Gangrel 
  Composure or Stamina
  Mekhet 
  Intelligence or Wits
  Nosferatu 
  Composure or Strength
  Ventrue 
  Presence or Resolve 
  2.1 — FAVORED ATTRIBUTES BY CLAN
  
  117
  character creation
  All vampire characters receive the Blood Potency advantage at one dot for free. Blood Potency 
  can be increased with Merit-point expenditure at a rate of three to one at character creation. That 
  is, a player may spend three of his character’s seven Merit points for Blood Potency 2, or spend six 
  of his character’s seven Merit points for Blood Potency 3. Blood Potency is described on p. 127.
  STEP SIX: SELECT MERITS
  A beginning character has seven dots worth of Merits, which may be distributed at the player’s 
  discretion. These traits should ﬁ t the character concept — a Daeva socialite isn’t likely to have the 
  Stunt Driver Merit, for example, unless her background involves it somehow. A Storyteller may 
  encourage or disallow certain Merits, or even provide a dot for free (perhaps representing a politi-
  cal contact crucial to the chronicle). The ﬁ fth dot in any Merit costs two dots to purchase.
  STEP SEVEN: DETERMINE ADVANTAGES
  Rules regarding advantages can be found on pages 43-54 of the Mind’s Eye Theatre rule-
  book. What follows concerns itself less with game mechanics and more with the importance 
  of certain advantages to vampire characters.
  WILLPOWER
  Vampires lead unlives of constant struggle, ﬁ ghting against their base, predatory natures 
  to retain control of their slipping connections to humanity. Fighting the Beast within them 
  calls for a measure of self-reliance often lacking in ordinary mortals, making large amounts of 
  Willpower a great value. Vampires’ dangerous emotional situations can lead to violent, mindless 
  frenzy (p. 253), and they hold their bestial tendencies in check through sheer force of will.
  Vampires’ experience points can be spent to recoup lost Willpower dots. See p. 121 for 
  more information on spending experience.
  A player may spend Vitae in the same turn in which he spends a point of Willpower. For 
  more on spending Vitae, see pp. 218-221.
  HUMANITY
  After the Embrace, a vampire begins to lose touch with those elements of her nature that 
  make her human. These qualities erode over time as the vampire becomes more jaded and 
  the world evolves without her. For this reason, the concept of Morality as outlined in the 
  Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook is replaced with Humanity here. 
  As an optional rule, Storytellers may allow those players applying the vampire template 
  during character creation to trade dots of Humanity for experience points. This trade-in 
  reﬂ ects some heinous past behavior the vampire engaged in and learned from (accounting 
  for the added experience points), but which also scarred her deeply (explaining the loss in 
  Humanity). At the Storyteller’s discretion, players may sacriﬁ ce one dot of Humanity for ﬁ ve 
  experience points, dropping their characters’ Humanity scores to as low as ﬁ ve (for a maximum 
  of 10 extra experience points).
  VIRTUES AND VICES
  The Virtues and Vices available to mortal characters are the same as those available to 
  vampires, though they manifest in different ways. For instance, a character who suffers the 
  Vice of Wrath might be prone to frenzy, while one indulging in Gluttony might leave a trail 
  of exsanguinated bodies in her wake, ﬁ nding it difﬁ cult to stop feeding before victims’ hearts 
  stop. On the other hand, a character with the Virtue of Hope might dedicate his nights to 
  achieving Golconda, while a character with the Virtue of Justice might carefully choose his 
  victims from among those deserving punishment (such as rapists or murderers), becoming 
  a crusader of the night.
  
  chapter two: character
  118
  OPTIONAL RULE: I WASN’T EMBRACED YESTERDAY
  Storytellers may choose to allow players a certain number of experience points 
  to spend before play begins to represent the portion of the Requiem between the 
  Embrace and the start of the chronicle. Large multi-venue games may have additional 
  creation rules to enable distributed play. Receiving additional points, for instance for 
  experienced characters, doesn’t allow you to buy more Merits marked as creation 
  only during this step.
  Rank neonates 
  0 experience points
  Up-and-comers 
  35 experience points
  Established Kindred 
  75 experience points
  Movers and shakers 
  120 experience points
  Elders and other linchpins
     of undead society 
  180-300+ experience points
  STEP EIGHT: SPARK OF UNLIFE
  At this point you should have a character, at least in a purely mechanical sense. You have 
  all you need to use your character as a playing piece in your Storyteller’s chronicle, combining 
  Attributes with Skills and drawing points as necessary.
  Roleplaying, however, is not simply pitting cards against cards, or using spiffy powers left 
  and right. The previous steps have created a basic framework, a rough sculpture of a character 
  hammered out in the most simplistic of terms. Now is the time to break out the ﬁ ne tools, 
  reﬁ ning the crude ﬁ gure with details and nuance. Examine the dots on your character sheet 
  and ﬁ gure out why they’re there. What in your character’s life made him pick up his ﬁ rst 
  ﬁ rearm and begin training? How did he learn so much about the ways of the street or the 
  methods of intimidation? When did he pick up his rudimentary medical skills? How will this 
  background come across in the story? What parts don’t you know yet about your character? 
  Just like working a ﬁ ne sculpture, shape and polish your character’s physical, psychological 
  and background details to make him one of a kind, even among the undead.
  Just what exactly does having a Presence of 3 mean? Does your character possess the chiseled 
  features of a runway model, causing all eyes to turn his way as he enters a room? Or does he 
  have the hardened look of a dockyard worker who isn’t to be triﬂ ed with? Perhaps he exudes 
  an air of old money and conﬁ dence from behind his tailored suits and ﬁ ne jewelry. What 
  features cause others to react to him with such intensity? What color are his eyes, his hair, 
  his skin? Does he have a clean cut, reﬁ ned look or perhaps a nasty scar running from his 
  scalp down between his eyes to his neck? Is his voice harsh and raspy, silky smooth or does 
  he stutter, relying wholly on his looks to carry him? 
  While these ﬁ nal touches might seem the least necessary, they are the most important. Oth-
  erwise, your Ventrue with Presence 3, Manipulation 4 and Composure 3 will be just like every 
  other Ventrue with Presence 3, Manipulation 4 and Composure 3. You want to avoid such 
  two-dimensional characters and strive for something unique, fascinating and memorable.
  Finally, the unlife of a vampire is certainly a place for ironies and fate. You’ve done all 
  the work so far, choosing which traits you want your character to possess and arranging dots 
  on the character sheet. As the ﬁ nal step of character creation, make a single draw, with the 
  ace counting as a one for this draw. This is how much Vitae your vampire has in her system 
  when the chronicle begins.
  
  119
  QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS...
  The questions that follow can be used to ﬂ esh out a character’s background, providing insight into 
  areas a player might gloss over during character creation. Even if there is no time for a sufﬁ ciently 
  detailed prelude, you should answer as many of these as you can, either by writing out a brief back 
  story and description or talking about these issues with the Storyteller. The devil is in the details, 
  as they say, and these speciﬁ cs help make your character far more real once the story begins.
  • How old are you?
  When were you born? How old were you when you were Embraced? How long have you existed as a 
  vampire? How old do you look to others? Are you more or less mature than you seem?
  • What was unique about your childhood?
  What do you remember about your early years? What forged your basic motivations and attitudes? 
  Where did you go to school? Were you a good student? Who were your immediate family members? What 
  is your clearest childhood memory? Did you go to high school? College? Did you have a hometown, or did 
  your family move often? Did you run away from home? Did you play sports? Did any of your childhood 
  friendships last until adulthood?
  • What kind of person were you?
  Were you a kind and gentle person or an arrogant bastard? Were you popular or a social 
  outcast? Did you have a family? How did you earn a living? Did you have any real friends, or 
  just acquaintances? What kept you going from day to day? Will anyone miss you?
  • What was your ﬁ rst brush with the supernatural?
  When did you ﬁ rst realize you were being stalked? Had you dabbled in the occult at all before your 
  Embrace? When did you ﬁ rst meet a vampire? Were you afraid? Disbelieving? Curious? Angry?
  • How did the Embrace change you?
  How did your sire catch you? Was the Embrace painful? Did you get perverse pleasure from it? Did 
  the Hunger tear at you? Were you frightened? Did it somehow feel right? Are you grateful to your sire? 
  Do you want to kill her for what she did to you?
  • Who was your sire, and how did she treat you?
  What do you know of your sire? Was she seductive, forceful, abusive, cryptic or open? Why do you 
  think she chose you? Did you even know your sire? How long did you stay with your sire? Did she teach 
  you anything at all? How long was it until your sire released you? Where did you stay? Where did you 
  go? Did you meet any other vampires during that time? Did your sire Embrace another? Do you judge 
  other vampires by your opinion of your sire?
  • Were you presented to Kindred society?
  Did the Prince welcome you? Was he reluctant to accept you? Did prominent Kindred need to be bribed 
  or threatened before accepting you? Did your sire have permission to create you? Are you on the run from 
  Kindred authorities? What do you suppose your domain’s preeminent Kindred think about you?
  • How did you meet the others in your coterie?
  Were you brought together by chance or design? Are you all of one covenant or clan? Are you united 
  in purpose, working toward the same goal? How long have you been together? Did you know any of the 
  others before your Embrace? Do your sires cooperate, or are they rivals? Do any of you share the same 
  sire? What holds your coterie together when the situation is at its worst?
  • Where is your haven?
  Where do you sleep during the day? Do you have any permanent home, or do you migrate from place to 
  place? Do you stay in or near the place you inhabited in your mortal life? Do you hide in an abandoned 
  building? Is your haven above or below ground? Do you have anyone to protect you during the day?
  • Do you retain any connections to your mortal life?
  Have you been presumed dead? Do you still watch over old friends and relatives from afar? Do you 
  pretend to still be alive? Have you abandoned your mortal existence entirely?
  character creation
  
  chapter two: character
  120
  VAMPIRE TEMPLATE QUICK REFERENCE
  This sidebar summarizes the changes that apply to vampire characters. Use it in con-
  junction with the summary of character creation on p. 28 of the Mind’s Eye Theatre 
  rulebook.
  CLAN
  Choose a clan to which your character belongs. There are ﬁ ve clans from which to 
  select.
  Daeva: Emotional, sensual and desirable.
  Gangrel: Primal, hardy and savage.
  Mekhet: Quick, discreet and wise.
  Nosferatu: Stealthy, strong and terrifying.
  Ventrue: Regal, commanding and aristocratic.
  COVENANT
  Choose a covenant in which your character claims membership. There are ﬁ ve covenants 
  from which to select. If you wish to choose no covenant, record “unbound,” “unaligned” 
  or “independent” on your character sheet.
  The Carthians seek to reconcile Kindred society with modern governmental structures 
  and social systems.
  The Circle of the Crone venerates a variety of female ﬁ gures as an amalgamated creator 
  of vampires, the Mother of all Monsters. 
  The Invictus is the aristocracy of the night.
  The Lancea Sanctum seeks to inﬂ uence Kindred society with the strictures of Longinus, 
  who is believe to have been turned into one of the Damned by the very blood of Christ.
  The Ordo Dracul commands rituals and mystical knowledge that allows the Kindred 
  to transcend their vampiric states.
  FAVORED ATTRIBUTES
  Based on your choice of clan, select one of the clan’s two favored Attributes and give 
  your character an additional dot in that trait.
  Daeva  
  Dexterity or Manipulation
  Gangrel 
  Composure or Stamina
  Mekhet 
  Intelligence or Wits 
  Nosferatu 
  Composure or Strength
  Ventrue 
  Presence or Resolve
  DISCIPLINES
  Choose three dots of Disciplines, at least two dots of which must come from the clan’s 
  favored powers.
  Animalism: Power over animals and even the Beast of Kindred.
  Auspex: Preternatural senses and perception.
  Celerity: Superhuman speed.
  
  121
  VAMPIRE TEMPLATE QUICK REFERENCE
  This sidebar summarizes the changes that apply to vampire characters. Use it in con-
  junction with the summary of character creation on p. 28 of the Mind’s Eye Theatre 
  rulebook.
  DISCIPLINES (CONTINUED)
  Coils of the Dragon*: The Ordo Dracul’s secrets of transcendence.
  Crúac*: Blood magic practiced by the witches of the Circle of the Crone.
  Dominate: The ability to overwhelm the mind.
  Majesty: Tremendous force of personality.
  Nightmare: Manipulating fear itself.
  Obfuscate: Hiding aspects of one’s self, even one’s body.
  Protean: Shapechanging and adjustments of the vampiric form.
  Resilience: Legendary toughness.
  Theban Sorcery*: The Biblical “dark miracles” of the Lancea Sanctum.
  Vigor: The epic strength of many men.
  * Available to covenant members only.
  BLOOD POTENCY
  A character’s Blood Potency begins at 1, but Merit points may be spent to increase it.
  MERITS
  New vampiric Merits include Haven (• to •••••), Herd (• to •••••) and Status (• 
  to •••••); most characters cannot start with Status higher than •• (see p. 131).
  EXPERIENCE POINT COSTS
  Trait 
  Cost
  Attribute 
  New dots x 5
  Skill 
  New dots x 3
  Skill Specialty 
  3
  Clan or Bloodline Discipline 
  New dots x 5
  Other Discipline* 
  New dots x 7
  Theban Sorcery or Crúac Ritual 
  Ritual level x 2
  Merit 
  New dots x 2
  Blood Potency 
  New dots x 8
  Humanity 
  New dots x 3
  Willpower 
  8 experience points
  * Includes Theban Sorcery, Crúac and Coils of the Dragon. See p. 209 for more infor-
  mation in increasing Coils of the Dragon, as it functions somewhat differently than other 
  Disciplines.
  
  chapter two: character
  122
  • What are your habitual feeding grounds?
  Do you frequent a particular place to feed? Do you consider this territory yours alone, or do others 
  use it? Do you compete with others to feed? What is your preferred prey? Will you risk hunger to ﬁ nd 
  this type of prey? Do you ever kill when you feed? Do you have a speciﬁ c herd? Do you seduce your prey? 
  Kidnap them? Intimidate or beat them? Do they come to you?
  • What motivates you?
  Are you bent on revenge? Do you long for your mortal life, or to again look upon the sun? Do you 
  have ambitions within Kindred society? Do you wish to Embrace any childer? Are you involved with 
  inter-covenant conﬂ ict? If you could have any one thing in the world, what would it be?
  A FINAL NOTE
  Those without motivation are likely not to have survived the Embrace at all, or to struggle 
  for survival in subsequent nights. Although a vampire’s values often differ greatly from those of 
  a human, stemming from his experience with death and rebirth, he must still have something 
  worth existing for, or he would likely watch the next sunrise and be done with it. Give thought 
  to where your character has been and where he’s headed. Is there some overarching, ultimate 
  goal or possibly several small ones? While The Requiem is a Modern Gothic Storytelling 
  game, these beings do not sit around each night lamenting their sad existence and wishing it 
  would all just end. Once you have an idea of what it is that your character wants to achieve, 
  you have come one step closer to making him a complete, realistic personality.
  EXAMPLE OF CHARACTER CREATION
  Alyson plans to participate in Peter’s Requiem chronicle. Peter tells Alyson that the chronicle 
  focuses on a struggle to defend the sovereignty of Philadelphia from a number of different external 
  forces, each attempting to destroy the city’s independence as part of their own power plays. He 
  then  informs her that even while the city’s vampires are defending their territory against these 
  outsiders, the different clans and covenants within the city are making their own moves to establish 
  dominance in this valuable territory when the dust settles. He has designed his chronicle to be 
  a delicate balance between the ruthless politics that divide the different factions in the city and 
  the need to confront these mysterious external threats as well, so characters will have to watch 
  their backs even more so than normal. He suggests that Alyson develop a character who has some 
  ﬁ erce loyalties, but who also knows how to play the amoral political game when she must. 
  Peter hands Alyson a copy of the character sheet, and informs her that he will be allowing 
  the players to choose their own clans and covenants, since he will not be running the Embrace 
  during play. He also tells her that he wants to keep such elements as bloodlines and sorcery 
  rare, so she should consult him if she wants her concept to go that direction. Alyson agrees, 
  puts on an inspirational CD and spends a few minutes brainstorming.
  STEP ONE: CONCEPT
  Alyson’s ﬁ rst responsibility is to come up with a concept for her character. She decides that 
  she wants to play a modern pagan priestess who was Embraced when she became dissatisﬁ ed 
  with the “tame” practices she was involved in, and delved a bit too deeply into darker and 
  bloodier rites. Alyson decides that the Embrace was given to her by her sire as a test, to see 
  if she was really a true believer. Not only did she pass, but now she revels in her predatory 
  nature. Alyson’s character has turned her back on her mortal life, using her former friends as 
  a food source and taking every opportunity to study her newfound supernatural powers.
  Not wanting to name her character after herself, Alyson decides to eschew more sinister or 
  pretentious names and ﬁ gures her character still goes by her mortal nickname, Maggie. She 
  has deliberately kept this deceptively harmless sounding name to put others at ease so she 
  
  123
  can take their full measure. Of course, while she is conducting services, she will likely use a 
  title of some kind, but for the most part she is simply Maggie.
  STEP TWO: ATTRIBUTES
  Alyson must now prioritize and assign Maggie’s Attributes. Based on her concept, Alyson 
  decides that Mental Attributes would be Maggie’s strong suit, so she sets them as primary. Of 
  course, in her role as a priestess Maggie also has a need to conduct rituals and relate well to oth-
  ers, so Alyson selects Social Attributes as her secondary category. This leaves Physical Attributes 
  as tertiary, which doesn’t make Alyson very happy. She envisioned Maggie as a bit more rugged 
  and athletic than that, but decides she will simply focus on improving those Attributes later.
  Alyson now has ﬁ ve dots to allocate among Mental Attributes. She decides that Maggie 
  has always had extremely keen senses, which have only improved following her Embrace. She 
  allocates two dots to Wits, raising the total to 3. She sees Maggie as having a very strong devo-
  tion to her beliefs, and spends another two dots on Resolve, raising that to 3 as well. That 
  leaves one dot for Intelligence, for a total of 2. Maggie’s no idiot, but she’s still relies much 
  more on instinct and intuition than analytic reasoning and book learning.
  With four dots to assign to Social Attributes, Alyson decides that Presence is the most 
  important quality for Maggie — she sees her as having a very striking appearance as well as a 
  compelling personality, a natural leader of other Kindred and an excellent priestess as well. 
  She therefore allocates two dots to Presence, raising it to 3. She spends one dot each on 
  Composure and Manipulation, making her average in those areas — Maggie is reasonably 
  well-centered and good enough with words, but primarily uses her appearance and sheer 
  personal charisma to win over others. 
  Finally, Alyson turns her attention to the Physical category to ﬁ nish off her Attributes. 
  She decides that Maggie kept herself in decent if not excellent shape throughout her life, 
  but her studies have kept her from being as active as many other members of her clan. She 
  therefore decides to allocate one dot to each Physical Attribute, making Maggie thoroughly 
  average across the board, with a total of 2 in Strength, Dexterity and Stamina. Again, she’d 
  like to improve these numbers somewhat, feeling that Maggie would be a bit more athletic 
  than this, but that will have to wait for now. 
  STEP THREE: SKILLS
  Like Attributes, Skills must also be prioritized and chosen. Alyson decides to go with a 
  slightly different prioritization as she used for Attributes, placing Social as primary, Physical 
  as secondary and Mental as tertiary. Maggie has balanced herself quite well in life, allowing 
  training and natural talent to bolster her weaker areas while using her strengths to bolster 
  what would otherwise be fairly normal abilities.
  With 11 dots to assign in Social Skills, Alyson tries to imagine what would be most important 
  to Maggie, both from her breathing days and since the Embrace. Three dots go to Persuasion 
  — Maggie is a very strong personality and very hard to argue with when she puts her mind to 
  it. Looking over the rest of the list, Alyson decides to make Maggie well-rounded socially, and 
  puts two dots each into Expression, Intimidation, Socialize and Subterfuge. If her formidable 
  skills at debate and seduction don’t win someone over, she’s got a potent arsenal of other skills 
  at her command as well, and knows quite well when to switch from one approach to another 
  to get what she wants. Given her clan’s rather savage and unsophisticated reputation, this is 
  bound to give her an unexpected advantage when dealing with many of her fellow Kindred, 
  and Alyson intends to take full advantage of it. 
  Perhaps to compensate for her somewhat average Physical Attributes, Alyson decides that 
  Maggie has plunged into the more visceral practices of her clan, asking her sire to train her 
  example of character creation
  
  chapter two: character
  124
  in a number of practical talents. She has seven dots to spend in this category. Alyson puts 
  two dots each in Brawl and Survival, explaining that her sire took her into the wild early on 
  and taught her the basics of combat and wilderness lore. She then puts one dot each into 
  Athletics, Stealth and Weaponry. Maggie still runs with her clan members from time to time 
  and has also learned when to keep still or move quietly when she must. Alyson says that her 
  knack for Weaponry comes mostly from her mortal days, when she was fascinated with all 
  things ancient and used to belong to a medieval re-creation society. She’s a bit rusty, but she 
  stills remembers the basics.
  Finally, Alyson needs to assign four dots to the Mental group. Seeing Peter’s quizzical look, 
  Alyson explains that although she considered herself quite studious during her breathing days, 
  most of what Maggie learned turned out to be completely wrong, especially regarding the su-
  pernatural. Maggie has been attempting to re-learn a lot of material, but fortunately her Social 
  Skills have kept other people from spotting the gaps in her knowledge for the time being. She 
  puts two dots into Maggie’s Occult Skill, reﬂ ecting what she’s been able to absorb since her 
  Embrace and her subsequent mystical studies. She’s no rube when it comes to the unnatural, 
  but she’s still got a lot to learn. She puts another dot into Academics, reﬂ ecting the incidental 
  forays into history, theology and sociology that Maggie has taken in the course of her lessons. 
  She’d like it to be a little higher, since Maggie was pretty scholarly in life, but reconciles it with 
  the knowledge that Maggie has let her other pursuits lapse in favor of her Occult leanings. Her 
  last dot goes into Investigation, which Alyson sees as a combination of Maggie’s new vampiric 
  senses and her natural curiosity more than any kind of formal training.
  STEP FOUR: SKILL SPECIALTIES
  Now that Alyson has assigned Maggie’s Skill dots, she needs to decide where to place her 
  three Skill specialties. Glancing over the Skills she has chosen, she singles out Occult, Academ-
  ics and Persuasion as the most reﬁ ned. Focusing on Occult ﬁ rst, Alyson decides that Maggie 
  has devoted a lot of time to Celtic mystical traditions. This, indeed, will be the framework 
  for her new belief system, so she notes “Celtic Mysticism” for her Occult specialty. Likewise, 
  Maggie has also done a lot of mundane research on the lives and epics of the ancient Celts, 
  so she makes that her specialty in Academics as well. Regarding Persuasion, Alyson thinks 
  for a while, and then suggests “Religious Oratory” as her specialty, explaining that Maggie is 
  normally very convincing, but when she’s speaking from her faith, she’s even more compelling. 
  Peter looks over these choices and approves them, and Alyson moves on to the next step. 
  STEP FIVE: VAMPIRE TEMPLATE
  Since Peter is allowing his players to choose the circumstances of their Embrace, Alyson now 
  has to decide what clan and covenant Maggie will belong to. Starting with her clan, Alyson thinks 
  about choosing Clan Mekhet for Maggie, ﬁ guring it would suit her mystical studies very well, 
  but instead settles on Clan Gangrel, deciding to focus more on her character’s primal passions 
  and the deep-rooted sense of self-reliance that has driven her throughout her life and unlife. 
  Next it’s time to think about her covenant, or where Maggie ﬁ ts into Kindred society. At ﬁ rst 
  she thinks about the Ordo Dracul — their teachings about vampiric evolution appeal to some 
  of her character’s beliefs — but on closer inspection, she decides that the pagan mysticism of 
  the Circle of the Crone ﬁ ts Maggie even better. Aware that all too many games suffer from a 
  very muddled idea of what is really Celtic, much less Celtic mythology, Alyson assures Peter 
  that she’ll do her homework and make sure Maggie is no stereotype. She has already settled 
  on the fact that as her chosen face of the Crone, Maggie will venerate Morrigan, a powerful 
  Celtic goddess, so Alyson resolves to do the requisite research to speak on the subject with 
  some authority, or at least enough to sound convincing in game.
  
  125
  The favored Attributes of the Gangrel are Composure and Stamina, and Alyson feels that 
  Maggie’s personality would more naturally lend itself to an increased Stamina. She adds 
  one dot to that Attribute, and explains that Maggie’s Embrace has heightened her primal 
  hardiness and given her a certain restless power that she never had in life. Maggie relishes 
  her newfound reserves of energy and enjoys going for long runs all across the city and the 
  wild when she can risk it. 
  Alyson has three dots to spend on Disciplines, which she may spend in any way she chooses, 
  provided at least two of her dots go to Gangrel clan Disciplines. She decides that with Maggie’s 
  intense occult studies and her rising status as a priestess of the Morrigan in the Circle of the 
  Crone, she would naturally pursue Crúac sorcery. Reading the description of that Discipline, 
  she ﬁ nds she is limited to one dot of Crúac as a starting character. Covenants do not entrust 
  their secrets to members lightly, even to the faithful. (Alyson also makes a note that she will 
  have to purchase at least one dot in Covenant Status in the Circle of the Crone during the 
  next step of character creation, the minimum requirement for learning Crúac.) Since Peter 
  informed her in the beginning that sorcery required Storyteller permission, Alyson presents 
  her evolving picture of Maggie to him and asks if it would be an acceptable purchase. Liking 
  what he sees, he approves the decision, and Alyson spends one dot on Crúac, making it the 
  one out-of-clan Discipline dot she’s allowed to take during character creation.
  Since she must spend her two remaining dots on Disciplines favored by the Gangrel, she 
  chooses to put a dot in Resilience. Already toughened by the Embrace, it makes sense that 
  Maggie would be able to call on extra reserves of fortitude when she must. Alyson now has one 
  dot remaining to spend, and ultimately decides to purchase one dot of Protean. Maggie ﬁ nds 
  that the Aspect of the Predator power allows her to hold her own even against older or more 
  experienced vampires, and thus naturally suits her role as a rising leader in her covenant.
  STEP SIX: MERITS
  Alyson must next spend seven dots on Merits. Looking over the list of suggested Merits in 
  the Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook, she tries to ﬁ nd those that might reﬂ ect both Maggie’s old 
  life as well as her new existence. Alyson leaves Blood Potency at 1, as Maggie is still relatively 
  new to the rigors of the Requiem. She looks over the list and decides to spend four points on 
  the Inspiring Merit. Having already established that Maggie is quite compelling in her role as a 
  priestess, Alyson wants to really reinforce that image by giving her some extra oratorical prowess. 
  She explains that Maggie routinely gets her fellow Acolytes ﬁ red up during invocations, and she’s 
  developed quite a knack for it. Peter approves the decision, looking forward to seeing Alyson 
  roleplay this rhetorical intensity. That leaves her with just three more dots of Merits, though.
  Alyson decides to spend one dot on Haven, and informs Peter that she’s going to try to 
  pool this Merit with several other Acolytes in game. For now, she allocates the point to Haven 
  Security. Maggie wants a place that’s reasonably well-protected, given the rigors of the Danse 
  Macabre. Because she wants to pool this Merit with other players, however, she’ll have to 
  wait to talk to them about exactly what they want their Haven to be, where it is located and 
  exactly how it is defended. Alyson then spends another dot on Herd, reﬂ ecting how Maggie 
  callously uses her friends from her old neo-pagan circle as a food source, disguising the worst 
  of her feeding habits as highly “ecstatic” rites. Given the Vitae-intensive demands of Crúac, 
  Maggie intends to develop this cult further in time (i.e., raise the Merit), but she’s content 
  for now with a few followers.
  Lastly, Alyson puts a dot into Covenant Status (Circle of the Crone). She justiﬁ es this by 
  saying that although Maggie is still relatively new to the Danse Macabre, her intensity and 
  compelling personality has already brought some initial favorable attention from her fellow 
  Acolytes. This also fulﬁ lls the requirement for the dot of Crúac she purchased earlier. Given 
  example of character creation
  
  chapter two: character
  126
  her formidable personality and the supernatural talents to back them up, Peter agrees that it is 
  likely she would have made a strong impression by now, and approves this purchase of Covenant 
  Status. Not seeing any Flaws that she likes, Maggie is ﬁ nished purchasing with this section.
  STEP SEVEN: ADVANTAGES
  Once the numerical statistics have been decided upon, Alyson must determine her 
  character’s advantages. Adding her Resolve and Composure, she records a Willpower score 
  of 5 on her character sheet. Her Humanity score starts at the standard 7, and Alyson chooses 
  Fortitude as Maggie’s Virtue and Wrath as her Vice. (A true believer, Maggie is willing to 
  endure a great deal in the name of her faith. When angered, she has a nasty tendency to 
  exhort her followers to destroy that which displeases her.)
  Adding her Size factor of 5 to her Stamina, Alyson determines that Maggie has eight dots of 
  Health, and draws a dark vertical line to the right of the eighth box on the Health Chart. Com-
  bining her Dexterity with her Composure, she determines her Initiative to be 4, and notes her 
  Defense of 2, as her Dexterity is lower than her Wits. Finally, she notes the standard Acting Speed 
  of 5, and adds her Strength + Dexterity + 5 to ﬁ nd her Running Speed, which she records as 9.
  She asks Pete if he is using the optional rule regarding awarding additional experience during 
  character creation, and he tells her that he doesn’t plan on doing so. He wants the characters 
  to be relatively weak when the game begins, the better to intensify their scramble for power.
  STEP EIGHT: SPARK OF UNLIFE
  Alyson has a pretty good grasp of her character at this point, at least conceptually, but the 
  speciﬁ c details of appearance and relationships are still a bit hazy. She looks over the questions 
  on p. 119 to further round out some of the speciﬁ cs regarding Maggie’s background.
  She decides that Maggie was an only child who came from a relatively normal middle-class 
  family. She grew up in a suburb across the river from Philadelphia, where she developed 
  from a bookish child into a rather serious student of the occult. Enduring the usual ﬁ ghts 
  with her parents over what they saw as her increasingly deviant beliefs, she was eventually 
  kicked out of the house and went to live in a small communal home with a number of her 
  pagan friends. Always interested in learning for its own sake, she managed to scrape together 
  enough money working various jobs to go to community college part-time, and was close to 
  getting her degree in history when she was Embraced. Finding the time to ﬁ nish school and 
  receive her degree is still one of her goals, though the harsh demands of the Requiem are 
  rapidly smothering that particular ﬂ ame. 
  From early adolescence on, Maggie’s deﬁ ning relationships have been in the context of her 
  pagan beliefs. Although at ﬁ rst an avid reader and practitioner of many well-known modern 
  texts, she became increasingly disillusioned with the rites she encountered. Her search led 
  to her meeting Daron, the woman who would eventually be her sire, whom she ﬁ rst spotted 
  sitting away from the ﬁ re at a drum circle one summer night. Though somewhat necessarily 
  distant due to the fact that Daron is a Carthian with only passing interest in the Old Ways, 
  Alyson decides the two still keep in touch from time to time, and may even do favors for each 
  other every so often. As for romance, Alyson ﬁ gures that Maggie always avoided any serious 
  relationships in favor of pursuing her studies as a priestess, a decision she regrets now that 
  her mortal life has ended. She tries to make up for this by throwing herself into the politics 
  of her clan and covenant and telling herself it was for the best. 
  As the chronicle starts, Maggie has altered her previous life to suit her undead condition, keep-
  ing those friends and resources she needs to fuel her occult studies while discarding many of her 
  unnecessary ties to her old life. Alyson notes that combined with her rising interest in Crúac, this 
  callous attitude toward her mortal friends and contacts does not bode well for Maggie’s Humanity. 
  
  127
  Regardless, she looks forward to the dramatic potential inherent in staving off such a decline. 
  Maggie is eager and inquisitive regarding her new powers, and she revels in her role as a priestess 
  to her fellow Acolytes. As for costuming and makeup, Alyson decides that Maggie has raven hair 
  like herself, with several Celtic designs tattooed on her arms and back from her breathing days. 
  She also tends to wear jewelry with a similar theme, though never anything gaudy or kitschy. 
  Maggie’s everyday wardrobe is quite casual and utilitarian, but her ritual garb is impressive, consist-
  ing of ﬂ owing black and silver dresses embroidered with Celtic symbols and a luxurious hooded 
  mantle trimmed with black feathers. That last item will be particularly fun to design and make, 
  and Alyson looks forward to costume shopping for Maggie in the near future.
  Peter hands Alyson a player survey to see what she’s looking for in a chronicle (see Mind’s 
  Eye Theatre, p. 264). Alyson ﬁ lls it out in the following fashion: Action/Adventure 7, 
  Politics/Intrigue 9, Mystery/Suspense 8, Personal Subplots 4 and Supernatural Elements 8. 
  Explanations for most of these interests are immediately evident in her concept as detailed 
  so far — Maggie is interested in building her “church,” is fascinated by the mysteries and the 
  supernatural, and doesn’t have much time for her mortal ties these days. Maggie isn’t a very 
  physically oriented character, however, so Peter asks why Action/Adventure is rated so high. 
  Alyson explains that she’s hoping events will force Maggie to “toughen up” a bit physically, 
  which she’s looking to use as a way of exploring Maggie’s feral side.
  And that’s it. Alyson takes a ﬁ nal look over her character sheet to make sure everything is 
  exactly the way she wants it and informs Peter of her ﬁ nal decisions. Once Peter looks it over 
  and approves what he sees, Maggie is ready to be thrust into the chaotic World of Darkness.
  Traits
  After the Embrace, vampires gain unique traits that separate them from their mortal lives. 
  While many of them represent internal, physical changes that mark the loss of life and the 
  start of the Requiem, social conditions after the Embrace also cause changes in behavior, 
  marking more external adaptations to the night.
  NEW ADVANTAGE: BLOOD POTENCY
  Although the Kindred each call upon the Blood in different ways, not all wield the same levels 
  of power. Blood Potency determines the degree of power the Blood bestows upon a vampire. 
  Having more dots of Blood Potency allows characters to learn more advanced Disciplines and 
  to develop their traits to superhuman levels. Further, vampires with more dots in this advantage 
  can hold more Vitae within their bodies, as it is more potent and concentrated. In short, the 
  higher a character’s Blood Potency is, the greater her vampiric potential becomes.
  All newly Embraced vampires start at Blood Potency 1, regardless of their sire’s potency, with 
  nowhere to go but up. Two dots of Blood Potency can be purchased during character creation as 
  a Merit (at three Merit-equivalent points per dot), but after play begins, it can be increased only by 
  experience, diablerie or age. The purchase of additional Blood Potency at character creation needs 
  to be rationalized before play begins. Perhaps the character engaged in diablerie or had already 
  spent many years as a vampire before the start of the chronicle. Players who want their characters 
  to start with more dots of Blood Potency must thoroughly explain what in their character’s history 
  justiﬁ es the additional dots and have it approved by the Storyteller before play begins.
  As Blood Potency increases, feeding requirements become more stringent. Only blood of 
  potency a certain degree lower than a character’s can provide sustenance (see the accompa-
  example of character creation • traits • blood potency
  
  chapter two: character
  128
  nying chart). In fact, some elders’ blood is so potent that they can’t feed on mortals at all, 
  requiring the Vitae of other vampires to nourish them. Only those with the fewest dots of 
  Blood Potency can feed from animals.
  Eventually, a vampire’s blood becomes so potent that he is unable to ﬁ nd regular prey. At 
  this point, he falls into torpor, the duration of which is based on his current Blood Potency 
  and Humanity (see p. 249). While in torpor, a thinning of the blood occurs. Torpor also 
  causes fever dreams and a general distortion of the mind.
  2.2  — EFFECTS OF BLOOD POTENCY
  Blood Potency 
  Attribute/Skill/ 
  Max Vitae/ 
  Vampires can 
   
  Discipline Maximum 
  Max Vitae per Turn 
   feed from…
  1 
  5 
  10/1 
  Animals +
  2 
  5 
  11/1 
  Animals +
  3 
  5 
  12/1 
  Humans
  4 
  5 
  13/2 
  Humans
  5 
  5 
  14/2 
  Humans
  6 
  6 
  15/3 
  Humans
  7 
  7 
  20/5 
  Vampires
  8 
  8 
  30/7 
  Vampires
  9 
  9 
  50/10 
  Vampires
  10 
  10 
  100/15 
  Vampires
  A vampire’s Blood Potency increases by one every 50 years. In torpor, however, it decreases 
  by one every 25 years. As Blood Potency is rated on a 1-to-10 scale, a vampire will more than 
  likely fall into torpor in about 500 years — as blood requirements grow ever more reﬁ ned and 
  hard to fulﬁ ll — sooner for those who engage in diablerie. Characters who diablerize several 
  vampires in a short span of years can remain active through seven to nine diableries before 
  the potency of their blood causes them to succumb to torpor. Such Kindred tend to have 
  short but violent bouts of activity between long periods of torpid idleness.
  When Blood Potency decreases (through torpor, for example), any traits that exceed the 
  character’s new capacity disappear. If Blood Potency increases again during the chronicle 
  so that a character could once again gain access to them, the player must spend experience 
  points a second time to “re-learn” what was lost.
  Example: Rachel of Clan Daeva has achieved a Blood Potency of 8 after repeated success at diablerie 
  and has subsequently raised her Presence to 7. Unable to ﬁ nd any vampires of sufﬁ cient Blood Potency 
  to feed upon, she slips into torpor for a period of 80 years. In this time, Rachel’s Blood Potency drops 
  three dots (one for every 25 years) to 5.
  When she wakes, her Presence is reduced to 5, the trait maximum for a Blood Potency of 5. Over 
  time, especially if Rachel continues her practice of diablerie, she will have the opportunity to increase her 
  Presence again. Her player, however, needs to spend the experience points to raise these dots as though 
  Rachel had never possessed them.
  Rumors persist of truly ancient vampires who have found a way to stave off torpor, seem-
  ingly defying the effects of Blood Potency. Some swear that such a thing is possible through 
  intensive study of blood magic. The believe with faith akin to the belief in Golconda, creating 
  a sort of religious fervor in those seeking to attain transcendence.
  MERITS
  Merits represent advantages a character may have due to circumstance and opportunity. They 
  include material possessions and social networks, elements external to the physical changes 
  
  129
  blood potency • merits • haven
  brought on by the Embrace. While the Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook describes Merits in 
  greater detail and provides lists of examples, vampires are removed somewhat from mortal 
  society and often require unique or specialized Merits.
  What follows are traits designed solely for vampires, allowing players to further distinguish 
  their characters from ordinary mortals and other nonhuman beings. These Merits are avail-
  able at character creation and during the course of the chronicle. The ﬁ rst instance assumes 
  that your vampire character is already Embraced at the beginning of play or is Embraced very 
  soon afterward. (It’s not possible for a strictly mortal character to have the following traits 
  as presented here.)
  HAVEN (• TO •••••; SPECIAL)
  Effect: A haven is a place where a vampire sleeps, protected from the sun during the deadly 
  daylight hours. Legends tell of vampires in dark, twisted citadels on high mountain peaks, 
  complete with labyrinthine catacombs, but the reality is far less grandiose. In truth, a haven 
  can be as simple as a sewer or an abandoned warehouse or a crate in a forgotten storage closet, 
  as long as it is undisturbed between dawn and dusk.
  All havens are not created equal. A warehouse might have plenty of space and proximity 
  to a signiﬁ cant amount of prey, but it might not be secure against unwanted visitors. An 
  abandoned subway car in a long-forgotten tunnel has space and adequate security, but it 
  might be so far out of the way that ﬁ nding prey is difﬁ cult. Great time and effort is spent 
  ﬁ nding suitable havens, and their value is represented by three factors — location, size and 
  security. Players who choose this Merit must also choose how to allocate these three factors 
  when spending points. For instance, two points may be spent on Haven Location, with a 
  third spent on Haven Security.
  A good Haven Location makes it easier for a vampire to feed. A haven with many dots 
  in this category might be close to several nightclubs or bars that do considerable nighttime 
  business, while one with few dots might simply be close to a bus or train station that brings 
  travelers on a regular basis. Each dot of Haven Location grants a +1 bonus on hunting draws 
  for the character who controls it and any whom she allows in. Havens without any dots in 
  Location are sufﬁ ciently secluded so as to not provide any bonus.
  Haven Size is important to characters who need a place to safely store their possessions and 
  valuables. A haven with no dots in Haven Size is just large enough for its owner and perhaps 
  a single companion, with minimal if any storage capacity — the aforementioned crate in the 
  forgotten storage closet, or a cramped apartment. By spending points to increase a haven’s 
  size, a player allows for accoutrements and personal effects. Larger havens can be anything 
  from mansions to mountain hideaways to vast subterranean catacombs. Note, however, that 
  havens of considerable size are not necessarily easy to maintain.
  • 
  A small apartment or underground chamber; 1-2 rooms
  •• 
  A large apartment or small family home; 3-4 rooms
  ••• 
  A warehouse, church or large home; 5-8 rooms, or large enclosure
  •••• 
  A abandoned mansion or network of subway tunnels; equivalent of 9-15 
  rooms or chambers
  ••••• 
  A sprawling estate or vast network of tunnels; countless rooms or chambers 
  Of course, Haven Location and Haven Size do not prevent rival vampires from attempting 
  to ﬁ nd and steal choice havens, nor do they prevent intrusion by mortals (police, criminal 
  organizations, social workers). Players of characters who wish to ensure privacy and safety may 
  choose to spend points on Haven Security, thus making it difﬁ cult for others to gain entrance. 
  Havens with no dots in Haven Security can be found by those intent enough to look, and offer 
  
  chapter two: character
  130
  little protection once they have been breached. Each dot of Haven Security subtracts one point 
  from efforts to intrude into the haven by anyone a character doesn’t speciﬁ cally allow in. This 
  increased difﬁ culty may be because the entrance is so difﬁ cult to locate (behind a bookcase, 
  under a carpet) or simply difﬁ cult to penetrate (behind a vault door). Also, each dot of Haven 
  Security offers a +1 bonus on Initiative for those inside against anyone attempting to gain 
  entrance (good sight lines, video surveillance). Lastly, each dot of Haven Security generally 
  gives the characters inside one turn of warning before any kind of attack on the haven, allow-
  ing them a chance to prepare themselves or ﬂ ee. This beneﬁ t may be reduced or negated by 
  particularly powerful or clever inﬁ ltration efforts, however, at the Storyteller’s discretion.
  Characters whose players spend no points at all on Haven might have their own small, 
  humble havens, or perhaps they share the haven of a sire or Prince. In any event, they simply 
  do not gain the mechanical beneﬁ ts of those who have spent Merit points improving the 
  quality of their homes.
  Each aspect of the Haven Merit has a limit of 5. In other words, Haven Location, Haven Size 
  and Haven Security may not rise above 5 (to a maximum of 15 points spent on this Merit).
  Special: It’s possible for the Haven Merit to be shared among characters in a close-knit 
  group. They might simply be devoted to one another and willing to pool what they have, or 
  perhaps their mutual reliance on an individual or trust could bring them together to share 
  what they have in common.
  To share this Merit, two or more characters simply have to be willing to pool their dots 
  for greater capability. A shared Haven Merit cannot rise higher than ﬁ ve dots in any of the 
  three aspects of the trait. That is, characters cannot pool more than ﬁ ve points to be devoted 
  to, say, Haven Size. If they wish to devote extra points to the Merit, they must allocate those 
  dots to a different aspect of the Merit, such as Location or Security.
  Shared Haven dots can be lost. Coterie members or associates might be abused or mistreated, 
  ending relationships. Group members might perform actions that cast themselves (and the 
  group) in a bad light. Money might be spent or lost. If any group member does something to 
  diminish the haven, its dots decrease for all group members. That’s the weakness of sharing 
  dots in this Merit. The chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The Storyteller dictates 
  when character actions or events in a story compromise shared Haven dots.
  Characters can also leave a shared haven. A rift might form between close Kindred. A char-
  acter might meet Final Death. Or one could be kicked out of the haven by the others. When 
  a character leaves a shared-Haven relationship, the dots he contributed are removed from the 
  pool. If the individual still survives, he doesn’t get all his dots back for his own purposes. He 
  gets one less than he originally contributed. So, if a character breaks a relationship with his 
  coterie, his two Haven dots are lost by the group, but he gets only one dot back for his own 
  purposes. The lost dot represents the cost or bad image that comes from the breakup. If all 
  members agree to part ways, they all lose one dot from what they originally contributed.
  The Storyteller decides what reduced dots mean in the story when a character leaves a shared 
  haven. Perhaps no one else picks up the character’s attention to Haven Security, leaving that 
  to drop. The haven might not be tended as fastidiously, causing a drop in the Haven Location 
  value. Maybe a portion of the haven falls into disuse or even collapses, causing an effective 
  drop in Haven Size. Whatever the case, a plausible explanation must be determined.
  A character need not devote all of her Haven dots to the shared Haven Merit, of course. A 
  Kindred might maintain a separate haven of her own outside the communal one represented 
  by the shared trait. Any leftover dots that a character has (or is unwilling to share) signify 
  what she has to draw upon as an individual, separate from her partners. For example, three 
  characters share a haven and expend a group total of ﬁ ve dots. One character chooses to use 
  
  131
  two other dots on a private haven for herself. Those remaining two dots represent a haven 
  entirely separate from what she and her partners have established together.
  To record a shared Haven Merit on your character sheet, put an asterisk next to the name 
  of the Haven Merit and ﬁ ll in the total dots that your character has access to thanks to his 
  partnership. In order to record his original contribution, write it in parentheses along with 
  the Merit’s name. It is not important to note which aspect of the Haven Merit on which those 
  points are spent, as this allows greater ﬂ exibility should a character ever decide to withdraw 
  from the community arrangement. The result looks like this:
  In this example, the character shares a Haven Merit dedicated to the coterie’s communal 
  shelter. He contributes two dots to the relationship, and the group has a total of four dots 
  that are made available to each member. The character also has his own private Haven Merit 
  rated •••, which he maintains by himself. And, the character has Retainer rated •• that 
  is also his own Merit.
  HERD (• TO •••••)
  Some vampires tire of the hunt and seek to develop a small group of mortals upon whom 
  they can feed without fear. Such a herd may take many forms, from a brothel of prostitutes 
  to a blood cult worshipping a vampiric god. These mortals provide nourishment without 
  the difﬁ culties of the hunt. Typically, herds are not very controllable or closely connected 
  to the vampires who use them, nor do they possess great skill in any one area. (For effective 
  agents, the Allies or Retainers Merit is more suitable.) Each dot of Herd adds one to hunting 
  draws (p. 230).
  STATUS (• TO •••••; SPECIAL)
  While certain Merits detailed in the Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook focus on recognition 
  in mortal society, certain Status concerns itself with the social orders of the night and 
  represents recognition among other vampires. Status is divided into three areas — City, 
  Clan and Covenant. Players must choose one of these three areas for each Merit point 
  spent. (Enterprising Storytellers may come up with additional types of Status, and clever 
  players might have unique applications as well. Status is designed as a sort of “umbrella” 
  Merit, under which new types can be created.) Unless the Storyteller speciﬁ cally declares 
  otherwise (perhaps to simulate some more established characters already in the city at the 
  start of the chronicle), no starting character may purchase more than two dots of Status in 
  each category. This limitation applies even if the optional rule of beginning with additional 
  experience points is in effect. 
  City Status
  City Status represents a vested responsibility and according acknowledgement in the affairs 
  of a particular domain. Regardless of clan and covenant, certain individuals rise to the top 
  of the social or feudal strata, exemplary because of their efforts in the name of the domain 
  haven • herd • status
  MERITS
  ____________________OOOOO
  ____________________OOOOO
  ____________________OOOOO
  ____________________OOOOO
  ____________________OOOOO
  Haven* (2)
  Haven
  Retainer
  
  chapter two: character
  132
  as a whole. Princes, Regents, Primogen, Harpies and other “ofﬁ cers” of a given domain ﬁ t 
  this description.
  Additionally, City Status represents those Kindred who aren’t part of the prevailing social 
  structure, but who nonetheless have signiﬁ cant esteem, sway or reputation among the Kin-
  dred. Examples include bosses of powerful gangs, Kindred who have considerable inﬂ uence 
  in specialized areas (prominent businessmen, city government, health care and hospitals, 
  religious communities), or even just those who are powerful in their own right but largely 
  apolitical, as with a potent elder who abstains from city responsibilities but whose territory 
  is respected by all other local Kindred for fear of her raw power and ferocity.
  Although somewhat more ﬂ exible within a given domain than the other two types of 
  Kindred-oriented Status, it should be noted that City Status does not “travel” well. That is a 
  character cannot use it for any mechanical beneﬁ t outside the domain where it was earned, and 
  even her sheer reputation quickly erodes as she travels (for more details, see p. 283). On the 
  other hand, while less ﬂ exible within a domain, Clan and Covenant Status do travel. In fact, 
  a Kindred journeying to a distant city is likely to call on his fellow clan or covenant members 
  to offer him some measure of protection from the other native Kindred. Therefore, a character 
  may use Clan and Covenant Status normally, even when visiting an unknown city.   
  A character generally may have City Status only in his own primary domain of residence. 
  The Damned are highly territorial, suspicious beings who naturally distrust outsiders, especially 
  those who come and go between cities. As another component of City Status is regular atten-
  dance and participation at city functions, it is nearly impossible even for a Kindred who has 
  managed to be accepted in multiple domains to keep up with their social calendars. Indeed, 
  nomadic life is less likely to earn a Kindred Status in different cities, because the Kindred of 
  those domains know that there is nothing holding that vampire back from wrecking their 
  city and then skipping town.
  At the Storyteller’s discretion, a character may earn City Status in more than one city, but 
  each additional city reduces the amount of Status that can be earned in any of them (not 
  counting any other limitations in place). So a character who earns Status in two cities has a 
  maximum of City Status 4 in each. A character with Status in three cities has a maximum of 
  City Status 3 in each. In addition, to prevent player abuse, a character with Status in multiple 
  domains cannot hold any sort of ofﬁ ce in any of these cities. He simply is not trusted enough 
  to be granted a position, even by his allies in a domain; after all, he has a “backdoor” if any-
  thing goes wrong. Allowing Status in multiple cities should be rare, however, if the option 
  is ever used at all.
  In some cases, City Status is very much a chicken-and-egg situation — does Prince Anne 
  have City Status 5 because she’s Prince, or did her accumulated City Status result in her 
  claiming praxis? In other cases, City Status obviously reﬂ ects accomplishment, as with a 
  political activist who has many mortal supporters — but those supporters obviously didn’t 
  join his cause because they knew he was a vampire. Harpies, in particular, make much of 
  these distinctions, but some speculate that that’s because their own Status falls under the 
  deﬁ nition of City Status.
  Note that these Status levels are not the minimum required to hold the named positions, 
  nor are these dots automatically granted to anyone who assumes the listed title. Rather, they 
  are merely an indication of the ideal level of City Status a Kindred should possess to accept 
  the position comfortably and hold it with a minimal amount of gossip about his worthiness 
  to carry out its duties. A relatively young or untested Prince might only have City Status 
  •••, for example, reﬂ ecting that while he is Prince, he still hasn’t completely solidiﬁ ed his 
  reputation or climbed to the top of the ladder yet. If she manages to hold on long enough 
  
  133
  and not commit too many mistakes, it’s quite possible he’ll be able to rise that high, given 
  the power of the Prince. It’s also possible that a Prince with low Status might even be kept as 
  a ﬁ gurehead or puppet ruler by other vampires in the city with higher Status, who use their 
  standing to call all the shots behind the scenes.
  City Status is unique among Kindred Status Merits because it cannot normally be purchased 
  with experience points after character creation. Instead, once a character enters play, all gains 
  (and losses) of City Status dots are entirely handled by the mechanics of the Status system 
  itself (see pp. 286-290 for details).
  • 
  Hound or “rising star”
  •• 
  Sheriff or “accomplished individual”
  ••• 
  Harpy, Seneschal, Master of Elysium or “much-deserved reputation”
  •••• 
  Regent, Primogen, Herald or “cornerstone of Kindred society”
  ••••• 
  Prince or “true paragon”
  Clan Status
  Clan Status is concerned with lineage and the Blood. At the outset of a chronicle, a 
  Kindred’s standing often reﬂ ects the prestige her sire has gained and passed along, such as 
  with regard to the Ventrue. Many assume that childer who were Embraced by powerful and 
  inﬂ uential members of the clan have already shown some special quality or excellence, oth-
  erwise they would not have been chosen by so great a sire. This kind of recognition is short 
  lived, however. A neonate might enjoy prestige by association under the purview of her sire, 
  but such a favored childe is expected to make a name for herself.
  Vampires who truly embody the ideals of their clan and who establish themselves in positions 
  of power and inﬂ uence (often as Prisci) gain the respect of others in their clan, being perceived as 
  models for success. While the Daeva tell tales of particularly vicious Harpies of distant cities, the 
  Gangrel speak of brooding hulks who conﬁ dently brave the Lupine-infested wilds alone. Those 
  who diverge from the expected behavior of the clan in remarkable ways gain renown (or notoriety), 
  as well, perhaps founding bloodlines that become known to vampire society as a whole.
  A character may have Clan Status only as a member of his own clan. For instance, a Nosferatu 
  never gains Clan Status (Gangrel) no matter how many favors he does for the Savages. His 
  aid of the Gangrel may certainly earn him their esteem, but such concern is better handled 
  on a case-by-case basis by the Storyteller, not in the form of Clan Status.
  Clan Status is not so rigidly deﬁ ned as City Status. While individual clan titles might arise, 
  the notion of esteem is more general in this context.
  Covenant Status
  Covenant Status represents rank, achievement and responsibility. It’s less concerned with 
  clan ideals and more with covenant actions, philosophies and accomplishments. The various 
  covenants are not bound by any supernatural means or governed by clan lineage. They ﬁ nd 
  a commonality of goals and ideologies, instead. It is not enough to be powerful or exemplary 
  of clan ideals; a covenant is concerned with what its members have done to beneﬁ t its cause 
  and combat its rivals. 
  Those Kindred who enjoy the greatest covenant-based esteem are often the core members 
  of their factions in a given city, those around whom others rally. These Kindred instigate or 
  mediate conﬂ ict with other covenants, generally looking to further certain idealistic goals 
  and establish themselves or other members in positions of inﬂ uence in the local hierarchy. 
  A Mekhet in command of a massive spy network might have status within his clan, but the 
  lowliest of his spies might risk her unlife to gather a speciﬁ c piece of information that helps 
  oust the Invictus Prince, subsequently enjoying far more status with, say, the Ordo Dracul 
  than her master.
  city status • clan status • covenant status
  
  chapter two: character
  134
  A character must have at least a single dot of Covenant Status in order to gain the beneﬁ ts 
  of any special abilities of that covenant. In other words, a character must have at least one 
  dot of Covenant Status (Lancea Sanctum) in order to learn Theban Sorcery. Or a character 
  must have at least one dot of Covenant Status (Invictus) to take advantage of the experience 
  point break on the Herd, Mentor, Resources and Retainer Merits. If a character leaves a 
  covenant after learning some of its secrets, he does not lose any of those traits for which he 
  paid experience points, but he may not learn additional dots of those traits (or additional 
  dots at that particular price break, as with the Invictus and the Carthians). See p. 116 for the 
  complete list of which covenants grant which beneﬁ ts.
  Covenant Status is unique in that a character may, on occasion, have more than one form 
  of it. This occurs almost exclusively at low levels, where a character is beneath the notice of 
  most other members of his covenants. A character may never have more than three dots 
  total in Covenant Status among multiple covenants. A double-agent, for example, might take 
  two dots worth of Covenant Status (Carthians) and a single dot of Covenant Status (Lancea 
  Sanctum), representing the character’s true allegiance to the Carthians as well as the fact that 
  he’s in on the ground ﬂ oor of the Lancea Sanctum so that he can feed information back 
  to his Carthian fellows. A character may even have a single dot of Covenant Status in three 
  different covenants. Perhaps he’s somewhat accomplished in each, but has yet to determine 
  where his true loyalties lie. Naturally, a character with Status in only one Covenant is not 
  beholden to the three-dot limit. 
  A character with dots in Covenant Status through multiple factions does indeed gain access 
  to those covenants’ special beneﬁ ts. Covenants expect certain contributions of their members, 
  however, and if other Kindred ﬁ nd out that the vampire in question is playing multiple sides 
  against the middle, he might see that Status vanish in a single night when he’s called upon to 
  account for his treacheries. Such is also the reason that cumulative Covenant Status is limited 
  to three dots. By the time a character gains a certain degree of Status in a single covenant, he 
  sticks out like a sore thumb if he turns up among another covenant’s members. (An excep-
  tion to this might occur if a character is truly some sort of deep-cover agent or other mole, 
  but that circumstance is best handled at the Storyteller’s discretion).
  Like Clan Status, Covenant Status is not so speciﬁ cally tied to certain titles. It is more a 
  notion of an individual’s accomplishments. A Lancea Sanctum Priest, for example, has a 
  greater title than, say, a noted ethicist of the covenant, but that ethicist might have written 
  numerous treatises on the state of undeath and the soul, according her more esteem among 
  her peers than the Priest who rides solely on the weight of her title.
  • 
  The character is known to a select subset of the clan/covenant — a spy 
  network, perhaps.
  •• 
  The majority of the clan/covenant in the city recognizes the character’s 
  face and can recall her exploits.
  ••• 
  The character’s deeds are known to all in the local covenant, even in other 
  nearby cities; many members of other covenants recognize her face.
  •••• 
  Word of the character’s exploits has traveled far, and her name is known 
  in cities around the country.
  ••••• 
  The character’s name and face are synonymous with her clan/covenant; 
  her exploits are taught to new members of the clan/covenant.
  Status can serve as a mixed blessing, however. Those who enjoy the most might be able 
  to use it to their advantage, but they are also visible targets for their enemies. High levels of 
  Status make it almost impossible to pass unnoticed by those even remotely familiar with a 
  particular group, even while they open doors that would otherwise remain closed.
  
  135
  Status works like a “social tool” in that it adds to test pools for social interactions between 
  members of the sub-group in question. That is, Covenant Status adds to test pools for 
  interactions with members of the same covenant, Clan Status enhances interactions with 
  members of the same clan, and City Status affects those who are recognized residents of the 
  given domain. City Status, however, may be ignored by those who are among the unbound, 
  as one of their few beneﬁ ts.
  Example: Fever wants access to the Mekhet Priscus, but the Priscus is already occupied with an 
  envoy from Clan Nosferatu. He instead ﬁ nds himself dealing with one of his aides, another Mekhet. 
  Fever, a Mekhet himself, tries to convince the aide that he has important business to discuss with the 
  Priscus. His player adds Clan Status to a Manipulation + Persuasion test pool. Fever has Manipulation 
  4, Persuasion 3 and Clan Status (Mekhet) 3, creating a test pool of 10 for the task.
  Status does not add to test pools predicated on supernatural powers. For example, a Prince’s 
  City Status is not added to a test pool for use of his Mesmerize power.
  Dealing with Status can be a mire of responsibility, though clever characters can turn it to 
  their advantage. They may actually have a variety of Status. It is not unheard of for a character 
  to have City Status, Clan Status and Covenant Status.
  OPTIONAL RULE: TRUE COVENANT STATUS
  Your type of chronicle may necessitate a slightly different approach to Covenant 
  Status. Maybe the game is sufﬁ ciently large to require and distributed to require a 
  clearer delineation of covenants than the multi-covenant membership provides. In 
  those cases, adopt the approach that a character by default can only be a true member 
  in one covenant, the group that represents his true calling. He may still hold status 
  in other covenants, but he receives no mechanical beneﬁ ts such as cheaper Merits 
  or sorcery. You can also use this optional rule in games where players use covenants 
  more as a means of gaining access to unusual abilities rather than to pursue political 
  or spiritual goals.
  covenant status
  
  chapter two: character
  136
  Daeva
  Other Kindred envy their beauty and grace, their ability to incite passion in mortals, the 
  ease with which they glide through the masses — and that envy is almost as potent a draught 
  to the Daeva as blood itself. These Kindred are consummate predators, and they would seem 
  to be the perfect vampires. Alas, most are too dead inside to enjoy it.
  Called Succubi by other clans, the Daeva are experts at making their prey come to them, 
  practically offering themselves not merely as food but as playthings. No self-respecting Daeva 
  resorts to attacking transients in alleyways. Rather, these are the Kindred who accompany 
  a smitten young mortal back to her place, leaving her languid and sexually spent by morn-
  ing (if she’s fortunate) or an exsanguinated husk (if she’s not). Seducers and sensualists, the 
  Daeva could practically charm the unease off a Nosferatu. When the fancy strikes them, they 
  play politics like a ﬁ nely tuned instrument. Even allies and coconspirators who know they 
  cannot trust a Succubus ﬁ nd themselves lulled into doing just that, 
  caught up in the Daeva’s personal magnetism. Daeva become 
  Harpies more than Kindred of any other clan, and they wield 
  that power mercilessly. A stinging rebuke from a Daeva Harpy 
  can shred a vampire’s reputation faster than a denunciation 
  by the Prince himself.
  Most Succubi are overtly sensual beings, drawn by beauty 
  and blood in equal measure, but it’s an artiﬁ cial passion. Their 
  ability to feel true attachment to other people atrophies over 
  years of manipulating the love of mortals and the respect 
  of their fellow Kindred, until the Daeva can no longer 
  understand those emotions as anything other than tools 
  to be exploited and motions to imitate. For all their 
  apparent fervor, most Succubi are as dead spiritually 
  as they are physically. They claim to understand desire, 
  but all they truly know is need, and it is this deaden-
  ing of emotions that causes so many jaded Daeva to 
  become depraved in their efforts to feel again.
  Daeva move through the circles of society in which 
  their lustful natures best serve them, whether among 
  high society or low culture. Drawn to beauty and con-
  gregations of mortals, they often frequent theaters, 
  galleries, trendy clubs, whiskey dives, drug dens, broth-
  els and everything in between. Personal preferences 
  aside, the Succubi are found through all strata of 
  society. Their seductive natures allow these vampires 
  to ﬁ nd willing vessels no matter where they go, and 
  this ability has enabled them to thrive, to become 
  arguably one of the most numerous clans. No 
  single social class has room for them all, so 
  newcomers and losers of political and social 
  games often ﬁ nd themselves dwelling among 
  
  137
  daeva
  the poor and unwashed — or at least the middle classes, which, since their blood is as red as 
  any other, means basically the same thing to most Succubi. Few Kindred are as desperate as 
  a Daeva trying to claw his way into his own niche. Wise Kindred know better than to take 
  advantage of a Daeva in such a position, for fear he’ll one night achieve the position and 
  privilege he seeks. The Succubi never forget a slight.
  Nickname: Succubi (male Daeva are sometimes called Incubi, but the clan itself is referred 
  to by the more common female sobriquet)
  Covenant: The majority of these Kindred are found within the Invictus. They are well 
  suited to the political game, and here they can surround themselves with lessers, becoming 
  ever more jaded and inhuman as they grow older. Most Daeva are too self-centered to feel the 
  religious calling of the Lancea Sanctum, but those few exceptions who are able to channel 
  their sensual drive into matters of faith often obtain positions of prominence, making the 
  clan seem more numerous in the Lancea Sanctum than it really is. Few Daeva bother with 
  the Carthians. Why ﬁ ght for an egalitarian society when the current system favors the Daeva? 
  The Ordo Dracul covenant is home to a small number of devoted Daeva, and it would have 
  more if the rigors of the covenant’s policies didn’t make being a hedonist among its ranks 
  less than rewarding. The Circle of the Crone has few Daeva for much the same reasons as the 
  Lancea Sanctum, and those who do join often do so more out of a debased and jaded sense 
  of rebellion against societal mores than any real belief in the Pagans’ teachings. A surpris-
  ing number of Succubi fall in among the unaligned, convinced, in their own self-perceived 
  superiority, that they have no need for the laws and restrictions of society.
  Appearance: Daeva often Embrace out of infatuation — or at least going through the mo-
  tions of passion — and they rarely choose to involve themselves with unattractive mortals. 
  Therefore, most Daeva are surpassingly beautiful. The clan is also highly in tune with trends 
  and fashion, the better to prowl among and attract prey.
  Havens: Daeva havens vary, but they’re almost universally comforting… in a subtly alarming 
  way that suggests an artiﬁ cial appeal to whatever vessels a Kindred favors. Most are convenient 
  to social or political centers. The speciﬁ c aesthetics vary, but most are intended to impress 
  any compatriots, allies or victims who might be invited in. Penthouses and condominiums 
  are particularly popular. Many Daeva don’t bother to keep up appearances if they don’t think 
  they’ll bring prey home, meaning that some havens are sloppy or cluttered with unsettling 
  reminders of previous vessels’ presence.
  Background: With a growing number of exceptions, Daeva are Embraced from the ranks 
  of society’s elite. Succubus sires look for some combination of charm, culture, seductiveness, 
  desire to achieve, passion and physical beauty. Many Daeva Embrace mortals to whom they 
  have become attached, but this attachment almost invariably proves false, a mixture of lust 
  and simple hunger. Few relationships are as euphoric as those between a Daeva and a newly 
  Embraced childe, and few grow cold as swiftly.
  Character Creation: Social Attributes and Skills are of primary concern, particularly those 
  that aid in making good ﬁ rst impressions, in persuading and in seducing. Social Merits are 
  equally common, representing the character’s connections to both mortal and Kindred society. 
  Given that most Daeva feed almost exclusively through manipulation and betrayal, a high 
  starting Humanity score is a good idea, since it’s likely to fall precipitously.
  Favored Attributes: Dexterity or Manipulation
  Clan Disciplines: Celerity, Majesty, Vigor
  Weakness: Perhaps out of some deep longing for the true passions they lost after the 
  Embrace, the Daeva have difﬁ culty steeling themselves against the hedonism they allow 
  themselves as members of the Damned. Any time a Daeva has an opportunity to indulge 
  
  chapter two: character
  138
  her Vice but does not do so, she loses two points of Willpower (as opposed to gaining one 
  by partaking in its pleasures).
  Organization: Status among the Daeva is entirely a social issue, and many young ones 
  resemble squabbling cliques more so than undying creatures of the night. Not even elder 
  Daeva are strangers to petty vendettas and long-nursed grudges. While a Succubus is likely 
  to join with one of her own in the face of an outside threat, they compete with one another 
  as much as they do with other Kindred, if not more so. The Daeva therefore have no true 
  formal structure. Those who are dominant in the Danse Macabre’s social and political scene 
  are dominant among the clan as well.
  Bloodlines: Duchagne (an aristocratic but degenerate European bloodline that seems to 
  have the ability to directly manipulate the senses and sensations of others), Toreador (a branch 
  of the clan that has recognized its loss of passion and tries to re-create it by inspiring mortals 
  either to creative pursuits or extreme emotions; they invariably grow bored and move on, 
  leaving their former wards desolate), Xiao.
  Concepts: Bored socialite, club hopper, club owner, cult leader, cultured serial killer, 
  full-time Harpy, jaded vampire who gets off on being a creature of the night (a fairly melo-
  dramatic attitude found only among the very young before the weight of the Requiem fully 
  settles on them), Kindred politico, local covenant spokesman, patron of the arts, professional 
  “escort”
  Quote: What a silly thing to say, my love. Of course you can’t live without me.
  STEREOTYPES
  Gangrel: They are beasts, to be sure, but their animal bodies contain a terrible 
  ferocity.
  Mekhet: They conﬁ ne themselves to the shadows, but out of comfort or fear?
  Nosferatu: They wear on the outside what all Kindred are within.
  Ventrue: Which is the greater curse to bear, weakness of mind or the responsibilities 
  of keeping one’s fellows?
  ———————————————————————————————————————
  Lupines: No thank you. The Gangrel are quite feral enough.
  Mages: The idea of a mortal with that sort of power is… fascinating. Surely they 
  wouldn’t mind conversing for just a bit.
  Mortals: Such simple creatures. I’m grateful not be one any longer. Still… I do wish I 
  could remember just a bit more clearly what it felt like.
  
  139
  daeva • gangrel
  Gangrel
  While vampires give mortals a reason to be afraid of the dark, there exist things that give 
  even vampires reason to fear — creatures like the Gangrel, the predators among the predators, 
  the most savage of beasts. Perhaps the only clan whose mere mention almost always elicits a 
  chilled shudder or a reverent nod, the Gangrel are, in many ways, the “noble savages” of the 
  vampiric race. Upon their Embrace (and sometimes before), the Gangrel seek to sever their ties 
  with everything pertaining to their mortal lives. Many prefer the counsel of animals and other 
  beasts, and some eschew contact with the mortal world entirely. While many retain and even 
  value their humanity, they do so within the bounds and context of their newfound existence, 
  and not as an attempt to hold onto what’s been lost, for no other option is practical to a clan 
  whose very soul is so intimately intertwined with its Beast. While others delude themselves 
  about what the Embrace “truly means,” the Gangrel know what they’ve become, so they strive 
  to make peace with it. On the whole, they spend more time in communion with their bestial 
  side than other vampires do, and though such activity more than accounts for their nickname 
  and reputation, few would disagree that the Gangrel 
  truly beneﬁ t from their introspection.
  Their special bond with the Beast seems to give 
  many Gangrel a unique insight into the Kindred 
  condition, and some of the wisest vampires 
  to be found in all the world hail from this 
  clan. Whereas other Kindred try to become 
  scholars or philosophers, collecting endless 
  data and positing on the theoretical, the 
  Gangrel are its yogis and medicine men, its 
  bodhisattvas and whirling dervishes. The 
  unequivocal and irreplaceable beneﬁ t of 
  ﬁ rst-hand experience ﬂ ows through them, 
  supplanting the theoretical with the prac-
  tical, and making the Gangrel widely 
  respected among those who recognize 
  the primeval nature of the Kindred 
  soul. This insight makes the 
  clan invaluable, but also makes 
  it dangerous, and some 
  would just as soon 
  silence the Gangrel 
  as hear their frank 
  wisdom.
  Nickname: Savages
  Covenant: Many Gangrel are largely 
  unconcerned with matters of Kindred 
  politics, but that’s not to say they don’t 
  have their own views. Perhaps surpris-
  ingly, a signiﬁ cant percentage of the 
  
  chapter two: character
  140
  clan is active in the Circle of the Crone, which provides spiritually minded Gangrel with a 
  ready-made forum for their rituals and beliefs. A great many of the Circle’s leaders hail from 
  the clan’s ranks. Some of the more proactive Gangrel ﬁ nd the Carthian mindset appealing, 
  and a number of highly motivated Savages have taken up the cause in recent years. A few 
  Gangrel fall in with the Lancea Sanctum and Invictus, due to the nature of each covenant’s 
  beliefs. Those who are active in the latter group usually work for important elders or are elders 
  themselves, while the few Gangrel of the Lancea Sanctum are among the most frightening 
  and relentless Kindred anyone would ever (not) want to meet. Likewise, the Ordo Dracul 
  sees few Gangrel, though some who join do so not to learn the blood magic of the covenant 
  but to pursue mysteries of their origin without the hauteur of the Lancea Sanctum. A great 
  many Gangrel also ﬁ nd their place among the independent and unaligned Kindred, whose 
  lack of structure and love of freedom are attractive to Savages who prefer that elders of other 
  clans keep their politics to themselves.
  Appearance: The archetypal Savage is rarely concerned with his appearance, though most 
  recognize the need to both blend in and put potential prey at ease. As a rule, Gangrel prefer 
  function over form, and are rarely caught clad in anything that restricts movement to any 
  great degree. Due to their clan weakness, they must always be wary of just how bestial they 
  seem to others, and some Gangrel learn some amount of Obfuscate to avoid potentially 
  disastrous situations.
  Havens: One of the clan’s greatest strengths is its deft maneuverability, a good portion of 
  which stems from its Discipline of Protean, which allows the Gangrel to take rest in any natural 
  soil. Sleeping in the ground does, of course, have its drawbacks, and even the most feral of 
  Savages comes to appreciate having an actual place to hang his hat after a while. Therefore, 
  a number of the more urbane (or at least urban) Gangrel elect to take traditional havens, 
  though their restless spirits and mistrust of other Kindred tends to keep them moving.
  Background: Potential Gangrel can come from nearly any former life, but few Savages 
  would choose a mortal who did not possess a strong survival instinct. Beyond this, most are 
  quite particular about those they sire. Gangrel loathe personal weakness and those who are 
  soft of body or mind (especially given their weakness), particularly those with a paper-thin 
  or disconnected sense of being. Clan members most admire those whose greatest strengths 
  are the strengths of the self — self-awareness, self-conﬁ dence and self-reliance. While it is not 
  unheard of for a Gangrel to Embrace someone who lacks these qualities (usually as a cruel 
  test to see whether the Embrace will sufﬁ ciently toughen the person up), most Gangrel hold 
  to their standards, as not doing so is often more effort than it’s worth.
  Character Creation: Gangrel are very honest with themselves about what is and is not their 
  forte, and they seek to improve those things to which they are especially or innately suited. 
  Many Gangrel come off seeming hyper-specialized, their players having devoted signiﬁ cant 
  dots to those Attributes and Skills in which they are focused. This rule is a very general one, 
  however, and numerous exceptions apply. Due to temperament, the aptly named Savages are 
  rarely very strong in the Social department (though entire bloodlines of sociable Gangrel 
  probably exist somewhere), preferring instead to hone body and reinforce the mind. An even 
  mix of Physical and Mental Skills is always good, erring toward the Physical side.
  Favored Attributes: Composure or Stamina
  Clan Disciplines: Animalism, Protean, Resilience
  Weakness: As beﬁ ts their sobriquet, the Gangrel are more closely tied to their Beasts than 
  are other Kindred. The more they feel the call of the Beast, the more bestial they become, 
  and the more their minds become those of less principled animals. With regard to test pools 
  based on Intelligence and Wits Attributes, the 10-again rule does not apply. This weakness 
  
  141
  does not apply to test pools involving perception or reaction to surprise (see p. 48 of the 
  Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook), or to the Resolve Attribute.
  Organization: The Gangrel are perhaps the least organized of the clans. They have no 
  hierarchy per se and are largely disinterested in either clan structure or intra-clan activity for 
  its own sake. The only nod they give to such matters comes in the form of an event called 
  a Gather. These meetings serve a twofold purpose. First, as an opportunity for Gangrel to 
  unite and update one another on the events of the intervening time. Second, as a forum for 
  ofﬁ cial intra-clan dispute resolution. Before this practice began, ferocious Savages visited their 
  rage upon one another at will and without process, and the clan as a whole suffered. Thus 
  began the practice of settling disputes at gatherings of the clan before a Priscus or Primogen, 
  where any conﬂ ict (or combat, if necessary) could be moderated and monitored by the peers 
  of both Savages. As a result of this practice, the clan has grown more cooperative over time, 
  leading to markedly fewer intra-clan kills. The majority of such disputes now stop short of 
  Final Death.
  Bloodlines: Anavashra (mysterious ritualists who claim domains in India and Bangladesh); 
  Anubi (Egyptian cultists who have long feuded with the Lancea Sanctum); Bruja (a rogue 
  biker gang that slakes its thirsts at will and terrorizes Baja Mexico and Southern California); 
  Matasuntha (a bloodline of warriors descended from an ancient warlord of the Huns); Taifa 
  (sociable and sophisticated, these Middle Eastern Gangrel are known for their political savvy 
  and social aptitude).
  Concepts: Archeologist, bodyguard, bumpkin, circuit rider, guru, mercenary, nomad, sha-
  man, survivalist, urban predator, zookeeper
  Quote: Go tell this Prince of yours that this is my domain… if you’ve got the guts.
  gangrel
  STEREOTYPES
  Daeva: Primp and preen all you want, but you’re more like us than you imagine.
  Mekhet: Fine. Stay hidden.
  Nosferatu: Proof that not all Kindred are created equal; some are way more fucking 
  scary than others.
  Ventrue: I’ll piss blood on their boots and wear their skins as a trophy.
  ———————————————————————————————————————
  Lupines: Next time you think you’re the shit, I’ll show you one of these and we’ll 
  settle the matter for good.
  Mages: Under that mask of power lies a human face, warm and ﬂ ush with blood.
  Mortals: They move in ﬂ ocks, so never forget what they are to us wolves.
  
  chapter two: character
  142
  Mekhet
  Vampires have always been creatures of the night by design, but none more so than the 
  dwellers in darkness who compose Clan Mekhet. Darkness is the hallmark of this lineage, 
  and its members surround themselves with it like a corpse wears a shroud. The hallmarks of 
  the clan are stealth and wisdom, so it is entirely ﬁ tting that they are associated with darkness 
  — the better to hide them and the source of the knowledge they exhume.
  Clan Mekhet comprises one of the most cosmopolitan memberships among the great fami-
  lies of the Kindred. Although they compose a clan born of darkness, these Shadows, as they 
  are known, interpret that darkness in many ways. Some of the clan’s members are masters of 
  the night, using their gifts and undead powers to make a place for 
  themselves within the aristocracy of the Damned. Others 
  are literal skulkers in the shadows, ready to plant a stake 
  in a rival’s heart or steal the wealth from a rival’s haven. 
  Still others are poets or painters, heirs to darkness of a 
  more personal nature. Yet more Mekhet are diviners of 
  secrets, questing after information itself forgotten and 
  thus relegated to the darkness of memory. Clan Mekhet 
  runs the gamut from ﬁ lth-streaked murderers to enlightened 
  philosopher-Princes and everything in between.
  While the clan certainly has coarse members, the Mekhet 
  are, by and large, marked by a certain degree of ﬁ nesse 
  with whatever aspect of tenebrous unlife they choose to 
  pursue. A Mekhet bodyguard, for example, is unlikely 
  to be a brawling brute, but more likely to know an or-
  nate ﬁ ghting style. A Mekhet inﬁ ltrator is gracious or 
  invisible, not a sloppy vandal. A sage or scholar might 
  have such supernatural acumen that his abilities are 
  downright oracular instead of merely archival. Mekhet 
  Kindred very much consider themselves paragons of 
  the vampiric state, so whatever they do, they devote 
  themselves to it and reﬁ ne their capacity almost to 
  the point of second nature.
  Nickname: Shadows
  Covenant: A great many Mekhet fall in with the 
  Carthians or the Lancea Sanctum, both of which 
  have strong traditions of politics and secrecy to 
  which the Shadows can lend their talents. The 
  same can be said of the Circle of the Crone, 
  which typically draws Mekhet by virtue of its 
  underlying message of redemption and meaning 
  in the unlives of the Damned. Less philosophical 
  and more viscerally impassioned Shadows are often 
  drawn to the ranks of the unaligned, whose ideology 
  of freedom (or anonymity…) is an easy ﬁ t for the wild 
  
  143
  mekhet
  at heart. This is not to say that the clan is weak within the Invictus, though. Invictus Shadows 
  are simply quieter about their covenant afﬁ liation than their boastful brothers, or are more 
  reserved about the reasons for their afﬁ liation, which typically coincide with those of the 
  Carthians or Lancea Sanctum. More than a few Mekhet ﬁ nd themselves among the Ordo 
  Dracul, as the study of its esoteric principles often coincides with artifact-ﬁ nding expeditions 
  or secrets to be gleaned from other Dragons.
  Appearance: Of all the clans, the Mekhet are perhaps the least uniform in the way they 
  appear to others. Some play the clan archetype to the hilt, dressing in black clothing and 
  adopting styles that allow them to blend into the scenery. Others choose from popular mortal 
  styles and fashions, attempting to blend in with the crowd by evading individual notice. This 
  practice is particularly common among Mekhet who associate with one particular subculture, 
  thereby becoming an iconic, though rarely outstanding, example of that group’s tastes.
  Havens: Of all the clans, the Mekhet are typically the most polarized by their preferences 
  and proximity to the mortal world. Some Mekhet prefer to keep close to where the action is. 
  In large cities, where their numbers are strong, many take ﬂ ats in the downtown core, or at 
  least within short distance of various urban hot spots or the Rack. Older or more withdrawn 
  Shadows are often preoccupied with security, and many elect to dwell in large homes on the 
  outskirts of populated areas. Such Kindred often keep dogs and other servitors, made strong 
  by the cursed Vitae of their masters. A few paranoid Shadows even take havens underground, 
  where they cohabitate (or compete) with Nosferatu for shelter from the sun.
  Background: Prospective Mekhet can come from just about any walk of mortal life. The 
  only common thread linking potential candidates is an afﬁ nity for the night itself or some 
  metaphorical darkness, such as a pained soul or a thirst for knowledge. Many Mekhet are 
  tutored heavily by their sires post-Embrace, in order that they understand the nature of the 
  clan and its duties. A Mekhet sire who leaves a new childe to the misinformation of other 
  Kindred is a rarity indeed. Some prefer to let their progeny discover the Kindred world on 
  their own, but not even these sires stray so far that they can’t watch a protégés’ progress.
  Character Creation: Most Shadows prize those traits that best assist them in furthering 
  their passion or their cause. Violent or politically motivated Mekhet typically favor Physical 
  and Social Attributes and Skills, to improve their dealings with others and to allow them to 
  strike from their namesake. Scholarly or philosophical clan members tend to acquire as many 
  dots worth of Mental traits as they can. For many Shadow players, the process of assigning 
  new traits is like being a kid in a candy store — just about everything looks good, but you 
  don’t have a whole lot to spend. The best solution is to keep your character’s personality in 
  mind when deciding what to take.
  Favored Attributes: Intelligence or Wits
  Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Obfuscate
  Weakness: As creatures of darkness even more sensitive to light than most of the Damned, 
  the Mekhet suffer certain banes of vampiric existence more acutely than do their fellow Kin-
  dred. Whenever Mekhet suffer damage from sunlight or ﬁ re, they take an additional point of 
  aggravated damage from that source (see p. 243 for more on sunlight and ﬁ re damage). Just 
  as shadow cannot exist without light, so too does light banish shadow.
  Organization: While this clan is not the most tightly organized, it does have some structure. 
  The majority of it falls in line with the clan’s various bloodlines, which are generally more 
  independent than those of other clans. Nonetheless, some clanwide structure does exist. In 
  addition to the Primogen in any Mekhet-heavy city, the Shadows often give more deference 
  to a Priscus in clan affairs than do members of other clans, particularly if a Priscus has earned 
  a reputation for wisdom.
  
  chapter two: character
  144
  STEREOTYPES
  Daeva: They thoughtlessly despoil what they once were, and shamelessly mock what 
  they’ve become.
  Gangrel: Noble in their own way, but sadly disconnected from their roots.
  Nosferatu: Brothers in darkness — but beware sibling rivalries.
  Ventrue: Great company until events conspire to put one of you in an elevated position, 
  at which point they quickly grow intolerable.
  ———————————————————————————————————————
  Lupines: I suspect there is more to them than the savagery we witness from afar.
  Mages: Some secrets the Kindred should not know, yet the mages wield them with 
  such grace.
  Mortals: See them for what they are: the source of our sustenance and the bane of 
  our existence.
  Bloodlines: Agonistes (Mediterranean historians and philosophers who seek to record and 
  retain the knowledge Kindred lose over time and in torpor); Mnemosyne (fervent vampires 
  who possess the ability to share memories and experiences through blood ties); the Morbus 
  lineage of European origin that suffers the Requiem with tainted Vitae; Norvegi (an inbred, 
  degenerate cult of spies and thieves); Sangiovanni (Venetian necromancers who maintain a 
  tight family structure that Embraces exclusively from its own mortal stock).
  Concepts: Antiquities scholar, assassin, Casanova, diplomat, enforcer, fence, ghetto Harpy, 
  pilgrim, policeman, power behind the praxis, seer
  Quote: Sure, I can ﬁ nd that out for you, but you better make it worth my while. I’m sure he’d love 
  to know you were asking about him.
  
  145
  mekhet • nosferatu
  Nosferatu
  Not all curses are created equal, and even the Damned have outcasts. These are the Nos-
  feratu, the most overtly disturbing of the undead. Only sometimes able to pass as human, 
  the Haunts are horribly warped by the Embrace, either physically or… otherwise. They dwell 
  in shadows that other vampires would not dare. Even other undead fear the Nosferatu, for 
  their unsettling seemings are constant reminders that those Kindred who look mortal are 
  not. They grudgingly respect the Nosferatu as well. These blighted creatures have incredible 
  powers of stealth, terrifying strength, and they embody the monstrous destructive force that 
  every one of the Damned can muster if pushed too far. If they had their druthers, most other 
  clans would prefer never to associate with the Nosferatu at all, yet the Haunts’ inarguable 
  talents and brute force make them too dangerous to ignore. So other Kindred offer them 
  a tense hospitality, hide their unease behind wary diplomacies and pray that the Nosferatu 
  leave as soon as possible.
  Many Nosferatu conceal their loneliness and resentment behind masks of indifference. 
  They scoff in turn at those who recoil from them, belittling pretty vampires with soirées and 
  silly political games, all the while seething at their exclusion. This isolation has fostered strong 
  familial bonds among the Nosferatu. To those outside 
  their ranks, they put on a uniﬁ ed front, creating the 
  impression of a single extended network. The truth, 
  of course, is that Nosferatu squabble and compete 
  with one another as much as members of any other 
  clan — but when faced with an outside threat, they 
  close ranks.
  The Nosferatu’s inability to blend in with society 
  forces them to dwell apart, often congregating 
  in places others shun. Some ﬁ nd sanctu-
  ary in the sewers, using inﬂ uence 
  with mortal government and 
  construction, as well as their 
  own substantial strength, to 
  expand simple maintenance 
  tunnels and sluiceways into 
  vast underground warrens. 
  Others lurk in cemeteries, 
  sharing aboveground crypts 
  with sedentary occupants. 
  Still others prefer aban-
  doned homes, often giving 
  rise to neighborhood urban 
  legends of haunted houses, 
  or exist in the basements or 
  boiler rooms of modern of-
  ﬁ ce buildings. Tradition holds 
  that any Nosferatu is welcome 
  
  chapter two: character
  146
  in any warren until she provides her brethren reason to expel her. The Haunts might not all 
  get along, but they recognize their common bond — not that they have any choice, since it 
  follows their aspect like a miasma.
  Feared by and ostracized from society, many Nosferatu become as alien as their demeanor. 
  Others choose the opposite path, becoming surprisingly cultured, well mannered and well 
  spoken to compensate for their unnerving seeming. The latter are the Haunts most frequently 
  found playing politics with other Kindred. The Nosferatu are also known as purveyors of 
  information. Not only do their supernatural powers make them foes to be reckoned with, but 
  many elder Nosferatu are keepers of ancient lore, rivaling anything preserved by the Ventrue 
  or Mekhet. Sophisticated Haunts trade knowledge the way other Kindred trade favors, and 
  if a Nosferatu doesn’t know something, he can probably scare someone who does into telling 
  him. It is this trade in terror, more than anything else, that makes the Nosferatu too valuable 
  — and too dangerous — to ignore. After all, one never knows what the horrid Haunts tell 
  one’s enemies, or how many of them wait in ambush.
  Nickname: Haunts
  Covenant: The Nosferatu are everywhere. The Invictus nervously welcomes them as en-
  forcers, informants and soldiers. Those Nosferatu who obtain power in the First Estate tend 
  to extremes. They become relatively benevolent rulers, remembering what it was like to be 
  downtrodden, or they attempt to make up for the anguish they suffered by heaping it upon 
  others. Haunts who seek to understand why God has done this to them, and those penitents 
  who feel that they must atone for whatever sins drew the curse upon them, ﬁ nd solace in 
  the ranks of the Lancea Sanctum. Haunts often ﬁ nd a place among the Ordo Dracul, where 
  their disturbing bearing has little immediate effect on their achievements in the covenant 
  (and might even aid them, as it discourages casual social calls). The Carthians appeal to those 
  who are concerned with constructing a society in which everyone, no matter how unsettling, 
  has a voice. Those Nosferatu who truly suffer beneath the weight of their curse often ﬁ nd the 
  redemptive teachings of the Circle of the Crone far too tempting to resist. Even the unbound 
  attract those who accept their terrifying nature and who want to tear down the system that 
  quakes at their passing — or those who just want to get away.
  Appearance: No two Nosferatu have exactly the same air, though troubling characteristics 
  often follow patterns within “families.” Discolored leathery skin, gaping maws, rubbery skin, 
  misshapen heads, odors like grave earth, bulging eyes, queasy stares and personal habits, 
  gnarled hands, ineffable feelings of dread, sagging ﬂ esh — all these and more are the hallmarks 
  of the clan. Not every Haunt is physically deformed. Indeed, many are not, instead discomﬁ t-
  ing those who look upon them with indescribable unease. The darkness and ﬁ lth in which 
  many Nosferatu dwell make their foul miens (and fouler odors) even worse.
  Havens: Most Nosferatu dwell in places far from mortals, such as abandoned warehouses, 
  graveyards, basements and of course the ever-popular sewers and subway tunnels. That said, some 
  few Nosferatu choose to ﬂ out tradition and take their havens in penthouses, fantastic manors 
  — anyplace where they can enjoy the luxuries of wealth yet still count on substantial privacy.
  Background: Nosferatu normally choose progeny from among society’s castoffs, such as 
  the homeless, the mentally ill and criminals. Many Nosferatu Embrace out of spite, using 
  the curse to punish vanity, cruelty or other such “sins.” Assuming a sire wants a childe to 
  survive — which isn’t always the case — Haunts tend to choose self-reliant individuals who 
  might actually be able to manage their new condition. Few Nosferatu Embrace out of love 
  or affection, though even this is not unheard of. Rare but heartbreaking are the tales of a 
  Nosferatu determined to “gift” his love with the Requiem, only to ﬁ nd himself the object of 
  his beloved’s loathing when she learns what’s been done to her.
  
  147
  Character Creation: Physical and Mental Attributes are more useful to most Haunts than 
  Social. Nosferatu frequently make use of Skills such as Stealth and Survival. It’s unwise to 
  begin with too high a Blood Potency. Until a Nosferatu has obtained some experience in 
  the Requiem, he might be forced to rely on animal blood. Although Nosferatu aren’t social 
  creatures, certain Social Merits such as Contacts can be useful for gaining information from 
  inaccessible areas.
  Favored Attributes: Composure or Strength
  Clan Disciplines: Nightmare, Obfuscate, Vigor
  Weakness: All Nosferatu are repulsive or at the very least uncomfortable to be around. The 
  cause need not be a physical deformity. A palpable aura of menace, a charnel odor or the 
  undeniable manner of a predator is just as compelling as a twisted body. With regard to test 
  pools based on Presence or Manipulation Attributes in social situations, the 10-again rule 
  does not apply. This weakness does not apply to test pools that involve the Intimidation Skill, 
  or to the Composure Attribute. Appropriate roleplaying, narration, makeup or description 
  cards should be used at all times to alert other players to the Nosferatu’s disquieting looks 
  or manner.
  Organization: The Nosferatu have little formal organization, but they do tend to band 
  together in the face of outside threats. The clan is almost tribal, with differing “families” of 
  Nosferatu often sticking together or warring against one another. Clan hierarchy, such as it 
  is, is usually determined by a combination of seniority and actual merit.
  Bloodlines: Acteius; Baddacelli; Noctuku (violent cannibals who dwell near rural areas 
  and who prefer to feed on other Kindred); Yagnatia (a Russian family that claims unbroken 
  lineage from both ancient nobility and witches); Burakumin (an Asian lineage that might 
  possess necromantic powers, but information on Asian vampires is regrettably scarce even 
  by Kindred standards).
  Concepts: Bogeyman, circus freak, crude sadist, guardian angel, leg-breaker, parvenu, petty 
  thief, rat king, reclusive eccentric, snitch, sycophantic servant
  Quote: Wow, you haven’t ﬂ inched for almost two minutes. I must get prettier when you want 
  something.
  nosferatu
  STEREOTYPES
  Daeva: Got themselves fooled into thinking they can fuck the pain away.
  Gangrel: They think they understand us, because they live with the animals and might 
  some night be ugly. Just pat ’em on the head, pretend you’re grateful, and whatever 
  you do, don’t call ’em on their idiocy. You may be a creep, but your face looks better 
  on the front of your head than hanging from some animal’s claws.
  Mekhet: Moths are drawn to ﬂ ame just like shadows. Do shadows burn, too?
  Ventrue: They want to play king of the mountain? Fine. Haven’t seen one yet willing 
  to come over here and enforce his “rule.”
  ———————————————————————————————————————
  Lupines: Scarier than this? I sure fucking hope not.
  Mages: They know something… I’m just not sure I want to know what it is.
  Mortals: Yeah, it sucks having to hide from your food. Yeah, you could take any mortal 
  out without thinking about it. When you can take out a few thousand of ’em, then 
  come talk to me. Until then, keep your fucking head down.
  
  chapter two: character
  148
  Ventrue
  The Ventrue offer a very simple boast: They win. They always win.
  Other Kindred often despise the Lords, but they seldom dispute the clan’s boast. All too 
  often, a Kindred works and schemes to win some prize, only to ﬁ nd that a Ventrue owned it 
  all along. The ofﬁ cers who lead a city’s Kindred almost always include several highly placed 
  Ventrue. The Lords acknowledge no defeats, only setbacks. The clan shares a ruthless will to 
  power and the power to enforce its will.
  Their favored Disciplines account for some of their success. The Ventrue learn to com-
  mand the thoughts of other beings almost by instinct. Their mastery of lesser animals harks 
  back to nights of domains in which the Lord was a master of beasts as well as men. Although 
  they do not especially cultivate the arts of combat, they often prove remarkably hard to kill. 
  Ventrue regard their supernatural gifts, however, as merely a tool to begin the acquisition 
  of real power — the power of money, property, corporate stock, political contacts, rank in 
  Kindred society and large numbers of mortals, at every level of society, begging to lick their 
  boots and fulﬁ ll their commands.
  The Ventrue take the feudal nature of Kindred 
  society very seriously. Every sire tells her childe 
  that some people rule, and some are ruled. As 
  Lords, they should strive to place themselves 
  among the rulers. Most Ventrue neonates 
  already believed this before their Embrace. 
  Throughout the clan’s history, the Ventrue have 
  sought power in whatever forms mortals 
  offered. Kindred historians say that in 
  ancient Rome the clan Embraced senators 
  and patricians. In the Middle Ages, they 
  brought knights and churchmen into the 
  fold. As commerce became an avenue to 
  power, they cultivated merchant princes, 
  bankers and magnates. When states grew 
  more bureaucratic, the Lords Embraced 
  high-ranking civil servants. The rise of 
  organized crime brought mob bosses 
  and drug kingpins into the clan. At 
  the start of the 21st century, Ventrue 
  elders ponder the merits of Em-
  bracing scientists, engineers 
  and computer wizards. No 
  matter where in society the 
  power lies, the Ventrue 
  vow to exploit it before 
  other Kindred even know it exists.
  Nickname: Lords
  Covenant: Many Kindred see the 
  Ventrue as almost synonymous with the 
  
  149
  ventrue
  Invictus. Indeed, Ventrue tend to rise to leadership positions within that covenant. Almost 
  as many ﬁ nd a place in the Ordo Dracul, acquiring immediate power of a different stripe, 
  which the Lords ultimately turn toward the same ends. They also rise to leadership among 
  the Sanctiﬁ ed, however, and some Ventrue ﬁ nd the power they crave within the Carthians, 
  the Circle of the Crone or even amid the ranks of the unbound. Some Ventrue neonates 
  hardly bother to hide their intent to use a gang of unaligned Kindred as a stepping-stone to 
  power within another covenant.
  Appearance: Ventrue often adopt a conservative, low-key appearance that expresses high 
  status without being ﬂ ashy. Young Lords sometimes favor a “preppy” look, the timeless suit-
  and-tie uniform of business, or (for female Lords) elegant gowns or business skirt-suits, with 
  unobtrusive jewelry. Ventrue elders might keep the styles of long ago, at least in their own 
  havens, and in public they still tend to look decades out of date. Even rebellious young Ventrue 
  wear their metal-studded jackets like a uniform, asserting their dominance. A Lord surrounds 
  himself with other trappings of wealth and status, too, from the big, fancy car in the garage 
  to the wine cellar full of vintages he will never again have the opportunity to enjoy.
  Havens: If a Ventrue did not possess great wealth before the Embrace, she often becomes 
  rich afterward. Ventrue select their havens to reﬂ ect their wealth and power. Many Lords 
  dwell in mansions or actual walled estates. Few would settle for anything less than a classic 
  townhouse or penthouse apartment (with secure curtains, of course).
  Clan tradition holds that any Ventrue may claim sanctuary from the sun at any other Lord’s 
  haven and not be refused, but few Lords ever invoke this right. Not only do proud Lords hate 
  to beg another Kindred’s aid, a supplicant henceforth owes a debt of honor to the Ventrue 
  who provided refuge. Great shame would befall any Lord who denied a clanmate or who 
  could not provide a comfortable rest, however, so a prudent Ventrue makes sure his haven 
  can accommodate a Kindred guest or two.
  Background: The Ventrue most often seek childer among the ranks of professionals or the 
  cream of high society. Some Lords prefer childer from “old money” families or political dynas-
  ties, as the closest the modern world comes to feudal nobility. Other Lords prefer self-made 
  leaders such as millionaire entrepreneurs, politicians, military ofﬁ cers or even crime bosses. 
  As new professions and new forms of power arise, the Ventrue bring them into the clan. The 
  rise of the computer industry, for instance, has prompted a wave of tech-sector childer.
  Character Creation: Ventrue favor Social Attributes and Skills — the traits needed for 
  leadership — though they also value Mental Attributes and Skills such as Politics and Aca-
  demics. The clan excels at Social Merits such as Resources, Contacts and Status. Most Lords 
  possessed great social inﬂ uence in life, and they acquire more in undeath.
  Favored Attributes: Presence or Resolve 
  Clan Disciplines: Animalism, Dominate, Resilience
  Weakness: Power corrupts, and among the Ventrue, even the thirst for power can corrode 
  an ambitious Kindred’s moral bearings. Over time, some Ventrue grow paranoid, ever more 
  wary of rivals’ desires (real or imagined) for their own holdings. Others become willing to do 
  whatever it takes to acquire the smallest iota of additional power. Still others turn inward, 
  delude themselves as to their ability and importance, or trouble their minds with other mala-
  dies. Ventrue Kindred suffer a -2 penalty to Humanity draws to avoid acquiring derangements 
  after a failed degeneration series.
  Organization: The Lords track their ties of blood and obligation through an old-boy network 
  that extends across generations, bloodlines and continents. A respectable Ventrue knows 
  his fellow Lords’ ancestors, their broodmates, allies, enemies and Kindred owed and owing 
  favors (though the information might be a century out of date). Two Ventrue often compare 
  
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  lineages and acquaintances when they ﬁ rst meet. Thus do they establish their relationships 
  and status within the clan.
  The Ventrue also take clan ofﬁ ces very seriously. Ventrue Whips, Prisci and other clan 
  leaders often try to hold monthly meetings of all clanmates, regardless of covenant. The Lords 
  use these meetings as opportunities to brag, size up the competition, cut deals and chide 
  clanmates who seem to show insufﬁ cient ambition. After all, the Ventrue have a reputation 
  for steel-ﬁ sted power to uphold. One does not want other Kindred thinking that any Lord 
  might go soft.
  Bloodlines: Much of the clan consists of lineages that claim descent from famous Ventrue of 
  the distant past, such as the great Mithras. These “bloodlines” merely express pride in ancestry: 
  A Mithraic Ventrue, for instance, does not differ greatly from other Lords. Other prestigious 
  lineages include the Licinii, the Beni Murrahim and the Rötgrafen. The comparatively new 
  Malkovian lineage suffers even more debilitating madness than the parent clan. 
  Concepts: Corporate CEO, crooked cop, gang chief, military ofﬁ cer, old-time ward boss, pa-
  tron of the arts, political consultant, rave promoter, realtor, society matron, technical wizard
  Quote: Let me be clear. You will accept my offer now or later. You will like it much less later.
  STEREOTYPES
  Daeva: Our only serious rivals. Watch them as you would a deadly viper.
  Gangrel: Stray dogs with sharp teeth. Train them when you can.
  Mekhet: Acknowledge their wisdom, but be sure they know they have their place.
  Nosferatu: What was it Machiavelli said about love and fear?
  ———————————————————————————————————————
  Lupines: You can no more rule their kingdoms than you can rule a wildﬁ re. Treat them 
  with care — or avoid them if you want to see another night.
  Mages: Do not try to understand their powers. You cannot. Do not use your powers 
  upon them. Their revenge, should you fail, will be terrible. Their fears and desires, 
  however, remain human, so you can bend them to your will.
  Mortals: Rule them, use them, feed upon them without pity. They are born to serve 
  and suffer and never know why.
  
  151
  ventrue • disciplines • using disciplines
  Disciplines
  Much debate occurs over the nature of Disciplines among the Kindred community. Many 
  young vampires, as yet unfamiliar with the price that the Embrace demands of their souls, 
  see only the upside of Disciplines, thinking of them as powers they can wield over lesser 
  creatures such as mortals. Penitent vampires, as well as those of traditional or theological 
  bent, often see Disciplines as edges granted by whoever created vampires so that the terrible 
  race of the Damned can more effectively fulﬁ ll that individual’s plan. Still others consider 
  Disciplines their own ends, as with the Ordo Dracul and its proscribed but powerful Coils 
  of the Dragon.
  The truth, of course, remains as unknown as any of the answers to the Kindred condition. 
  What leaves no doubt, however, is the terrible efﬁ cacy of vampires’ powers.
  USING DISCIPLINES
  You’ll note from character creation and the clan write-ups, presented previously in this 
  chapter, that among each clan’s three “Clan Disciplines” is one that is listed for no other clan. 
  These individual powers are presented in italics in the ﬁ ve clan descriptions. For example, 
  the Daeva is the only group with Majesty listed as a clan Discipline. Meanwhile, Ventrue is 
  the only one with Dominate listed as a clan Discipline. Such special Disciplines allow mem-
  bers of each clan immediate access to a particular vampiric power. That Discipline is one of 
  the things that makes each clan unique. These capabilities are not wholly exclusive to their 
  respective clans, however. Characters of other clans can learn them through the expenditure 
  of experience points, but these specialized Disciplines are considered “out of clan” and are 
  expensive to acquire (as explained on p. 121). If a Discipline is not favored by your clan, 
  you can learn it with the help of a vampiric teacher who has that Discipline in-clan who 
  can teach up to and including his own mastery of it, with two exceptions: no teacher is ever 
  required to learn Celerity, Resilience and Vigor and no bloodline-speciﬁ c Disciplines may 
  ever be learned by anyone not belonging to that bloodline, even through diablerie. Adopting 
  a bloodline may allow access to another clan’s signature capability, as explained on p. 364. 
  And of course, there’s the option of acquiring the capabilities of another clan’s Disciplines 
  by committing diablerie on vampires of that lineage. Gaining these powers by such horriﬁ c 
  means is explained on p. 223. 
  The basic system for using a Discipline is a bit different from the standard test pool me-
  chanic. The Attribute that governs a certain power’s use is included in the system subsection 
  of the capability’s description. In conjunction with that Attribute is a speciﬁ c Skill that lends 
  ﬁ nesse or emphasis to the power. Additionally, the character’s mastery of the Discipline as 
  a whole adds points to the pool. The result is a test pool composed of three traits instead of 
  the usual two for mundane Skill or Attribute tasks. For example, the ﬁ rst Discipline power in 
  this chapter is Feral Whispers, under Animalism. The power lists Manipulation as its requisite 
  Attribute and Animal Ken as its requisite Skill. If a character has Manipulation 2, Animal 
  Ken 3 and Animalism 4, his player has a test pool of nine to determine the margin of success 
  of using Feral Whispers. The fact that Feral Whispers is a one-dot power isn’t important; the 
  character’s ultimate potential with Animalism as a whole is what’s key.
  Other information contained in the system subsection includes the following:
  • Trait costs, if any, such as Vitae or Willpower expenditures.
  
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  152
  • Bonuses or penalties to test pools based on circumstance. These lists are not exhaustive, 
  just a few commonly encountered situations that a character using the Discipline might 
  experience. As always, the Storyteller is free to modify these circumstances in any additional 
  ways he sees ﬁ t.
  • Other speciﬁ c details that need to be described in game terms.
  A character may use only those Discipline powers that are available at her level of mastery of 
  a given Discipline, and below. Therefore, a character with Dominate 3 can use the Discipline’s 
  one-, two- and three-dot powers.
  Elders speak of mighty powers becoming available once a Kindred’s Blood Potency reaches 
  a certain degree. The one- through ﬁ ve-dot powers of a given Discipline always produce the 
  listed effects, but some elders insist that once a vampire’s potential with a Discipline reaches 
  a certain point, she may break from the static incarnations of a given Discipline and manifest 
  powers with her own personality invested in them. That is, mystic wisdom suggests that there 
  is no hard-and-fast six-dot power for Auspex, for example, and that a Kindred who masters 
  Auspex at such a high level creates her own unique application. Tales of such powers are 
  unreliable, though. The nature of Blood Potency is ﬂ uid enough that what a Kindred masters 
  one night can vanish if he sinks into torpor and forgets what he once knew.
  Discipline Options
  Some Discipline descriptions include sections marked “Discipline Options,” which present 
  alternate ways of handling a particular power, whether in terms of system mechanics, game 
  ﬂ avor or some combination of the two. These should be considered optional rules. Therefore, 
  players should not assume they are in effect unless they receive appropriate conﬁ rmation. 
  The rationale behind the use for an individual Discipline option is provided in many cases, 
  in order to help indicate when Storytellers might wish to consider implementing it, as well 
  as some potential complications.
  In many instances, Discipline options are concerned less with mechanics and more with 
  ﬂ avor, giving players alternatives designed to further customize their concept and help make 
  their Kindred characters as memorable as possible. While options should be open to any 
  character who meets the requirements, players should think hard before they decide to use an 
  optional rule. Do they really want it because it’s what their character would have developed, 
  or are they after it simply because it’s new and different?
  RECONCILING LIVE-ACTION AND TABLETOP
  Troupes familiar with Vampire: The Requiem will notice some differences in 
  the Disciplines presented here and those in that volume. This is not done to 
  create dissonance, but simply to take into account the differing realities of play 
  involved in the two systems. What works very well in a tabletop setting could take 
  on completely different dimensions in live-action, while a power that functions 
  well in live-action might prove of very little help in a tabletop environment. For 
  example, in tabletop play a power that affects everyone in the room isn’t usually 
  a problem — it only affects perhaps one or two other players, if that. The rest 
  of the people in the room are created and played entirely by the Storyteller. 
  However, in live-action play that same power has a much bigger scope, since it can 
  potentially affect the roleplaying of twenty or more other players in addition to 
  any Narrator characters present. Since players’ characters are by deﬁ nition rather 
  exceptional, this could make the power a great deal more potent than it was 
  originally intended to be, and so a rules adjustment would be made to account 
  for this sort of difference.
  
  153
  Roleplaying
  Included in certain Discipline descriptions is a brief section marked “Roleplaying.” This 
  section provides players with a quick reference for any special roleplaying requirements for 
  that power: particular behaviors, speciﬁ c hand gestures or description tags, et cetera.
  Yet in no way should the absence of this section in any power’s description imply that it can 
  simply be ﬂ icked on or off like a light switch. Players are encouraged to develop all manner of 
  roleplaying quirks for their characters when they use their Disciplines, whether it’s something 
  as small as drumming their ﬁ ngers on a nearby surface to concentrate for Telepathy or as 
  obvious as shouting a war cry when activating Celerity. Doing so not only gives Disciplines 
  more ﬂ avor and makes them seem less like static game mechanics, but it also helps make 
  characters more memorable than other vampires with those same powers.
  Just be mindful of one rule: The Kindred are still vampires, not action movie characters or 
  professional wrestlers. While a vampire might hold some irreverent views about her condi-
  tion, it is extremely unlikely that any Kindred would be so gauche as to engage in vulgar, 
  nonsensical behavior.
  SUPERNATURAL CONFLICT
  It’s inevitable that the undead come in contact with the other terrifying and bizarre 
  denizens of the World of Darkness. Vampires might clash with werewolves, mages or 
  stranger things. When such contact can’t be resolved peacefully, supernatural powers 
  and capabilities can be brought to bear to decide which creature prevails.
  In this book, Disciplines are applied against mortal human beings and other 
  vampires. In those cases, the rules operate as written. There’s little question as to 
  what protection a target might have. A mortal probably has little protection other 
  than his relevant Resistance Attribute, and another vampire has the protection 
  described for the power in question. For example, a vampire who’s made the 
  target of Dominate has a contested test pool composed of Resolve + Blood Potency. 
  Meanwhile, a mortal target of Dominate has only his Resolve to apply in a contested 
  draw against a vampire’s Intelligence + Intimidation + Dominate. (After all, a mortal 
  has no Blood Potency.)
  So what happens when a vampire encounters a supernatural being and is subjected 
  to the powers that creature wields? How do the vampire’s inherent nature or 
  capabilities protect him? In cases where a contested draw is made to determine the 
  power’s effects, the vampire’s relevant Resistance Attribute + Blood Potency is drawn. 
  The Resistance Attribute is any one of the vampire’s Stamina, Resolve or Composure. 
  Stamina is used against powers that have a physical effect, Resolve is used against 
  powers that have a mental effect, and Composure is used against powers that have 
  an emotional effect.
  For example, if a mortal mage seeks to transform your vampire’s body, draw 
  Stamina + Blood Potency in a contested action to resist. If a werewolf tries to use 
  spirit magic to alter your character’s mind, draw Resolve + Blood Potency to resist. 
  If a mysterious creature seeks to strike terror into your vampire, draw Composure + 
  Blood Potency to resist.
  Otherwise, follow all the other rules that apply to the power used. The main 
  difference here is that vampires benefit from their Blood Potency in resisting 
  supernatural phenomena. 
  The Storyteller can invoke this general rule whenever he confronts your character 
  with monsters of his own creation — weird beings that might never have been 
  seen before. Or he can allow you this kind of contested draw when your chronicle 
  overlaps with The Forsaken, The Awakening or any other Mind’s Eye Theatre live-
  action Storytelling game. When the Gifts, spells or other powers from those games 
  are turned upon your character, you know that his inherent potency as a creature of 
  the night may afford him some protection.
  using disciplines
  
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  154
  Note, however, that such protection doesn’t apply when no contested draw is 
  allowed against the power in question. Say the Storyteller draws to determine the 
  effects of a witch’s spell cast on your vampire, and the rules say your character’s Resolve 
  is simply subtracted from that pool. In that case, your vampire’s Blood Potency is not 
  subtracted from the pool. Since no contested draw is involved to ﬁ ght off the power, 
  your character’s Resistance Attribute alone applies as a test pool penalty.
  Be prepared! Just as vampires get special defenses against the powers of other 
  supernatural entities, so too do those beings get extra beneﬁ ts against vampire 
  Disciplines. When Disciplines are combated with contested draws, creatures such 
  as werewolves and mages get special test pools based on their own otherworldly 
  nature. Their extra protection is addressed in The Forsaken, The Awakening and 
  other Storytelling games.
  ANIMALISM
  Although most look human, all the Kindred conceal within them a feral predator, a Beast 
  that divides all others into only two categories: threat or prey. Some Kindred feel their afﬁ n-
  ity with the animals of the world, and their connection with their own animalistic nature 
  to a greater degree than others. These Kindred often develop the Discipline of Animalism, 
  which allows them to bond with the beasts — and the Beasts — around them. They can not 
  only commune with lower creatures, but project their will upon them, forcing them to obey. 
  As the Kindred gain power, some develop the ability to join with animals or to inﬂ uence the 
  Beast lurking with their own souls or the souls of other vampires.
  Most Kindred are repellent to animals. Lesser creatures grow agitated in the presence of 
  the undead and normally ﬂ ee the scene (or, in some cases, attack the vampire in question). 
  Kindred who possess Animalism are a very different story. Animals are often attracted to 
  such Kindred, and their presence is soothing even to restless beasts.
  Unless otherwise noted, other sentient, supernatural beings such as shapechangers who 
  have animal form or who can assume animal form are not affected by Animalism. Their intel-
  ligence makes them the purview of the Dominate Discipline. Therefore, a Ventrue can try 
  to ply his will on a werewolf — even a werewolf in wolf form — by using Dominate. Similarly, 
  Animalism is useless on another vampire who assumes wolf or another bestial form. Animal-
  ism is of no avail to the vampire in regard to such intelligent beings.
  Note that any Animalism power that requires eye contact is made more difﬁ cult if the subject 
  does not stand still or is not otherwise immobilized. If the animal in question moves about, 
  the draw to initiate the relevant power suffers a -1 penalty in addition to all others listed.
  2.3 — OPTIONAL MODIFIERS FOR ANIMALISM
  Modiﬁ er 
  Situation
  +1 
  The animal is a predatory mammal (wolf, cat, insectivorous 
  bat).
  +1 
  The character is able to assume the same animal form via the 
  Protean Discipline as the creature with which he tries to commu-
  nicate (though he need not actually make the transformation).
  +1 
  The character attempts to communicate with an animal in its 
  “native tongue” by hissing, squeaking or what have you (assum-
  ing the player is willing to attempt to roleplay such actions).
  —  
  The animal is another sort of mammal, a predatory bird or a 
  large reptile (rat, owl, alligator).
  -1 
  The animal is another sort of bird or a small reptile (pigeon, 
  snake).
  -3 
  The animal is an insect or ﬁ sh.
  
  155
  Storytellers are advised to remember that due to its reliance on nonhuman targets, this 
  Discipline can be difﬁ cult to capture in live-action play. They are encouraged to work with 
  players whose characters possess this Discipline in order to make sure they feel it was a 
  worthwhile acquisition. Animalism is a very potent Discipline, but one that’s easy to lose in 
  the shufﬂ e of live-action play. Both players and Storytellers should try to strike a balance of 
  making it useful without overly favoring it.
  • FERAL WHISPERS
  The Kindred with this ability has learned to understand the lesser creatures that surround her, 
  and to speak with them and make herself understood. It is the foundation upon which all other 
  Animalism abilities are built, for there can be no obedience without understanding. The vampire 
  must initiate eye contact with the animal in question. Doing so forges a strong empathic bond 
  between Kindred and beast, allowing communication. This contact is at least partially mental. The 
  vampire may either whisper to the animal in a human language, or she may choose to hiss, bark, 
  chirp or make whatever sounds the animal might use to express itself. (Some Kindred prefer the 
  latter, feeling that it joins them more closely with the animal in question, though many others 
  deride them for it and consider the practice vulgar.) The animal, in turn, might make some sort of 
  noise while responding. The precise nature of the sound is irrelevant, as the meaning is conveyed 
  mostly via the empathic link. Most animals instinctively respond quietly when answering Feral 
  Whispers, unless the situation is a very tense or violent one. The Kindred must maintain either 
  eye contact or a constant dialogue with the animal. If she fails to do so for even a single turn, the 
  link is broken and she must reinitiate contact if she wishes to speak further.
  Because Feral Whispers requires initial eye contact, animals that cannot see cannot be affected. 
  Additionally, the simpler or less intelligent the animal is, the more difﬁ cult it is to link with it. 
  Mammals, raptors and certain large reptiles are relatively easy to communicate with; insects, 
  invertebrates and most ﬁ sh are very nearly impossible. While most uses of Feral Whispers require 
  a member of the Storytelling staff to portray the animal in question, it is also possible that Feral 
  Whispers may appear as a task card as well, representing that there are animals in the vicinity that 
  Kindred with this Discipline can communicate with in order to learn relevant information. 
  Note that while Feral Whispers makes sure that the animal communicates with the vampire, 
  it does not compel the creature to obey commands or perform tasks. Further, the nature of 
  the information conveyed by the animal depends largely on its intelligence and awareness. A 
  cat might be able to explain that a large number of humans scared it out of a nearby building, 
  but it’s unlikely to understand questions such as, “Was one of them wearing a green baseball 
  cap?” or to have any real concept of numbers. When in doubt, always assume that an animal 
  does not understand an abstract concept.
  Cost: —
  Test Pool: Manipulation + Animal Ken + Animalism
  Action: Instant
  Roleplaying: Initial eye contact and then conversation, possibly also making appropriate 
  animal noises.
  Draw Results
  Failure: Failure indicates that the character cannot communicate with the animal.
  Success: Success indicates that the character can fully communicate with the animal, to 
  whatever degree it is capable.
  •• OBEDIENCE
  Having mastered the ability to commune with beasts, the Kindred’s connection with his 
  own feral nature now allows him to command them as well. No longer need he beg, threaten 
  or cajole animals into doing his will. He demands, and they obey as best they can.
  animalism
  
  chapter two: character
  156
  The vampire must make eye contact, as with Feral Whispers, and convey to an animal 
  precisely what he wants it to do. The animal obeys to the best of its ability, but its nature and 
  intelligence might cause it to interpret its orders in unusual ways. Once it has received an 
  order, the animal carries it out, assuming it can be completed before the following sunrise. 
  At dawn, the compulsion ceases, regardless of whether the task is complete or not.
  It is extremely difﬁ cult to order an animal to do anything blatantly against its nature (such 
  as ordering a sparrow to attack someone) or obviously self-destructive (such as forcing a guard 
  dog to lie down in front of a moving truck). 
  A vampire can give single orders to only one animal at a time, but he may have as many 
  animals currently under his control as circumstances allow, as long as he can give each one 
  its orders individually. As with Feral Whispers, the Kindred may choose to give commands 
  either in plain language or by making appropriate animalistic sounds, as desired.
  At the Storyteller’s discretion, a vampire may use this Discipline during downtime to hand 
  off a downtime action to an animal servant, provided the animal is capable of performing it. 
  (A regular Discipline draw must be made to see if the command takes hold, but the result is 
  considered to apply throughout the downtime if several uses of this Discipline would be nor-
  mally required to perform the action over a number of days.) For example, the vampire could 
  call a crow to tail a target and see where he goes, but not to hack a computer network or even 
  tell him what the target says, since those tasks are not within the crow’s capability. Regardless 
  of how many servants he might possess, a vampire may not hand off more downtime actions 
  to animal servants during a single downtime period than he has dots in this Discipline. 
  Cost: — 
  Test Pool: Presence + Animal Ken + Animalism – animal’s Composure
  Action: Instant
  Roleplay: Same as Feral Whispers. 
  Obedience also requires a contested draw if the animal is already under the control of 
  another Kindred with this power (in which case Obedience successes achieved must exceed 
  those drawn for the original vampire).
  Draw Results
  Failure: Failure indicates that the character cannot command or communicate with the 
  animal.
  Success: Success indicates that the animal obeys the character’s orders to the best of its 
  abilities.
  ••• CALL OF THE WILD
  The Kindred is so fully in tune with her own Beast that she can call out in a feral voice 
  — howling, hissing, cawing or the like — that beckons all creatures of a speciﬁ c type. Any ani-
  mal of that sort within a given area is compelled to respond, immediately moving toward the 
  Kindred at its fastest possible speed, via the most direct route it can ﬁ nd. Only animals that 
  can hear the call are summoned, so creatures that have been deafened or that are insulated 
  from the sound by thick walls or other barriers do not respond. Animals that respond to the 
  Kindred’s call are not automatically under her control, but they are more easily subjected to 
  other Animalism powers. Lastly, only natural animals respond to this call — no hell hounds 
  or gargoyles (see p. 349), for example, answer it.
  Cost: 1 Vitae
  Test Pool: Presence + Animal Ken + Animalism
  Action: Instant
  Roleplaying: Calling out appropriate animal noises loudly and clearly.
  
  157
  Draw Results
  Failure: On a failure, no animals appear.
  Success: The area of the call is one suburban block, one large city building or about 100 
  paces of wilderness for every success on this draw. That is, a single success when summon-
  ing rats calls all rats within a suburban block, a single city building or roughly 100 paces of 
  wilderness. 
  Sample animal traits are provided in the Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook, p. 323.
  •••• SUBSUME THE LESSER SPIRIT
  By locking eyes with an animal, a vampire may psychically enter the creature’s body and 
  possess it as though it were his own. Some Kindred believe that doing so actually transfers the 
  vampire’s soul into the beast, though other, less mystically minded Kindred disagree. Regard-
  less, the animal’s own mind and instincts are completely subsumed, allowing the Kindred free 
  reign to take whatever actions he chooses in the creature’s body. The vampire’s own body falls 
  into a torpor-like state and appears for all intents and purposes to be a corpse. 
  Until the character returns, his body cannot be awakened by any means, though some Kin-
  dred urban legends tell of ghosts possessing such “vacant” bodies and wreaking havoc. Also, it 
  is whispered among certain circles that some vampires, addicted to the sensations of life they 
  experience while riding an animal, remain too long in that form and forget their true nature.
  Cost: 1 Vitae
  Test Pool: Manipulation + Animal Ken + Animalism versus animal’s Composure
  Action: Contested
  Roleplaying: If successful, the player must adopt suitable costuming, hand gestures or 
  description tags to indicate his animal form, as well as leave behind a card or other indicator 
  where his body lies. Additionally, some of the animal’s mannerisms may need to be adopted, 
  or even retained after the power ends.
  Draw Results
  Failure: The character loses or ties the contested action and fails to bond with the animal.
  Success: The character wins the contested action and occupies the animal’s body. He can 
  use Animalism but no other Disciplines while doing so.
  If the draw made for the character wins the contested draw and gets successes in excess of 
  the animal’s Composure dots, the character is in total control and his mind remains clear. 
  If his draw succeeds but garners a number of successes equal to or lower than the animal’s 
  Composure dots, a Willpower point must be spent for the character to take any actions contrary 
  to the animal’s instincts. Otherwise, bestial urges and impulses cloud the vampire’s mind.
  Additionally, if the player wins the contested draw but gets a number of successes equal to or 
  lower than the animal’s Composure, his character’s consciousness is so closely intertwined with 
  the beast’s that he maintains some bestial behaviors even after returning to his own body. Until 
  the player spends a total of three Willpower points speciﬁ cally to overcome this effect — the points 
  can’t, say, be spent to gain bonuses in unrelated draws — the character continues to think and 
  feel in an animalistic manner. This effect has no “hard” mechanical applications, but it should 
  be roleplayed. If the character doesn’t indulge in animalistic activity, the Storyteller should feel 
  free to either dock the character future experience points or spend Willpower automatically for 
  the character when a particularly bestial response is appropriate but not displayed.
  While possessing an animal, a character can travel as far from his own body as he wishes 
  and is unharmed by daylight, but he must still force himself to stay awake during the day (see 
  Humanity on p. 264). The vampire may choose to end the possession and return to his body 
  at any time, regardless of distance. This occurs automatically if the vampire fails to remain 
  animalism
  
  chapter two: character
  158
  awake. Any injuries inﬂ icted on the animal also affect the vampire’s body. If the animal dies 
  while the vampire is still present, the Kindred falls into torpor immediately. (Some believe 
  that the soul attempts to ﬁ nd its way back to its own body during this time.) If the Kindred’s 
  physical form is destroyed, his psyche remains trapped in the animal until he ﬁ nally fails to 
  remain awake, at which point his spirit is lost to oblivion and is unrecoverable. The vampire 
  is unaware to damage being done to his body while his spirit is inside the animal.
  It is possible, though uncommon, for a vampire to neglect his physical body long enough 
  for it to starve into torpor while he’s “out.” If a vampire’s dormant body slips or is forced 
  into torpor, the vampire’s spirit automatically returns to its body.
  ••••• LEASHING THE BEAST
  The vampire’s connection with the Beast is so powerful that she can manipulate not only 
  the lesser creatures around her, but her own Beast and that of other Kindred.
  This is not overt control, as with Obedience or the Dominate Discipline. Rather, the Kin-
  dred learns to rouse the Beast’s instincts, inspiring it — and thus the vampire within whom 
  it lurks — to behave in a certain manner. Of course, communing with the Beast is dangerous 
  even under the best of circumstances, and a few unfortunate Kindred have been destroyed 
  by their own failed attempts to manipulate others’ Beasts.
  The subject must be a vampire and must be within the character’s line of sight. (If the 
  character makes herself the subject, she need not be able to see, so she can do so even in 
  complete darkness or when otherwise blinded.) The player must decide to invoke a rage frenzy 
  or Rötschreck, or to alleviate either of them. While not required, many Kindred ﬁ nd it helpful 
  to speak to their target as well, either urging them to give in to their animal instincts or talk 
  them down from their feral state, as desired. 
  Cost: 1 Vitae
  Test Pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Animalism versus Composure + Blood Potency (to 
  affect another); Manipulation + Empathy + Animalism (to affect oneself)
  Action: Instant (to affect oneself) or Contested; resistance is reﬂ exive (to affect another)
  Draw Results
  Failure: The character fails the instant action, or loses or ties the contested action and 
  the power fails.
  Success: The instant action inspires or calms rage frenzy or Rötschreck in the character 
  herself. Or, the character gets the most successes and manipulates another’s Beast. Frenzy or 
  Rötschreck rules apply as normal for the remainder of the scene if either is induced.
  AUSPEX
  This potent Discipline grants a character superlative sensory capabilities. At the lowest levels, 
  it sharpens a Kindred’s mundane senses. As one progresses in mastery, entirely new avenues 
  of insight open up before the user. Ultimately, this is the Discipline of gleaning informa-
  tion, whether that data comes from sights and smells, from auras and patterns of energy or 
  directly from the mind of another creature. In addition, Auspex can be used to pierce the 
  veil of powers that cloud, dissemble and deceive (see the “Clash of Wills” sidebar). Indeed, 
  precious little can be kept secret from a true master of Auspex.
  Once in a while, this uncanny Discipline provides extrasensory and even precognitive visita-
  tions. Such premonitions might come as quick ﬂ ashes of imagery, overwhelming feelings of 
  empathy or even as an ominous sense of foreboding. The Kindred has absolutely no control over 
  these insights, but he can learn to interpret their signiﬁ cance given time and experience.
  Such potent sensitivity can have its drawbacks, however. When a vampire actively uses any 
  power of Auspex save the ﬁ fth (Twilight Projection), he runs the risk of his delicate senses 
  
  159
  being overwhelmed by excessive stimuli. Sudden or severe occurrences such as a gun report 
  or ﬂ ash bulb in the eyes can distract the character unless the player succeeds on a Resolve 
  draw. Failure disorients the character, making him effectively unaware of his surroundings 
  until the end of the following turn.
  CLASH OF WILLS
  Although Auspex is a potent Discipline, especially at high levels of mastery, a given 
  Kindred’s execution of it is not always ﬂ awless. Other supernatural powers and abilities 
  can cloud or contest the power of Auspex, the most common of these being Obfuscate 
  — the direct opposite of Auspex, in many ways.
  The heart of any Auspex-versus-Obfuscate contest is a clash of mighty wills, for both 
  powers stem from and rely upon the power of the Kindred mind. When a character 
  with Auspex uses his acute senses to see through another’s Obfuscate, make a contested 
  draw of Wits + Investigation + Auspex versus Resolve + Stealth + Obfuscate. Whoever 
  accumulates the most successes wins the battle of wills. Ties go to the defender, 
  usually the Obfuscate user. Most of the time, ties result in the Obfuscated character 
  remaining hidden (as the Auspex-user is the initiator), but not always. In the event 
  that a vampire uses Obfuscate right in front of a Kindred with Auspex, the hiding 
  character is the challenger, as it is he who tries to hide in plain sight.
  To activate Obfuscate, perform the appropriate test with your Storyteller. For 
  as long as you maintain that ﬁ rst invocation of Obfuscate, indicate the number 
  of successes gained on that test by the number of ﬁ ngers extended as part of the 
  invisibility symbol. Similarly, on the ﬁ rst invocation of Auspex for the purposes of 
  looking through invisibility, run the appropriate draw with your Storyteller and 
  display a number of ﬁ ngers equal to your successes in the symbol for supernatural 
  sight. When trying to see through an Obfuscated character’s invisibility, indicate your 
  Auspex successes to her; she will in turn indicate her number of Obfuscate successes. 
  Obfuscate and Auspex users cannot re-test for their powers if they are dissatisﬁ ed 
  with their number of successes: Obfuscate users test again only after dropping and 
  re-establishing Obfuscate. Auspex users must make another Auspex test every hour 
  to ﬁ nd their current number of successes. For larger games, the Storyteller running 
  the Obfuscate or Auspex test should write the number of successes gained on Auspex 
  or Obfuscate on a card for the character to ensure that no miscommunication with 
  other Storytellers takes place.
  Obfuscate is not the only supernatural ability with the potential to foil the clarity of 
  Auspex. For example, a character using the Twilight Projection power might be seen by 
  a character using the Heightened Senses power. The general rule of thumb is to apply 
  the same system, but in regard to whatever mechanic is used: Wits + Investigation + 
  Auspex is still drawn for the perceiving character, and Resolve + an appropriate Skill 
  + the Discipline in question is drawn for the defender.
  • HEIGHTENED SENSES
  When this power is activated, all of the vampire’s senses sharpen to a razor’s edge, effectively 
  doubling both the range and clarity of all stimuli received. Heightened eyesight allows the 
  vampire to perceive the most minute details of objects at great distances, while a heightened 
  sense of smell might alert a character to the presence of trace amounts of alcohol on a mortal’s 
  breath. Kindred with this power also have the option of magnifying a single sense, as opposed 
  to all ﬁ ve, in order to better block out unwanted stimuli from other sources. Note, however, 
  that the risk of sudden distraction remains, regardless of how many or how few senses are 
  currently heightened. (Note that vampires do not breathe. As such, the Kindred do not smell 
  unless they actively will themselves to do so, and thus cannot be overwhelmed suddenly by 
  smells unless they are actively smelling at the time.)
  animalism • auspex
  
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  160
  In order to avoid potential problems, players with active Heightened Senses should use the 
  standard hand signals to indicate heightened hearing, vision or other senses when they ﬁ rst 
  enter a room or meet another character, or else simply make an out-of-game announcement 
  when they raise or lower their Heightened Senses.
  Cost: —
  Test Pool: This power typically involves no draw. The player simply activates the power and 
  explains to the Storyteller what his character is doing and with which sense(s). The Storyteller 
  responds by relating whatever information can be gleaned. The only time a draw comes into 
  play for Heightened Senses is when the Storyteller wishes to permit the character a chance 
  to perceive an imminent threat. In this case, the Storyteller may allow the player to add her 
  character’s Auspex dots to a surprise draw (Wits + Composure — see the Mind’s Eye Theatre 
  rulebook, p. 48).
  Heightened Senses may also come into play with task cards marked “Heightened Senses” 
  or “Heightened Sense X” (where X is a particular sense), which allow users of this Discipline 
  a chance to glean extra information beyond what characters with lesser senses can obtain. 
  This power allows a vampire to see in pitch-black darkness.
  Roleplaying: Appropriate hand signals.
  Action: Instant
  •• AURA PERCEPTION
  With this mystic power, a vampire can open his perceptions to the psychic auras that sur-
  round all sentient creatures. Numerous and often-shifting hues and patterns compose these 
  auras, and it can take many years before a vampire becomes truly proﬁ cient at reading them 
  correctly with any degree of regularity. Although the strongest emotions predominate, almost 
  every individual has more than one color to his aura at any given time, and an observer can 
  see any number of streaks or ﬂ ashes of these other colors.
  “Psychic colors” change with the subject’s mental or emotional state, creating an ever-mov-
  ing pattern that is as unique to each person as a ﬁ ngerprint. As a rule, the more powerful the 
  emotions, the more intense the colors, but even this guideline is betrayed by any number of 
  circumstantial mitigating factors. All the same, practice makes perfect; a true master aura-
  perceiver learns to understand the signiﬁ cance of each whorl and eddy.
  Due to the peculiar nature of such creatures’ auras, this power can be used as a means of 
  detecting other supernatural entities. Vampire auras, for example, tend to be extremely pale, 
  regardless of the colors. Werewolf auras are quite the contrary, nearly frantic in their intensity. 
  Mage auras sparkle with power. Ghostly auras ﬂ icker like guttering candles.
  A table has been provided detailing the correspondences between different moods and the 
  colors of the aura, as well as the different auras of various supernatural creatures. Auspex us-
  ers are expected to learn these colors as part of using the Discipline, as well as to help others 
  answer correctly. It is recommended for ﬂ avor and atmosphere that other players learn these 
  colors whenever possible. Failing that, however, if a player does not know the proper aura 
  colors, it is certainly permissible for them to answer just by naming their emotions and/or 
  the differences in their aura, if any. 
  Cost: —
  Test Pool: Intelligence + Empathy + Auspex – subject’s Composure
  Action: Instant. Though this power is an instant action, it takes more than just a ﬂ eeting 
  glance to see the detail in an aura. A character must scrutinize her subject’s aura uninterrupted 
  for between two turns and one minute to glean information from it, though only the single, 
  immediate draw is necessary to determine if she can read it successfully.
  
  161
  Roleplaying: An uninterrupted, penetrating gaze directed at the target. The Discipline user 
  may move slowly, perform simple actions or make small talk during this time, but cannot 
  perform complicated actions or engage in very deep or meaningful conversation. 
  Draw Results
  Failure: The character can distinguish no information at all.
  Success: The character perceives a number of colors or degrees in the subject’s aura equal 
  to the number of successes obtained on the draw. The player asks the subject of the power 
  if a given color, emotion or other indicator is present in his aura. She cannot ask blanket 
  questions such as what type of supernatural the subject is or whether any negative emotions 
  are present in his aura.
  An Auspex user who observes a target with this power may also try to recognize the telltale 
  ﬂ ickers that indicate a subject is lying. This applies to outright misstatements as well as carefully 
  worded phrases, intentionally misleading for the purpose of deceit. Intelligence + Empathy + 
  Auspex is drawn versus the subject’s Composure + Blood Potency in a contested action. The 
  Auspex user recognizes the lie if the most successes are drawn for him. A separate test has to 
  be made for detecting every lie.
  auspex
  2.4 — AURA SIGNIFIERS
  Condition 
  Color
  Afraid 
  Orange
  Aggressive 
  Purple
  Angry 
  Bright Red
  Bitter 
  Brown
  Calm 
  Light Blue
  Compassionate 
  Pink
  Conservative 
  Lavender
  Depressed 
  Gray
  Desirous/Lustful 
  Deep Red
  Distrustful 
  Light Green
  Envious 
  Dark Green
  Excited 
  Violet
  Generous 
  Rose
  Happy 
  Vermilion
  Hateful 
  Black
  Idealistic 
  Yellow
  Innocent 
  White
  Lovestruck 
  Bright Blue
  Obsessed 
  Bright Green
  Sad 
  Silver
  Spiritual 
  Gold
  Suspicious 
  Dark Blue
  Confused 
  Mottled, shifting colors
  Daydreaming 
  Sharp, ﬂ ickering colors
  Diablerist 
  Black veins in aura
  Dominated/Controlled 
  Weak, muted aura
  Frenzied 
  Rapidly rippling colors
  Psychotic 
  Hypnotic, swirling colors
  Vampire 
  Aura colors are pale
  Shapeshifter 
  Intensely vibrant aura
  Ghost 
  Splotchy, intermittent aura
  Magic Use 
  Myriad sparkles in aura
  
  chapter two: character
  162
  A Kindred may only read a subject’s aura once per scene (though if successful she may observe 
  it for as long as the she concentrates in the manner described), so wise vampires observe their 
  targets for a long time while astute players learn to choose their questions very carefully. 
  Lastly, applied toward reading the mood of potential combatants, this power also grants its user a 
  bonus to Initiative equal to the number of successes drawn in activating the effect. Doing so requires 
  that the vampire speaks to or is in the proximity of intended combatants and reading them for at 
  least one turn before a ﬁ ght breaks out. That period of interaction allows the reading vampire to 
  recognize that events are about to turn violent, so he can react with advanced knowledge.
  Aura Perception attempts performed on a vampire with whom the user shares a blood tie 
  beneﬁ t from a +2 modiﬁ er (see p. 228).
  A situation may occur when the aura of a being is read that is supernaturally possessing 
  another creature, for instance a ghost or spirit who has taken over a body or a vampire who has 
  possessed someone using a Discipline. In those cases, the aura of the dominant soul who is in 
  control of the being is visible to Aura Perception – a possessed mortal would thus show up as 
  vampiric and even display diablerie stains if the possessor had committed the Amaranth.
  OPTIONAL RULE: DECEITFUL CREATURES
  In a thoroughly social environment where lies are the common currency, allowing 
  for Aura Perception to conclusive reveal a lie can be deeply problematic. Intricate 
  webs of deceit are revealed by nothing more than a test. Complex machinations 
  can be uncovered by the Prince’s goons almost effortlessly. Storytellers may use 
  this optional rule: instead of conclusively showing that the subject is lying, Aura 
  Perception merely shows ﬂ ickers of deceit in an aura. It becomes impossible to 
  clearly deduce whether the last statement was a lie, or precisely what the character 
  is trying to hide. Considering the often-paranoid nature of the Danse Macabre, 
  Aura Perception thus becomes a useful indicator of deceit rather than an infallible 
  lie detector.
  ••• THE SPIRIT’S TOUCH
  The Kindred’s powers of perception have progressed to the point that he can pick up psychic 
  impressions from objects simply by handling them for a moment or two. Such impressions 
  can tell the vampire who last held the object, when it was last held and even what was done 
  with it in the past.
  These psychic impressions typically come in the form of quick and cryptic images, and as 
  with other Auspex powers, learning how to decipher the information gleaned can be a task 
  all its own. Most impressions (and therefore, most visuals stemming from them) pertain to 
  the last person who handled the object in question, but two circumstances usually preclude 
  such a reading. First, a long-time owner or handler of the object leaves stronger impressions 
  than someone who handled it brieﬂ y, if more recently. Second, experiences associated with 
  great emotion — be it hate, passion or fear — often linger in the form of intense psychic im-
  pressions on objects. It is these impressions that likely come to the fore over anything more 
  recent or, in all likelihood, far less emotionally signiﬁ cant.
  All that is required in order to glean information from an object by using this power is 
  that the vampire turn the item over in his hands (or otherwise handle it) for a few moments, 
  during which he enters a shallow trance. This trance is the gateway through which psychic 
  snapshots arrive, and anything that prematurely disrupts the trance likely prevents any useful 
  information from being received. The character is aware of his surroundings enough that he 
  can react immediately to danger and suffers no penalty to do so, however. Needless to say, 
  
  163
  this trance is also an excellent time to contact a member of the Storytelling staff in order 
  to have them ready to answer the necessary questions derived from this power’s use. 
  Like other Auspex powers, The Spirit’s Touch may also appear as a task card attached to a 
  prop or item card, indicating that valuable information can be gained from using this power 
  on a particular in-game item. 
  Cost: — 
  Test Pool: Wits + Occult + Auspex
  Action: Instant
  Roleplaying: Light trance state. The character is dimly aware of surroundings, but he can-
  not move, speak about anything other than visions being received or use other Disciplines 
  without breaking the trance. 
  Draw Results
  Failure: Failure indicates that no impressions come through.
  Success: Success yields a sense of the previous handler or owner’s identity, as well as a 
  reliable vision or sense of the memory in question. Generally speaking, one solid fact or past 
  event is recalled per success, though this can be adjusted as the Narrator desires. 
  This power can also be used to glimpse the past of another character. The subject must be 
  touched, which could require a draw if the subject is resisting (see the Mind’s Eye Theatre 
  rulebook, p. 217). A contested draw of Wits + Occult + Auspex versus the subject’s Resolve + 
  Blood Potency is made. The subject’s draw is reﬂ exive, and he does not know that past events 
  in his existence are perceived. If the reader gets the most successes, a vision is received of the 
  subject’s past, all from the subject’s perspective. With no timeframe or criteria for the event 
  witness, the last dramatic, tense or passionate act performed or experienced by the subject is 
  glimpsed. If a speciﬁ c timeframe or event is focused on, the Auspex user’s draw suffers a -1 
  penalty for each night that has passed since the event. Therefore, witnessing a feeding that 
  the subject performed three nights before imposes a -3 penalty to the contested draw made 
  for the reading vampire.
  Draw Results
  Failure: The contested draw is lost or tied. No impressions come through.
  Success: The most successes are drawn for the reading character. A distorted and blurred 
  glimpse of the event or situation in question passes through his mind. He is left with an 
  intuitive, general understanding of what transpired.
  auspex
  2.5 — SPIRIT TOUCH MODIFIERS
  Modiﬁ er 
  Situation
  +2 
  Power is turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood 
  tie (see p. 228)
  +1 
  The character has drawn a psychic impression from the object 
  or person before.
  —  
  Recent and intense (a murder weapon used four hours ago, 
  or a murder was committed).
  -1 
  Recent but mild, or old and intense (a dusty family heirloom 
  in a chest).
  -2 
  Emotionally shallow or long forgotten (a leisure suit found at 
  a secondhand clothing store).
  -3 
  Disconnected or spiritually muted (a set of keys found several 
  weeks ago).
  -3 
  Object or person read amid a ﬁ ght or other stressful circum-
  stance.
  
  chapter two: character
  164
  2.6 — TELEPATHY MODIFIERS
  Modiﬁ er 
  Situation
  +2 
  Power is turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood 
  tie (see p. 228)
  —  
  Attempting to project a single thought/message into the 
  subject’s mind.
  -1  
  Trying to probe the subject’s surface thoughts for whatever 
  idea is there at the time.
  -1 
  Each derangement the subject possesses.
  -2 
  Digging for one piece of data about which the subject isn’t 
  currently thinking.
  -3 
  Searching for a speciﬁ c memory or event buried deep in the 
  subconscious.
  •••• TELEPATHY
  At this level of advancement of one’s extrasensory perceptions, a vampire may project his 
  consciousness into a nearby individual’s mind. Doing so creates a mental link whereby the 
  Kindred can communicate silently or even scan the surface of the target’s subconscious. 
  The user senses any thought picked up as a voice inside his own mind, and the data can 
  hardly be considered unobtrusive. Nevertheless, this power has the potential to be one of 
  the most potent of the abilities in any vampire’s mystical arsenal. With enough practice, a 
  vampiric telepath can uncover nearly any secret from any sentient being around him.
  Telepathy is most effective on the mortal mind. When used on ordinary people, the 
  character can maintain a link as long as he keeps concentrating, and as long as the mortal 
  target does not leave his line of sight for more than moment or two. Trying to breach the 
  supernatural mind, however, is a more difﬁ cult prospect. A given link is good only for 
  the moment and must be reestablished each time the character wishes to send or dig for 
  thoughts.
  Telepathic messages are assumed to use the character’s “voice” unless the player speciﬁ cally 
  chooses (and announces) that her character is communicating in a totally “neutral” tone. A 
  vampire cannot imitate another person’s “voice” telepathically. Targets of “neutral” telepathic 
  messages are aware that their mind is being contacted, but they can’t automatically identify 
  who is doing it. Note that a vampire reading a target’s mind instead of sending messages is 
  assumed to be neutral, since she is merely reading instead of communicating.
  Cost: None for a mortal; 1 Willpower for a supernatural subject unless the supernatural 
  subject is willing. To be willing, a supernatural must be aware that Telepathy is about to 
  be established.
  Test Pool: Intelligence + Socialize + Auspex – subject’s Resolve
  Action: Instant.
  Roleplaying: Telepathic communication is best simulated through passing notes marked 
  “Telepathy” or sending text messages or other already private means of communication. 
  If necessary, the player may place two ﬁ ngers to their temple, announce “Telepathic mes-
  sage, <recipient’s name>” and then ask the questions they want answered or say what they 
  want the target to receive. Regardless, all other characters present should ignore these 
  communications.
  Draw Results
  Failure: Failure results in no link being established, and the character cannot try again 
  for the remainder of the scene.
  
  165
  Success: Success allows a character to read a thought from or add a thought to the 
  subject’s mind. See the suggested modiﬁ ers list that follows for speciﬁ c applications of the 
  Telepathy power.
  Note that the player of any subject who is aware that he is being probed or “ridden” may 
  spend a Willpower point to eject the telepath. Each time the telepath sends a message, 
  the subject instantly becomes aware that the thought didn’t originate from his own mind. 
  Each time the telepath digs out a piece of data, Intelligence + Composure is drawn for the 
  subject to detect the intruder.
  Suggested Modiﬁ ers
  ••••• TWILIGHT PROJECTION
  Commonly seen as the pinnacle of Auspex achievement, this power allows a vampire to 
  project her perceptions out of her physical body. Her senses take on an existence of their 
  own, traveling the material world like a spectre. Such a form, called a “ghost body,” is im-
  mune to fatigue and physical harm, and it can ﬂ y at great speeds. Ghost bodies can even go 
  underground at will — anywhere within and below the limit of the lunar sphere.
  Cost: 1 Willpower
  Test Pool: Intelligence + Occult + Auspex
  Action: Instant
  Roleplaying: The player should use the standard hand signal for “On Another Plane 
  of Existence”, holding up one ﬁ nger to signify they exist in the same state as the restless 
  dead.
  Draw Results
  Failure: The character cannot separate her consciousness from her body, but may try 
  again at her next opportunity.
  Success: The Kindred separates her ghost body from her physical body and may venture 
  throughout the world.
  Interacting with the physical world or sprit world while using Twilight Projection is im-
  possible. The character has no substance at all, not even spiritual substance — she is merely 
  a projected consciousness. This state can be both a beneﬁ t and a drawback, in that the 
  character is unimpeded by obstacles, but is also unable to affect any threats she encounters. 
  It might come to pass that two vampires’ ghost bodies or a projected vampire and a genuine 
  ghost encounter one another. They can communicate as if they were in the real world, but 
  no sorts of physical or mystical exchanges can occur between them.
  A projected vampire’s psyche is invisible to most physical beings. A child or animal might 
  intuitively sense the vampire’s presence, or even see him. Another Kindred using Heightened 
  Senses or Aura Perception might spot the projected being by getting the most successes 
  in a Wits + Investigation + Auspex (spotter) versus Resolve + Occult + Auspex (projector) 
  contested draw. Both draws are made reﬂ exively.
  A projecting vampire’s other Disciplines do not work. Her spirit can certainly observe 
  things, but its temporal connection to the body that serves as the conduit for the Kindred’s 
  mystic curse is too tenuous for other mystical powers to manifest.
  While her consciousness roams, a vampire’s body lies in a torpor-like state on the spot 
  where she left it. As long as her ghost body is active, the character remains ignorant of 
  what’s going on around her physical body. If the body is subjected to either torpor or Final 
  Death, the projected psyche is pulled back immediately.
  A vampire’s body continues to expend Vitae nightly for the purposes of sustaining itself. 
  The player must succeed on a standard Humanity draw for the ghost body to remain awake 
  auspex
  
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  166
  during the daytime (see p. 264). The consciousness of a vampire who falls asleep returns to 
  her body and she rises the next night as normal, entirely within the physical world.
  A ghost body appears naked and with no possessions. Artifacts that are composed entirely 
  of spirit matter might be employed in this form, but no physical objects transfer over. Likewise, 
  any objects found during the wraithly endeavor cannot be manipulated or return with the 
  character when she ﬁ nally rejoins her physical body.
  A projecting vampire can potentially be barred mystically from returning to her body, or 
  she might become lost and incapable of ﬁ nding her body again. Rumors also speak of other 
  spirits that can enter a vampire’s vacant body, stranding the Kindred as a ghost body. Denied 
  her own body (or perhaps another one to possess), each night that passes for the ghost body 
  removes a dot of Blood Potency from its essence. When those dots are reduced to zero, the 
  ghost-Kindred suffers Final Death and fades into oblivion.
  Suggested Modiﬁ ers
  Typically, no modiﬁ ers are necessary, but the Storyteller may penalize the activation draw by 
  up to two in the event of a hastened projection, such as when a vampire abandons her body 
  at the moment of Final Death (after all, a ghost body is better than no body at all).
  CELERITY
  Tales and legends of vampires ascribe to them inhuman speed, the ability to move faster 
  than the eye can see, and even to appear in two places at once. While some of those ac-
  counts are exaggerated, Kindred with the Discipline of Celerity can indeed move far faster 
  than any mortal. They appear to blur into nothingness, all others moving as if in slow 
  motion in comparison.
  Note that Celerity is obviously superhuman in use. Few Princes smile upon uses of Celer-
  ity that leave too many curious mortal witnesses unaccounted for.
  Cost: 1 Vitae per turn
  Test Pool: Celerity is unlike many other Disciplines in that it is not actively drawn. Rather, 
  it provides a group of beneﬁ ts, many of which affect other draws.
  Celerity cannot be invoked more than once per turn. That is, you may not spend a second 
  Vitae and double the beneﬁ ts of Celerity in a given turn, though you may spend Vitae across 
  multiple turns to enjoy the beneﬁ ts over those turns in a continuous burst of speed.
  In turns when a character activates her Celerity, her dots in the Discipline are sub-
  tracted from any and all attacking characters’ test pools to affect a character physically, as 
  the vampire moves much more quickly than normal and is harder to hit. This penalty to 
  attackers’ pools applies in addition to any armor the Celerity-using character has, as well 
  as to Defense (though note, like armor, Celerity’s beneﬁ ts do not diminish based on how 
  many attacks the character faces). Celerity’s protection even applies against ﬁ rearms. For 
  example, if a character has Celerity 3 and activates the Discipline, a –3 penalty is applied 
  to any assailants’ test pools.
  Celerity also adds to a character’s Initiative during the turn in which it is active. The 
  aforementioned character with Celerity 3 and Initiative 5 would have a basic Initiative 
  modiﬁ er of 8 during turns in which his Celerity is active.
  Finally, Celerity acts as a modiﬁ er to a character’s Speed while it is active. His Acting 
  Speed increases by one step for each dot of Celerity he possesses. Should a character choose 
  only to run for his turn, he may add his Celerity rating to his Running Speed, then double 
  that. So if a sample character with Celerity 3 has a normal Running Speed of 12, while 
  Celerity is active his Running Speed becomes 30. 
  Action: Reﬂ exive. A character may “pre-empt” her own action in a turn to activate Celerity 
  
  167
  if an opponent acts before her and the vampire wishes to call upon Celerity before the rival’s 
  action is performed. Doing so, the vampire receives Celerity’s protection bonus early in the 
  turn. Celerity’s Initiative bonus is also added immediately in the turn, potentially moving 
  the vampire’s action before her attacker’s in the Initiative roster. The vampire also gains the 
  beneﬁ t of additional Speed adjustments for the turn. If one Vitae is spent to keep Celerity 
  active into the next turn, all of these beneﬁ ts carry over. Celerity may not be invoked in a 
  turn in which a character is surprised.
  Example: Favian’s Initiative total for a ﬁ ght is 10. His opponent Joshua’s is 13. Favian wants 
  to activate Celerity in order to avoid his opponent’s attacks and react more quickly. The Discipline 
  can be activated on 13 in the Initiative roster as a reﬂ exive action. Favian has Celerity 2, so attacks 
  staged against him automatically suffer a -2 penalty throughout the turn, in addition to penalties 
  from her Defense and any armor he’s wearing. His Initiative for the turn also increases by two, to 12. 
  That doesn’t allow him to act before Joshua, but he is right on his heels.
  If a vampire doesn’t activate Celerity until his stage of the Initiative roster in a turn, previ-
  ous actions taken by others that turn aren’t invalidated. (They aren’t re-done because the 
  vampire suddenly has a higher standing in the roster.) By activating Celerity “late” in the 
  turn, the vampire forfeits his Initiative bonus that turn. The vampire also gains Celerity’s 
  protection only against attacks that come after his place in the Initiative roster for the turn. 
  If Celerity is kept active into the next turn, the vampire’s Initiative bonus and full protec-
  tion applies throughout. Celerity grants its user the ability to invoke the fair-escape clause; 
  only a creature with more Celerity or comparable supernatural speed can prevent such a 
  declaration of fair-escape. If a character with supernatural speed has to be evaded to get 
  to the only available exit, the escapee requires more supernatural speed than the ‘blocker’ 
  since he needs to go around him. It’s not possible to declare fair-escape using Celerity if the 
  only exit is completely blocked: it usually takes two normal-sized characters to fully block a 
  doorway in this fashion, since Celerity would otherwise allow the ﬂ eeing character to swiftly 
  wriggle by a slow single blocker. In combat turns, resolve movement of steps as normal and 
  invoke Celerity fair-escape depending on your positioning in respect to any blockers.
  DOMINATE
  Some Kindred are capable of overwhelming the minds of others with their own force of 
  will, inﬂ uencing actions and even thoughts. Use of Dominate requires a character to capture 
  a victim’s gaze. Therefore, the Discipline can be used on only one subject at a time, and is 
  useless if eye contact is not possible.
  Dominate does not grant the ability to make oneself understood or to communicate 
  mentally. Commands must be issued verbally, though certain very simple commands (such 
  as “Get out!” indicated with a pointed ﬁ nger and a forceful expression) may be conveyed by 
  signs at the Storyteller’s discretion. Telepathic communication does not function to issue 
  commands. No matter how powerful a vampire is, she cannot force her victim to obey if 
  she cannot make herself understood — if, for example, the victim doesn’t speak the same 
  language, she cannot hear or the orders simply make no sense.
  Note that victims of Dominate might realize what’s been done to them. That is, they 
  do not automatically sense that they are being controlled, but they might subsequently 
  wonder why they suddenly acted as they did. Wise Kindred, especially those familiar with 
  Dominate, are likely to ﬁ gure it out very quickly, and few vampires take kindly to being 
  manipulated in such a fashion. Most Kindred who develop Dominate are forceful, control-
  ling personalities, and they can make an unsavory reputation for themselves if they use this 
  Discipline wantonly.
  celerity • dominate
  
  chapter two: character
  168
  This is especially true if the user is 
  seen as relying on Dominate too heav-
  ily, as it indicates a weakness of char-
  acter — and the Kindred are nothing if 
  not quick to exploit weakness. Routine 
  Dominate users must therefore either 
  develop a very light touch with other 
  vampires, or conversely be in a posi-
  tion of such overwhelming power or 
  authority that other Kindred cannot 
  voice their complaints openly.
  Dominate is far more effective 
  against mortals than it is against other 
  Kindred. Most Dominate abilities de-
  scribed here allow the victim to struggle 
  against the effects; that is, a contested 
  draw is made against the Dominator’s 
  player. As no mortal has Blood Po-
  tency, the vast majority of humans are 
  at a serious disadvantage when dealing 
  with the Discipline. 
  Dominate is also more effective 
  against those whom the user has 
  subjected to a Vinculum. A regnant 
  may use Dominate powers (with the 
  exception of Conditioning) on a thrall 
  without the need for eye contact. The 
  thrall merely has to hear the regnant’s 
  voice.
  Other sentient, supernatural beings 
  such as shapechangers who have ani-
  mal form or who can assume animal 
  form are affected by Dominate rather 
  than by Animalism. Therefore, a vam-
  pire can try to ply his will on a werewolf 
  — even a werewolf in wolf form — by 
  using Dominate. Similarly, Animalism 
  is useless against another vampire who 
  assumes wolf or another bestial form. 
  Animalism is of no avail to the vampire 
  in regard to such intelligent beings.
  Note that any Dominate power 
  requiring eye contact is made more 
  difﬁ cult if the subject is not standing 
  still or otherwise immobilized. If the 
  target moves about, the draw to initiate 
  the relevant power suffers a -1 penalty 
  in addition to all others listed.
  
  169
  LOOK INTO MY EYES…
  Since an entire Discipline revolves around it, but it can frequently be a rather 
  gray area in live-action roleplaying, a brief clariﬁ cation of what constitutes fair eye 
  contact deserves mention. A player must make actual eye contact with another player 
  — not look at his forehead, not stare at one of his cheeks or the bridge of his nose, 
  but actual eye contact — for any use of Dominate to occur. Only at this time can he 
  initiate a Dominate test. If he cannot make eye contact, he cannot use this Discipline. 
  What’s more, out-of-character eye contact does not count for this Discipline. Yet 
  Dominate-users can try all manner of dirty tricks in character to get other players 
  to look them in the eye, and such targets are expected to be fair and honest about 
  when they make eye contact.
  • COMMAND
  Once he has established eye contact, the vampire issues a single, one-word command 
  that must be obeyed instantly. The order must be clear and straightforward — freeze, jump, 
  run, stop, fall, cough, blink and so forth. If the command is ambiguous or confusing, the 
  subject might respond slowly or perform the task poorly. Further, commands are always 
  interpreted (within reason) in the subject’s best interests. For example, if the victim stands 
  on the edge of a roof and the character commands “Jump!” the victim might jump up and 
  down, rather than leap off the roof. Of course, the victim would probably not leap off the 
  roof even if the character could ﬁ nd a way to order it. Subjects of Command cannot be 
  made to directly harm themselves, so an obviously suicidal order such as “Die!” is ineffec-
  tive. “Sleep” and the like causes the subject to follow the order only if she does not believe 
  herself to be in any mortal danger. A character seduced by a Kindred might sleep if so 
  instructed, but one in the middle of a combat or interrogation certainly does not. In such 
  dangerous situations, the character is merely senseless for a turn. Creatures that have no 
  natural means of performing the Command, such as Kindred instructed to sleep, would 
  also be unable to act on it.
  The vampire may include the command word in a sentence, in order to conceal her use of 
  the power from others. The command itself must be stressed, and the character must make 
  eye contact precisely when that word is spoken. Observers may notice the unusual emphasis, 
  but only the most alert — and those familiar with the Discipline — are likely to realize what 
  has occurred.
  Cost: — 
  Test Pool: Intelligence + Intimidation + Dominate versus Resolve + Blood Potency
  Action: Contested; resistance is reﬂ exive
  Draw Results
  Failure: The character loses or ties the contested draw and the subject does not obey.
  Success: The character wins the contested draw by getting the most successes, and the 
  victim obeys literally and with appreciable self-preservation.
  Assuming the commanded action is one that can be carried out for some time, such as 
  “wait” or “sleep,” the subject obeys for a number of turns or minutes equal to the successes 
  obtained on the Command draw. In the event of sleep or similar states, a subject is immedi-
  ately awakened on being moved or attacked, and receives their Defense for the turn, though 
  they may not Dodge.
  If this power is turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood tie (see p. 228), a +2 
  bonus applies to the user’s draw.
  dominate • command
  
  chapter two: character
  170
  •• MESMERIZE
  The source of many legends of the vampire’s hypnotic gaze, Mesmerize allows the Kindred 
  to implant a false thought or suggestion into the subject’s subconscious mind. The power 
  requires not only eye contact but intense concentration and precise wording, so both the 
  character and the subject must be free from distraction (especially combat). The Kindred may 
  activate the imposed thought or command immediately — “Walk over here and open the 
  door” — or he may establish a stimulus that activates the suggestion at a later date — “When 
  you see a man in a blue suit with a red rose in his lapel, you will spill your drink on him.” 
  The victim must be able to understand the vampire. The Kindred need maintain eye contact 
  only as long as it takes to implant the suggestion or idea.
  Mesmerize can deliver truly complex and long-term commands, such as following someone, 
  taking notes on her activities and reporting back on the ﬁ rst of the next month. A subject 
  can have only one suggestion implanted at any given time. Mesmerism suggestions wear off 
  one month after being implanted.
  Cost: — 
  Test Pool: Intelligence + Expression + Dominate versus Resolve + Blood Potency
  Action: Contested; resistance is reﬂ exive
  If this power is turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood tie (see p. 228), a +2 
  bonus applies.
  Draw Results
  Failure: The character loses or ties the contested draw and the subject does not obey.
  Success: The character wins the contested draw by getting the most successes, and the 
  victim obeys to the best of his ability.
  This power lasts for as long as it takes the subject to carry out the required task, or until 
  the character is destroyed or enters torpor. Impossible actions such as, “Count every grain of 
  sand on this beach,” or any instructions that are obviously futile in terms of sheer magnitude 
  automatically fail to take root in the subject’s mind. Similarly, commands that are impossibly 
  broad such as, “Never disobey me,” will not work. Orders given with Mesmerism have to be 
  sufﬁ ciently narrow to be understood as a single set of instructions that can be performed in 
  a normal span of time. Mesmerism also cannot force a subject to directly harm himself, so 
  an order of “Stake yourself next week,” would fail. If, during the course of carrying out the 
  implanted suggestion, the victim realizes he puts himself in danger or acts completely contrary 
  to his normal moral code, a Resolve draw may be made to shake off the compulsion. This 
  is a contested draw. Successes drawn must exceed the number of successes obtained for the 
  dominating character when the individual was ﬁ rst mesmerized. 
  Failure: The victim must continue to carry out the command as ordered.
  Success: The victim escapes the suggestion.
  No matter how strong the dominator’s will is or how many successes he obtains, he cannot make 
  a subject harm himself directly. Any command to commit obvious suicide is ignored, although 
  commands that are likely to lead to harm — such as, “Walk into that crack house and shoot the 
  man in the red shirt” — are enforceable, subject to the aforementioned Resolve draws.
  If a vampire attempts to Mesmerize a subject who is already under the inﬂ uence of a previ-
  ously implanted directive, compare the successes drawn in the attempt against the successes 
  gained during the implantation of the ﬁ rst suggestion. If the character obtains more successes 
  than the previous Kindred, the new command may supplant the old one. If he does not, 
  the original command remains active and the new one fails to take root. In case of a tie, the 
  original command takes precedent over the new one. A vampire seeking to supplant an old 
  suggestion with a new one must also acquire successes in excess of those drawn for the subject 
  in his contested Resolve + Blood Potency draw.
  
  171
  ••• THE FORGETFUL MIND
  A vampire with this power can literally delve into a subject’s mind, stealing or reshaping memo-
  ries at whim. The power, as with all uses of Dominate, requires eye contact. The Forgetful Mind 
  does not allow for telepathic contact. Instead, the vampire acts much like a hypnotist, asking direct 
  questions to draw answers from the subject, and then describing in detail any new memories she 
  wishes to impose on the victim. Simple alterations, such as blurring brief and recent memories, 
  are easy enough (and very effective for eliminating evidence of feeding or other Masquerade 
  breaches). More comprehensive alterations, up to and including a complete reconstruction of 
  the victim’s past and even identity, are possible albeit substantially more difﬁ cult.
  The victim’s subconscious struggles to resist false implanted memories, so the degree to 
  which the vampire details new memories has direct bearing on how fully the subject assimilates 
  them. An incomplete or simplistic false memory shatters much more swiftly and easily than 
  does one with more attention to detail. For instance, “You drove home after work and had 
  a very bad evening” is not likely to hold up. Far more effective would be an account such as, 
  “You left work late, due to a last-minute change ordered by the client. You still managed to 
  get stuck in rush hour for an extra 25 minutes, and you were seriously frustrated by the time 
  you pulled off the freeway. There weren’t even any good songs on the radio. Three blocks 
  from home, a cop pulled you over for coasting through a stop sign. At least he only gave you 
  a warning, but it was still just one more hassle. The frozen dinner you microwaved was awful, 
  the TV movie starred some has-been you didn’t like, and the news was depressing. You ﬁ nally 
  turned off the TV in disgust and went to bed.”
  Truly effective use of The Forgetful Mind, then, requires substantial ﬁ nesse and patience, 
  as well as the ability to carefully and thoroughly think things through ahead of time. It’s fairly 
  simple to sift through a victim’s memories and strip out recent events without even knowing 
  precisely what happened, but doing so leaves a gap in the memory that can lead to further 
  problems. Most people aren’t comfortable realizing they’ve lost a few hours or a night’s worth 
  of memories, and they’re likely to try to ﬁ nd out what happened. Even new memories that 
  the character imposes rarely have the same strength as the originals, and they can be broken 
  or at least contradicted through investigation. For instance, a victim might not recall that she 
  was attacked by a vampire, but she might remember being bitten, chalking it up to an animal 
  attack or a spider. More vivid memories can return as snippets in dreams or be triggered by 
  an unusual olfactory stimulus or spoken phrase. The process might take weeks or even years 
  before the victim can begin to make sense of these ﬂ ashes, but even the most effective memory 
  manipulation is far from perfect — or truly permanent.
  A vampire may also use The Forgetful Mind to sense whether someone has had her memories 
  altered in this fashion, and he can sometimes use his own power to draw forth and restore 
  the original thoughts. No Kindred may use The Forgetful Mind to restore his own lost or 
  altered memories, however.
  Cost: — 
  Test Pool: Wits + Persuasion + Dominate – Resolve
  Action: Extended (1-100+ successes, based on the detail and complexity of memory; each 
  draw requires one minute of conversation with the subject)
  Draw Results
  Failure: The attempt fails.
  Success: The character makes headway toward altering a block of memories.
  Even a single success paciﬁ es the victim for the length of time it takes to complete the 
  process. Both vampire and subject must be safe and relatively composed when this power is 
  used; it cannot be used to calm someone already in combat, for example.
  dominate
  
  chapter two: character
  172
  To restore stolen or false memories, or to sense when memories have been altered, a char-
  acter must possess Dominate at a level equal to or greater than that of the vampire who ﬁ rst 
  tampered with the subject’s mind. If such is the case, the player then makes a contested draw 
  in each stage of the extended action, to be compared against the initial user’s attempt, and 
  must score more successes than the predecessor did.
  2.7 — FORGETFUL MIND MODIFIERS
  Modiﬁ er 
  Situation
  +2 
  Power is turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood 
  tie (see p. 228).
  -1 to -3 
  The character’s description of the new memories is lacking in 
  detail.
  •••• CONDITIONING
  Through constant veiled whispers, subtle hints and frequent sustained manipulation, a 
  vampire can slowly render a particular victim substantially more suggestible. Conditioning 
  is normally used only on favored or valuable servants and, over sufﬁ cient time, makes the 
  character’s efforts to Dominate a subject far easier while making it harder for any other Kin-
  dred to do so. Acquiring such complete control over even the weakest mind is no easy task, 
  however, and it normally takes weeks or even months to accomplish.
  While they are undeniably loyal, most servants subject to Conditioning lose much of their 
  ability to think for themselves, their own personalities blotted out by the will imposed on 
  them. They follow their orders literally and to the letter, rarely showing any imagination or 
  judgment, or taking the initiative to act on their own. Some Kindred have remarked that, 
  after a sufﬁ ciently lengthy period of Conditioning, their servants actually resemble the walk-
  ing dead more so than their masters.
  Mortals, thralls, other vampires and other supernatural creatures are all subject to Condi-
  tioning, if it can be performed on them over the required period of time.
  Cost: 1 Willpower per draw
  Test Pool: Wits + Subterfuge + Dominate versus Resolve + Blood Potency
  Action: Contested and Extended (6-15+ successes; each draw represents one week of mental 
  manipulation); resistance is reﬂ exive.
  Draw Results
  Failure: The character loses or ties a contested draw and the attempt fails.
  Success: The character wins a contested draw and makes progress in his efforts to suborn 
  the subject’s will.
  Conditioning does not have any mechanical effect until ﬁ ve more successes are accumulated 
  in excess of the victim’s Willpower dots. (If the subject has Willpower 6, Conditioning begins 
  to take effect once 11 successes are achieved.) Once this benchmark has been reached, all 
  future attempts by the character to use any Dominate ability (including further uses of Con-
  ditioning) on the victim receive a +1 bonus, and all attempts by other Kindred to Dominate 
  the subject suffer a -1 penalty. For every additional ﬁ ve successes that are accumulated, the 
  bonus and penalty each increase by one, to a maximum of +5 and -5. The Storyteller, not the 
  player, should keep track of the number of successes accumulated.
  Once the character’s bonus reaches +3, he no longer needs to make eye contact with the 
  Conditioning subject to use any Dominate abilities, though giving orders through artiﬁ cial 
  or impersonal means (such as by phone) imposes a -5 penalty to that particular attempt.
  
  173
  Subjects of Conditioning are oblivious to the process being inﬂ icted upon them unless 
  they also possess the power. The Storyteller may allow a victim or someone close to him a 
  Wits + Occult draw to recognize that something is wrong. If the draw fails, the process may 
  continue unaffected. If the draw succeeds, an effort may be made to interrupt the process. 
  If the Conditioning vampire is particularly careful about how suggestions and messages are 
  conveyed, the Wits + Occult draw might suffer a -1 penalty. Interrupting the process could 
  mean ﬂ eeing the vampire or restraining the subject from meeting the vampire before all the 
  required successes are accumulated.
  It is possible, albeit extremely difﬁ cult, to break a subject’s Conditioning after the required 
  successes are gathered. If the victim is completely isolated from her master for a number of 
  weeks equal to twice the master’s current Conditioning-granted bonus, the bonus drops 
  by one. For example, a subject has been Conditioned for a long time, and her master has 
  achieved a bonus of +4 to Dominate her. If she is kept completely isolated from her master 
  for eight weeks, the bonus drops to +3. Six more weeks, and it drops to +2, and so forth. 
  The subject’s own personality and creativity slowly reawakens during this period, though she 
  still experiences periods of listlessness, depression and desperation. For at least the ﬁ rst few 
  weeks, the subject most likely makes every attempt to return to her master. Until the subject 
  is completely free, it is horrifyingly easy for the vampire to reassert his dominance, as he likely 
  has at least some bonus to Dominate the individual for a long while. The Storyteller may 
  adjust these times to reﬂ ect the regularity of chapters.
  If the subject of Conditioning is also the thrall of the vampire, all successes on a Condi-
  tioning draw are doubled. So, if a vampire seeks to Condition his own ghoul, and he gets 
  three successes to her two in one draw to program the subject, he actually accumulates six 
  successes in that Conditioning session.
  If this power is turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood tie (see p. 228), a +2 
  bonus applies.
  Turning minor extras into zombie-like minions is one thing, but many players will become 
  extremely disheartened if this power is used on their characters, ﬁ nding this blank state a tedious 
  chore to roleplay. Therefore, with the consent of their Storyteller, the Dominate user may choose 
  not to turn players’ characters and important Narrator characters into zombie-like automatons; 
  rather, they become “Manchurian candidates,” who think and act normally in every way - unless 
  they are directly carrying out an order issued by their master. At those times, they do not become 
  emotionless automatons, but instead gain some measure of the master’s personality, quirks or 
  mannerisms. For each bonus point the master has accumulated on Dominate attempts, the victim 
  picks up one of her master’s notable quirks or habits, which is then actively roleplayed whenever 
  the master issue a direct order to the victim. Prominent behavioral habits to mirror include accents, 
  vocabulary, favorite expressions, distinctive laughs, common gestures, body posture, nervous habits 
  (biting one’s nails), etc. Long-term servants or those carrying out lengthy commands may even 
  unconsciously start to dress or act like the character. Indeed, heavily Conditioned targets appear 
  almost like eerie reﬂ ections of their master when carrying out applicable commands, especially to 
  anyone familiar with the controlling Kindred. If a master does not have many distinctive habits, 
  the Storyteller may instead allow a victim to heighten the portrayal of one or two existing ones 
  by degrees for each bonus point. Thus, if the only really notable quirk a Kindred has is biting his 
  nails, at a +1 bonus the target might only absently chew on them during applicable scenes, but if 
  the master Conditions his target up to a +4 bonus, the target might bite her nails savagely right 
  down to the quick, even if the master does not take that behavior so far himself.
  It is important to note that the victim is not any more aware of these habits than she would 
  be of any other Conditioning effects, and will typically dismiss them as momentary fancies 
  dominate
  
  chapter two: character
  174
  or accidents unless more compelling evidence is provided (i.e., the kind of proof normally 
  needed to help a target recognize and shake Conditioning). Unless they have been Condi-
  tioned to a truly extensive degree, players who attempt to grotesquely overplay these quirks 
  in order to send up a distress signal to their fellow coterie members or other Kindred should 
  be disciplined. After all, ultimately they should be grateful this option was used in the ﬁ rst 
  place and they got to roleplay their character rather than a bland, emotionless zombie. The 
  Dominate user must implant speciﬁ c triggers in the Conditioned mind to indicate how the 
  subject recognizes commands that must be obeyed. These usually include a safeguard that the 
  subject will always obey orders if his master appears to be in severe distress or in any immediate 
  danger. Extended time spent rummaging in the subject’s mind with Telepathy and Forgetful 
  Mind may very well unearth those triggers, revealing the extent of the manipulation.
  Given the long-term requirements for this power, it is recommended that the target, the 
  Storyteller and the Dominate user take the time involved to work together to establish what 
  quirks are notable enough to mirror, and perhaps suggestions on how to mimic them correctly. 
  Note that Conditioning should be no less effective in game terms if this option is used; only 
  the way its effect is roleplayed really changes.
  ••••• POSSESSION
  By this point, the Kindred need not rely on spoken commands and limited understanding. 
  With the mere locking of the victim’s gaze, the vampire can utterly supplant the subject’s own 
  psyche with her own, possessing the subject like a malevolent spirit.
  Once the Kindred has crushed the victim’s will, she literally takes over the body, inhabiting 
  it and controlling it as easily as she does her own. The mortal enters something of a fugue 
  state while possessed, and he is aware of events only in a dreamlike, distorted fashion. The 
  Kindred suffers the opposite effect. Her mind now resides within the victim, and her own 
  body falls into a torpor-like state, becoming indistinguishable from a true corpse. The vampire 
  may choose to break the possession and refelxively return to her body at any time, over any 
  distance, but until and unless she does so, her true physical form is utterly helpless.
  Kindred cannot possess other Kindred in this fashion, regardless of force of will or differ-
  ences in Blood Potency. Mortals alone are subject to possession, although whispers of possessed 
  Lupines and mages sometimes circulate. If such supernatural beings were to be possessed, 
  their powers would not be at the vampire’s disposal since they are completely alien to her.
  Cost: 1 Willpower
  Test Pool: Intelligence + Intimidation + Dominate versus Resolve
  Action: Contested and Extended; resistance is reﬂ exive
  Roleplaying: A description tag, costume change or other arrangement should be made to 
  indicate the body switch. Meanwhile, the character’s helpless body should be designated with 
  an item or description card for anyone who might stumble across it.
  Draw Results
  The vampire locks eyes with the victim and begins the process of utterly stripping away the 
  subject’s Willpower. The vampire must obtain a number of successes in excess of the victim’s 
  Willpower. The victim is held, trapped in this psychic struggle, as long as the vampire’s player 
  continues to win each contested draw. Each draw occupies a turn’s time.
  Failure: In any turn in which the vampire loses or ties a contested draw, the victim may 
  attempt to escape. If the vampire succeeds in restarting the process during the same scene, 
  the contest picks up from where it left off.
  Success: The character wins a contested draw and accumulates successes in her attempt to 
  exert ultimate control over her subject.
  
  175
  Once the character has exceeded the victim’s Willpower in number of successes, she may take 
  control of his body. The character may take any actions she chooses, travel as far from her own 
  body as she wishes, and is unharmed by daylight while possessing the subject, but she must still 
  force herself to stay awake during the day (see Humanity on p. 264). The vampire may choose 
  to end the possession and return to her body at any time, regardless of distance. This occurs 
  automatically if the vampire fails to remain awake. Any injuries inﬂ icted on the subject also affect 
  the vampire’s body although Kindred can’t be incapacitated through damage to a body they are 
  possessing.. If the subject dies while the vampire is still present, the Kindred falls into torpor im-
  mediately. (Some believe the soul attempts to ﬁ nd its way back to its own body during this time.) 
  If the Kindred’s physical form is destroyed, she remains trapped in the mortal body until she 
  ﬁ nally fails to remain awake, at which point her psyche is lost to oblivion and is unrecoverable. Any 
  attempt to “re-Embrace” a vampire’s spirit trapped in a host body results only in Final Death.
  When ﬁ nally freed of vampiric possession, some mortals recover almost immediately, 
  while others lie comatose or suffer trauma-induced psychoses for days or even weeks before 
  recovering.
  Because a vampire experiences everything her physical body does — tasting food, soaking up 
  the sun — many become addicted to the sensations and spend more time possessing mortals 
  than inhabiting their own bodies. It is possible, though uncommon, for a vampire to neglect 
  her physical body long enough for it to starve into torpor while she’s “out.” If a vampire’s dor-
  mant body slips or is forced into torpor, the vampire’s spirit automatically returns to its body. 
  No Disciplines or Sorcery — whether the host’s or Possessor’s — can be used in Possession; the 
  vampire takes over the host body completely, only retaining her own mental Attributes and 
  mental Merits in addition to her Mental and Social Skills. The host body retains all other traits 
  as well as any Merits that the Possessor also has himself, i.e. if the Dominate user is Ambidex-
  trous, then a possessed Ambidextrous ghoul will retain that Merit while Possessed.
  MAJESTY
  One of the most legendary powers of the undead is the ability to attract, sway and control 
  the emotions of others, especially those of mortals. Majesty is perhaps the most versatile of 
  Disciplines, for its potential uses and applications are both varied and multitudinous. The 
  more savvy the practitioner is, the more use he can get out of each of the Discipline’s powers. 
  Unlike some other Disciplines, Majesty can be used on entire crowds of targets simultane-
  ously, making it even more potent — in the right hands. The only requirement for use of most 
  Majesty powers is that any potential targets see the character. Eye contact is not required, nor 
  is the ability to hear the character (though it certainly doesn’t hurt).
  The downside to Majesty, such as is it is, is that its subjects retain their free will. Unlike 
  victims of Dominate, who follow the commands of the Kindred nearly mindlessly, those 
  acting under Majesty are simply emotionally predisposed to do whatever the power (or its 
  user) suggests. While retention of personality makes victims more useful in the long run, it 
  also means they require more care in handling than targets of Dominate. An abused victim 
  of Majesty certainly subverts or represses what his emotions suggest in order to behave in 
  the most appropriate manner. Meanwhile, subjects treated well might be persuaded to act 
  against even their own interests.
  Any mortal can resist Majesty for one turn if a Willpower point is spent and a successful 
  Composure draw is made (though the Willpower point does not add the +3 bonus to the 
  draw). This draw is reﬂ exive. If the draw fails, the Willpower point is lost and the target 
  remains under the effects of the power(s). If the draw is successful, the mortal probably 
  spends his turn of “freedom” ﬂ eeing the vampire’s proximity, lest he continue to be affected. 
  dominate • majesty
  
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  176
  Refusing to pay attention to the vampire, rather than ﬂ eeing, can allow a mortal to resist 
  the spell for a turn, but the power resumes effect if the mortal remains in the Kindred’s 
  vicinity. Vampires resist Majesty in much the same way (by spending a Willpower point), 
  but Blood Potency is added to Composure draws made for them. In addition, vampires of 
  higher Blood Potency than the character invoking Majesty are able to resist his power for 
  the entire scene with the expenditure of one Willpower point and a successful Composure 
  + Blood Potency draw. 
  Fortunately, by and large the Kindred who choose to develop their Majesty abilities are 
  those who recognize that one achieves more with honey than with vinegar. Those who swear 
  by Majesty often ﬁ nd Dominate, seen as “the ﬂ ip side of Majesty,” to be both boorish and 
  crass, and they would swear to calling upon it only in times of dire need.
  • AWE
  This power makes the user seem exponentially more charismatic and magnetic than he 
  normally is. The force of his personality issues forth in waves, drawing people to him like 
  moths to a ﬂ ame. Perhaps the greatest use for Awe is its ability to facilitate public speaking or 
  debate. Whatever the vampire says, people are likely to lend serious credence to his position 
  and views, and even the staunchest opponents gladly hear him out. Awe can often turn the 
  tide in a tense negotiation, tipping the scales from “potentially” to “deﬁ nitely.”
  As with other Majesty powers, Awe ceases to be useful when more pressing matters come 
  to the fore. Personal safety always takes precedence, and any serious commotion pulls even 
  the most rapt listener from his reverie of attention. Those subjected to the character’s stature 
  likely remember how good they felt around him, and tailor future reactions accordingly.
  Cost: — 
  Test Pool: Presence + Expression + Majesty
  Action: Instant
  Roleplaying: To properly indicate this power’s use, the player should announce “Awe” at 
  the beginning of a speech or scene where she intends to use this power, and quickly count 
  the number of targets. Any nearby onlooker is a potential target. 
  Targets of Awe should pay attention to the user, listen closely to what he says and laugh 
  at his jokes for the duration of the conversation in which Awe was successfully used against 
  them. For the rest of the night, they should pay some special attention to the Kindred but 
  need not fawn over him.
  Draw Results
  Failure: The character’s supernatural charisma fails to take hold. The Kindred may not 
  target these subjects with Awe again until the next scene.
  Success: The character succeeds in dazzling his intended audience with his overwhelming 
  charisma. For the rest of the night, any social tests he engages in with the Awed subject gain 
  a bonus equal to the number of successes drawn to activate the power. This bonus applies 
  only to mundane social tests — say to intimidate, seduce or persuade the target. Disciplines 
  and other supernatural abilities that use Social traits in their test pools gain no beneﬁ t from 
  Awe. Once successfully Awed, a target is immune to further attempts from the same Kindred 
  for the rest of the evening.
  The user must Awe whoever is present (see the modiﬁ ers table, below). He cannot single 
  out an individual subject in a crowd, but must simply “turn on the charm” for all. If a 
  crowd of observers includes persons who are immune to the Kindred’s use of Awe, these 
  people still count toward the size of the crowd (for purposes of the modiﬁ ers). The power 
  simply has no effect on them.
  
  177
   majesty
  •• REVELATION
  The allure and reassurance of a Kindred with this power is enough to make others forgo 
  caution and share their innermost feelings and secrets. A few complimentary or compas-
  sionate words or a heartfelt look from the vampire can break down a person’s prudence and 
  fear, inspiring a desire to share deep feelings or dark secrets in an upwelling of affection or 
  release. This power can only be used in fairly intimate situations. A target could not be made 
  to confess in front of an entire room full of people, but would very easily spill his guts to a 
  small group in a secluded corner booth. 
  A target must be engaged in some kind of voluntary social contact with the vampire for 
  this Discipline to be effective. While it might cause an evasive target to speak more plainly 
  about a certain subject, it cannot wring a confession out of a target who’s deliberately avoid-
  ing conversation or staying silent. Of course, the vampire may still use her natural talents or 
  other Disciplines to try to draw a target into conversation so she can invoke this power, but 
  that’s another matter entirely.
  Cost: 1 Vitae
  Test Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion + Majesty versus subject’s Composure + Blood 
  Potency
  Action: Contested; resistance is reﬂ exive.
  Draw Results
  Failure: The character loses or ties the contested draw. He may try again later. 
  Success: The vampire wins the contested draw  and the subject bares his soul. One major 
  fact is revealed per success gained.
  2.8 — AWE MODIFIERS
  Modiﬁ er 
  Situation
  —  
  Character attempts to Awe one person
  -1 
  Character attempts to Awe two people
  -2 
  Character attempts to Awe six people
  -3 
  Character attempts to Awe 20 people
  -4 
  Character attempts to Awe a vast number of people in the 
  vampire’s immediate vicinity (an auditorium, a mob)
  2.9 — REVELATION MODIFIERS
  Modiﬁ er 
  Situation
  +3 
  The subject is a thrall to the Kindred, under a full Vinculum 
  to her.
  +3 
  The subject is already under the inﬂ uence of Entrancement.
  +2 
  The subject is already under the inﬂ uence of Awe.
  +2 
  The subject is under the second stage of a partial Vinculum 
  to the Kindred.
  +2 
  Power is turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood 
  tie (see p. 228)
  +1 
  The subject is affected by the ﬁ rst stage of a partial Vinculum 
  to the Kindred.
  -1 
  The subject is an obvious enemy.
  -2 
  The Revelation user has inﬂ icted violence upon the subject in 
  the scene.
  
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  178
  This power may only be used on a target once per scene per Revelation user.
  While a vampire can gain all manner of information he seeks by use of this power, he must be 
  prepared for a litany of confessions from a particularly guilty or tormented subject. A longtime 
  criminal might have many sins to confess, for example, only one of which is important to the 
  character using Revelation. Should the confession go on for more than a single secret, and the 
  subject turns to particularly deep, dark or dangerous secrets, a Willpower point may be spent 
  and a Composure draw made for the subject to break the spell for a turn (see p. 228). 
  The subject remembers what he confessed after the effects of the power have passed. He 
  undoubtedly can’t explain his lack of discretion, and depending on what he said he might 
  do anything in his power to compensate for his “lapse in judgment.”
  ••• ENTRANCEMENT
  This power is perhaps the closest thing that Majesty gets to serious command over the 
  thoughts of another. Its power warps the emotional state of the subject, making him a will-
  ing servant of the vampire. Subjects retain their sense of identity and free will, believing 
  that every instinct to serve and admire comes of their own volition. When the duration of 
  an Entrancement ends, however, confusion and displacement arise, often leading to mixed 
  feelings. Similar to falling out of love, re-entrancing a former “lover” is difﬁ cult at best.
  Cost: — 
  Test Pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Majesty versus subject’s Composure + Blood 
  Potency
  Action: Contested; resistance is reﬂ exive
  Draw Results
  Failure: The character loses or ties the contested draw. The Entrancement fails and the 
  subject reacts to the vampire normally.
  Success: The character wins the contested draw by getting the most successes, and brings 
  a mortal under his sway for the rest of the month. Kindred and other supernatural creatures 
  fall under his sway for a scene — at least long enough to complete a single task or set of tasks. 
  A character may be entranced by multiple people at the same time; if conﬂ icts occur, she 
  will follow the lead of the character with the most successes on the Entrancement draw, or 
  in the case of a tie, the character with the higher Blood Potency.
  When a period of effect wears off, the subject remembers everything but does not neces-
  sarily bear the vampire any ill will. After all, he has no idea that something unnatural has 
  taken place. He merely comes to the conclusion that he no longer feels the way he once did 
  for the character (even if “once” was an hour ago). At this time, he likely returns to going 
  about his own life, content with never seeing the vampire again. Typically, a vampire who 
  wishes to retain the attention of an affected subject calls upon more reliable (or stringent) 
  methods of indenturing, such as the Vinculum. Subjects will defend the character who en-
  tranced them and even perform mildly dangerous tasks if the situation appears sufﬁ ciently 
  dire to threaten the Entrancement user, but they will defend themselves and ﬂ ee if it appears 
  that they are about to die or be incapacitated themselves.
  2.10 — ENTRANCEMENT MODIFIERS
  Modiﬁ er 
  Situation
  +2 
  Power is turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood 
  tie (see p. 228)
  -3 
  The Kindred has already successfully Entranced the subject 
  within a week.
  
  179
  •••• SUMMONING
  This rather potent power allows the vampire to call any individual he knows personally 
  to his side. In short, the vampire reaches out with the force of his personality and makes 
  a colleague, acquaintance, rival or outright enemy know without doubt that he wishes that 
  person to attend him at once. There is no limit on the distance or range of this power, but 
  summoning someone halfway around the world takes time, even under the best of circum-
  stances. The subject of Summoning takes the most direct possible route to the vampire’s 
  location and intuitively knows when the vampire moves, though doesn’t necessarily know 
  the ﬁ nal destination until he gets there (it’s  a sort of direction sense).
  The summoned individual knows to whose presence he is traveling, and he may pause to 
  make necessary arrangements before departure. In other words, the compulsion is strong 
  and the subject doesn’t dilly-dally, but he is hardly a single-minded drone in his desire to 
  reach the vampire. The subject does, however, use any resources at his disposal to see that he 
  arrives both safely and punctually.
  The call of a summoning fades with the ﬁ rst rays of the sun at dawn. Therefore, if a subject 
  is truly far away or a sufﬁ ciently fast means of transportation is not available to him, he can 
  deny the compulsion to attend the summoner at dawn. Indeed, he could return home and 
  go about his business. If the subject is predisposed toward the summoner, however, he may 
  continue the quest of his own accord. During the day, he is under his own power to ﬁ nd the 
  vampire and loses his “direction sense.” Another vampire is not compelled to seek the sum-
  moner to the very light of day, causing his Final Death. The seeker ﬁ nds shelter beforehand. 
  Unless the subject already knows where and how to reach the summoning vampire, the call 
  must be repeated each night until the subject arrives. If, as in the preceding case with the 
  resistant subject, the distance is too far or available transportation is too slow, the subject 
  might never arrive. He falls into a cycle of being drawn to and ﬂ eeing from the summoner. 
  If the subject has to travel through apparently harmful environments or into very dangerous 
  territory to reach the summoner, the summoning fades. An example would be a hunted 
   majesty
  
  chapter two: character
  180
  diablerist being summoned into a known gathering place of Kindred, or a mortal enemy of 
  the Lancea Sanctum being summoned to a visible group of sanctiﬁ ed Inquisitors.
  If a Willpower point is spent and a Composure + Blood Potency draw is made for a subject 
  to resist this power, as explained on p. 176, any success deﬁ es a summons for a whole night, 
  not just a turn or a scene.
  Cost: 1 Vitae
  Test Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion + Majesty versus subject’s Composure + Blood 
  Potency
  Action: Instant
  Draw Results
  Failure: The character loses or ties the contested draw. The subject remains unaware of 
  the Summoning, and nothing happens.
  Success: The character wins the contested draw by getting the most successes. Complete 
  success brings the subject as quickly as possible within the space of one night, without ques-
  tioning the motivations or origins of the summons.
  ••••• SOVEREIGNTY
  One of the most potent of all Kindred abilities, Sovereignty augments the power of a 
  vampire’s personal deportment to incredible levels. The newly empowered mien inspires de-
  votion, respect and fear in those who stand in the vampire’s proximity. The weak-willed (and 
  cunning) supplicate themselves for the chance to serve, and the stout of heart ﬁ nd themselves 
  at a loss to do anything but acquiesce. Sovereignty’s power inﬂ uences decisions, breaks hearts, 
  cripples conﬁ dence and shakes the ambitious to the foundations of their determination.
  The vibe the vampire gives off makes others quick to surrender, and the thought of risking 
  his displeasure quails even the heartiest souls. Raising one’s voice to a sovereign Kindred seems 
  unthinkable; aggressing upon him seems impossible. This power is a terrifying thing to behold, 
  and a difﬁ cult thing to rein in once it’s let loose. Elders are wise not to abuse it or use it too 
  ﬂ ippantly, as its power is most effective when used both sparingly and exactingly. Despite its 
  mighty prowess, Sovereignty is a ﬁ nely honed tool — a scalpel, rather than a sword.
  Cost: 1 Willpower per scene
  Test Pool: Presence + Intimidation + Majesty versus Composure + Blood Potency.
  Action: Instant to activate; contested, and reﬂ exive
  Roleplaying: The user must employ the standard hand gesture for “Imposing Presence” 
  when this power is fully active. Those under the sway of Sovereignty should roleplay awe and 
  deference toward the user. Even hated rivals show respect and cannot so much as speak ill of 
  the vampire unless they resist as outlined.
  Sovereignty is considered “always active” during scenes in which it is invoked, though it 
  may be turned off at the Kindred’s discretion. Activating the power requires an instant ac-
  tion. Its capacity is tested whenever  somebody challenges the Majesty user. When the power 
  is at its “normal” level, people can speak freely around the vampire as long as they don’t try 
  to openly defy or criticize him, though their demeanor is marked by an obvious obeisance to 
  the Kindred invoking Sovereignty. Anyone wishing to attack the vampire, however, whether 
  physically, mystically or socially, calls the user’s Sovereignty into question. A reﬂ exive and 
  contested draw is made for presiding vampire and would-be attacker.
  Note also that, unlike other uses of Majesty, Sovereignty may not be overcome with the 
  expenditure of a Willpower point and success on a Composure + Blood Potency draw (see p. 
  176). The power is defensive and overwhelming, and it must be countered by a determined 
  foe as described here.
  
  181
   majesty • nightmare
  Draw Results
  Failure: The sovereign character loses  the contested draw in which the attackers gets more 
  successes than her; attacks, Discipline uses or criticisms proceed without penalty, but the 
  attacker feels the weight of his action in every movement. 
  Success: The sovereign character wins or ties the contested draw , and the assault cannot be 
  carried out this for as long as the would-be attacker is in her presence . A subsequent attempt 
  calls for another contested draw. 
  Note that a contested draw must be made every time someone wishes to make a new attack, 
  use a Discipline or criticize the vampire who uses Sovereignty .
  The power applies against physical attacks as well as intended uses of Disciplines that could 
  harm or affect the reigning vampire negatively. Intentions to speak an ill word about or at 
  the sovereign vampire invoke the same contested draw. If the effort fails, the would-be critic 
  cannot bring himself to say what he wishes to.
  If the presiding vampire responds to aggression by physically attacking back, he breaks his 
  Sovereignty with respect to that subject alone. Use of a Discipline in a damaging or negative 
  way against a would-be aggressor also breaks the spell against that individual alone. All other 
  would-be combatants, Discipline users or naysayers must continue to overcome the reigning 
  vampire’s power if they wish to turn aggressor. If the Sovereign vampire launches an attack 
  with the obvious intent to kill (such as wielding large weapons, using claws or deadly magic, 
  or taking a paralyzed victim away with the apparent intent to destroy), close allies of the victim 
  may come to his aid defensively, but not in a manner that could severely injure, incapacitate 
  or kill the Sovereignty user.
  The sovereign vampire does not break his spell over a subject by disparaging him publicly.
  2.11 — SOVEREIGNTY MODIFIERS
  Modiﬁ er 
  Situation
  +3 
  The challenger is a thrall to the sovereign Kindred, under a 
  full Vinculum to her.
  +2 
  Power affects a vampire with whom the user has a blood tie 
  (see p. 228).
  +2 
  The challenger is under the second stage of a partial Vinculum 
  to the sovereign Kindred.
  +1 
  The challenger is affected by the ﬁ rst stage of a partial Vin-
  culum to the sovereign Kindred.
  — 
  The challenger seeks to attack the sovereign Kindred.
  NIGHTMARE
  There’s no question that one of the foremost powers of legendary vampires is the ability to 
  strike fear in the hearts of mortal men. Also born of mortal existence, other now-supernatural 
  beings are susceptible. Fear is a fact of existence that transcends any origins.
  Vampires who delve into the dark side of their being — often exploring the Beast or what it 
  means to be monstrous — invest in the Discipline of Nightmare. They learn to bare that which 
  is terrifying or unholy about their spirits, manifesting their inhumanity in their appearance 
  or letting unfortunate onlookers peer deep into the creatures’ depraved souls. The results 
  can take a jaded individual aback or subject an unsuspecting victim to a fatal physiological 
  reaction (to literally be frightened to death).
  Practitioners of Nightmare explore this route to power for different reasons. One vampire 
  might exult in his inhuman nature and enjoy lording over lessers. The Discipline offers im-
  
  chapter two: character
  182
  mediate gratiﬁ cation, and these Kindred display what is hideous about themselves to everyone, 
  hiding it only insofar as they must in order to observe the secrecy of the Traditions. Other 
  undead recognize the wisdom or even benevolence that fear affords. What better way to deal 
  with a problem or avoid a confrontation than by frightening away an opponent? How better 
  to protect someone from harm than by scaring her off? And if one seeks solitude, striking 
  fear is certainly more effective than issuing threats, trying to reason with would-be intruders 
  or orchestrating ever more elaborate means by which to hide.
  Note: All uses of Nightmare gain a +2 bonus if the individual power is turned on a vampire 
  with whom the user has a blood tie (see p. 228). Naturally, this bonus does not apply to the 
  subject’s resistance.
  • MONSTROUS COUNTENANCE
  The true face of a vampire is a frightening thing, indeed — made all the more terrifying by 
  the assistance of this entirely unsubtle Nightmare power. When a Kindred activates Monstrous 
  Countenance, he does so in conjunction with a ferocious baring of fangs and a feral, malevolent 
  hiss. This horrid display may be enough to shake the conﬁ dence of any onlooker, but the super-
  natural revelation of the vampire’s Beast terriﬁ es beyond the ﬂ esh, into the soul. The result is an 
  experience most terrible, one that can make stalwart foes cower at the vampire’s feet.
  Cost: —
  Test Pool: Presence + Intimidation + Nightmare versus subject’s Composure + Blood Potency 
  (The Nosferatu clan weakness does not apply to the Discipline user’s draw.)
  Action: Contested; resistance is reﬂ exive
  An activation draw is made for the vampire, and a reﬂ exive and contested draw is made 
  for the subject. 
  Even if witnessed by several onlookers, Monstrous Countenance can only affect a single 
  target (of the user’s choice). All others see a fearsome, but mundane display. The onlooker 
  must see the vampire in person; the character’s appearance is frightening on a television or 
  video camera, but no more so than any special effect.
  Roleplaying: Bared teeth, loud hiss.
  Subjects of Monstrous Countenance should roleplay shock and terror. They need not 
  scream and shout if that is wholly out of character, however. A hurried, nervous retreat can 
  be as effective as screaming bloody murder.
  Draw Results
  Failure: The subject’s successes exceed or tie those drawn for the vampire. The subject is 
  a bit shaken, but otherwise unaffected.
  Success: Successes drawn for the vampire exceed those drawn for the subject. The victim 
  ﬂ ees the vampire’s presence entirely, using all available means at his disposal to do so. He 
  continues ﬂ eeing for one turn per success drawn and will not come within sight of the vampire 
  for the remainder of the scene.
  •• DREAD
  While an outward, physical manifestation can strike fear in onlookers, it is an overt, blunt 
  means by which to prey upon the weak. More insidious and subtle is a general sense of unease, 
  rising panic and paranoia that a vampire can engender with this power.
  Cost: 1 Vitae
  Test Pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Nightmare versus subject’s Composure + Blood 
  Potency (The Nosferatu clan weakness does not apply to the Discipline user’s draw.)
  Action: Contested
  Roleplaying: Victims must roleplay a rising sense of anxiety coupled with fear and a slight 
  touch of paranoia. 
  
  183
  Gloom, disquiet and uncertainty creeps into the hearts of people around the vampire. 
  Anyone within three steps per Willpower dot that the vampire possesses can be affected. One 
  contested draw may be made reﬂ exively to represent a crowd of prospective victims — probably 
  mortals — based on the highest Composure among them. Players’ characters and important 
  Narrator characters should always test to resist this power individually.
  Draw Results
  Failure: Successes drawn for the subject exceed or tie those drawn for the vampire. The 
  subject feels no ill effects.
  Success: The most successes are drawn for the vampire using Dread. See the following for 
  results.
  The atmosphere of fear persists either as long as the vampire concentrates on it or until 
  the end of the scene, whichever comes ﬁ rst. If the vampire does anything else drastic such as 
  attacking someone, performing a dodge maneuver or activating another Discipline, the effects 
  of Dread cease. Record the number of successes drawn for the vampire when this power is 
  activated, and compare it to any drawn for newcomers to the power’s area of effect.
  Those who lose the contested draw suffer a -2 penalty on all actions out of an inexplicable 
  rising panic. Nor can they spend Willpower to gain the standard +3 bonus on any draws, or 
  +2 to any Resistance traits. (Willpower can be spent to activate capabilities or powers that 
  require it, however.)
  Dread cannot be used selectively on some people surrounding the user, and not on others. 
  Its effects are all or nothing. Nor can it be used more than once on any subject in a single 
  scene. The vampire must be visible and within line of sight to affect others with Dread.
  ••• EYE OF THE BEAST
  The terrifying nature of the Beast is a horriﬁ c reminder of the fundamental predator-prey di-
  chotomy of existence. Shown the Beast, another being is reduced to the most primal of instincts, 
  forgoing all reason and cunning in the face of primeval horror. The vampire makes eye contact 
  with a subject and reveals the inner core of the Kindred’s being. The Beast looks hungrily upon the 
  subject and invokes a reaction appropriate to that person’s nature. Direct eye contact is required 
  between vampire and target; looking at someone over a satellite transmission does not apply.
  Cost: 1 Vitae
  Test Pool: Presence + Empathy + Nightmare versus subject’s Composure + Blood Potency 
  (The Nosferatu clan weakness does not apply to the Discipline user’s draw.)
  Action: Contested; resistance is reﬂ exive
  Roleplaying: Eye contact
  Draw Results
  Failure: Successes drawn for the subject exceed or tie those drawn for the vampire. The 
  onlooker is taken aback, but no effect is triggered.
  Success: The most successes are drawn for the vampire against a mortal. The victim is 
  paralyzed with fear, incapable of moving or taking any action. If the victim is attacked or 
  targeted with offensive Disciplines, his Defense applies that turn and he may act normally 
  in the next turn and thereafter, but he must dedicate all his efforts to escaping the vampire’s 
  proximity. Therefore, he doesn’t take time to attack anyone unless doing so is necessary to 
  escaping. Unmolested, a mortal remains paralyzed as long as the vampire remains in his 
  presence. If the spell is broken with an attack, the victim spends the remainder of the scene 
  trying to ﬂ ee the creature.
  Alternatively, the most successes are drawn for the character against another vampire or 
  another supernatural being that is capable of frenzy. The victim must ﬂ ee the vampire for 
  the remainder of the scene as per the frenzy rules (see p. 253). Another vampire is subject to 
  nightmare
  
  chapter two: character
  184
  Rötschreck, for example. In this case, if successes drawn for the subject tie those drawn for the 
  character, the subject simply frenzies for the remainder of the turn without ﬂ eeing, attacking 
  anyone near him. That might include the user of Eye of the Beast. Fleeing vampires are capable 
  of using mundane and supernatural means of defense, such as Obfuscate or Sovereignty.
  •••• SHATTER THE MIND
  No description can be given to this level of Nightmare mastery other than inhumane bru-
  tality. And yet, the power is horribly insidious for affecting only a victim’s mind, leaving the 
  body untouched. The vampire confronts a subject with her greatest fear, driving her mad.
  Cost: 1 Willpower
  Test Pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Nightmare versus subject’s Composure + Blood 
  Potency (The Nosferatu clan weakness does not apply to the Discipline user’s draw.)
  Action: Contested; resistance is reﬂ exive
  Roleplaying: Target must roleplay suffering intense personal fears, as well as the behavior 
  required by a new or more severe derangement. 
  Draw Results
  Failure: Successes drawn for the subject exceed or tie those drawn for the vampire. There 
  is no effect.
  Success: The most successes are drawn for the user of the power. The victim loses her next 
  action (aside from reﬂ exive actions) as she reels from the vision with which she is confronted. 
  Her Defense still applies, but she cannot perform a dodge maneuver. All other actions for the 
  remainder of the scene incur a –1 penalty, and she loses one Willpower point. The victim is 
  subject to a mild derangement (see the Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook, p. 110) for a number 
  of weeks equal to the successes drawn for the Discipline user. If the victim already has a mild 
  derangement, the Storyteller can upgrade it to a severe one for the power’s duration.
  The Storyteller decides what the derangement is, based on the subject’s worst fear (related 
  in private). A subject afraid of losing control might manifest Hysteria, for example, while a 
  Kindred who fears being outmaneuvered by his enemies might display Paranoia. Note that 
  the user does not necessarily know what the subject’s worst fear actually is, unless the victim’s 
  speech or behavior somehow gives it away.
  By use of this power, a vampire actually inﬂ icts no physical harm upon the subject. He simply 
  awakens her thoughts to the most horriﬁ c thing that she can imagine befalling her, and her 
  subconscious mind proceeds from there. The victim imagines that a doomed fate befalls her, 
  regardless of how implausible or nonsensical it might be under the circumstances — drowning 
  while walking down a city street, for example. And yet, she imagines and is convinced that 
  the situation occurs all the same.
  Once used successfully on a victim, Shatter the Mind cannot be applied against her again 
  for the rest of the night by anyone .
  ••••• MORTAL FEAR
  At this point, the vampire is able to inspire fear as a weapon unto itself. A victim is so 
  thoroughly and intensely frightened by the vampire that he suffers physical damage. He ages 
  prematurely, his hair turns white and his heart stops temporarily — or permanently. Even other 
  vampires can be affected. They’re reminded of what fear meant back during their breathing 
  days, no matter how long ago those days might have been. The subject must be able to see 
  the vampire employing this power for it to take effect.
  Cost: 1 Willpower
  Test Pool: Presence + Intimidation + Nightmare – Composure (The Nosferatu clan weak-
  ness does not apply to the Discipline user’s draw.)
  
  185
  Action: Instant
  Roleplaying: Targets should roleplay fear-induced pain, and possibly adopt new makeup 
  or description cards to indicate the change in their appearance as their hair turns white, 
  premature wrinkles appear, et cetera. 
  Draw Results
  Failure: No successes are achieved. While the subject is taken aback, he suffers no pain 
  or other effects.
  Success: Each success inﬂ icts a point of lethal damage on a living being, whether mortal 
  or supernatural in nature, including ghouls. Each success costs another vampire a Willpower 
  point. 
  The power can be used on only one target at a time. A crowd of onlookers may see the 
  activating vampire, but he wracks the body and soul of only one of those people. Other 
  onlookers see nothing particularly frightening. Once used successfully on a victim, Mortal 
  Fear cannot be applied against him again in that scene by any vampire.
  OBFUSCATE
  Night-dwellers, predators by nature and keepers of the Masquerade, vampires are inherently 
  (and necessarily) creatures of secrecy and stealth. From hiding minute objects to the ability to 
  appear as someone else to the power to fade from sight entirely, the Discipline of Obfuscate 
  grants the Kindred uncanny powers of concealment, stealth and deception.
  Obfuscate clouds the mind in practice. For example, a character hiding an object by using 
  this Discipline doesn’t actually make the object disappear, nor does someone using the Dis-
  cipline to hide himself truly vanish. Rather, the mind sees “around” the Obfuscated object, 
  refusing to acknowledge it, even if that requires a bit of ﬁ lling in mental blanks. To continue 
  the example, if a character Obfuscated a large sheet of plywood and tried to hide behind it 
  herself, those looking at the plywood would, indeed, see the character lurking behind it but 
  not see the plywood itself.
  The shroud of Obfuscate is very difﬁ cult to penetrate. Few Kindred or other supernatural 
  creatures can see through it, and only under the rarest of circumstances do mortals have any 
  hope. Because they operate on a less conscious and mostly instinctual level, however, animals 
  often perceive a vampire’s presence — and react with appropriate fear or hostility — even if they 
  cannot detect him with their normal senses. Similarly, children, the mentally ill and others 
  who see the world in ways not quite normal might pierce the deception at the Storyteller’s 
  discretion. They do not detect the precise location and nature of the vampire but they feel 
  anxious and uncomfortable, like an animal scenting an approaching predator.
  Some Kindred with Auspex are able to see through Obfuscate, or at least sense the presence 
  of a supernatural deception. Refer to the “Clash of Wills” sidebar on p. 159 for details how 
  you should establish Obfuscate around other vampires and how others can pierce it.
  It’s important to note that Obfuscate affects the viewer’s mind, rather than making any 
  true physical change to the vampire or other items or individuals affected. Therefore, the 
  Discipline is not effective at cloaking a character from mechanical devices. Photographs, video 
  cameras and the like record the normal blurred image that all vampires leave in such media, 
  not the assumed appearance. Obfuscate does affect any individual currently using the record-
  ing device, however, so someone videotaping an Obfuscated vampire sees the illusion when 
  looking through the lens, discovering the truth only later when he reviews the tape itself.
  Unless stated otherwise, Obfuscate powers require very little concentration to maintain once 
  invoked, and they last for the duration of a scene. Obfuscate powers cannot be layered, as each 
  individual power only has a single effect on a character or object. Even if somebody extends 
  nightmare • obfuscate
  
  chapter two: character
  186
  their Cloak to an individual who has already Cloaked himself, the second layer of invisibility 
  adds no additional successes and doesn’t need to be pierced in addition to the ﬁ rst Cloak.
  • TOUCH OF SHADOW
  This ﬁ rst power of Obfuscate allows the vampire to conceal small items, either in her grasp or on 
  her person. If she is skilled enough, even a thorough search fails to turn up a hidden object.
  A prominent card marked “Touch of Shadow X” should be attached to any item hidden 
  with this Discipline, where the X is the number of successes obtained on the test to hide 
  the item. Other information such as the user’s total dots of Obfuscate or test pool may be 
  included at the Storyteller’s discretion, to facilitate easy testing later on. Multiple uses of this 
  Discipline do not add to the number of successes required. Only the most recent use of the 
  Discipline applies. 
  Cost: — 
  Test Pool: Wits + Larceny + Obfuscate
  Action: Instant
  Draw Results
  Failure: The attempt fails. 
  Success: The character can hide a single object from sight, unless someone is actively 
  searching for that speciﬁ c item. Indeed, “speciﬁ c” is very literal here. A character looking 
  for “an Obfuscated book” does not ﬁ nd it, though she does if she’s looking for “the Ordo 
  Dracul Kogaion’s handwritten and leather-bound copy of 17th-century rituals” and has seen 
  it before.
  The player must declare which speciﬁ c item is concealed and the power must be invoked 
  separately for each item.
  If the draw succeeds, the item goes undetected. Perhaps a careful search such as a thorough 
  pat-down or close examination reveals it, along with a Wits + Composure draw, successes 
  from which must exceed those drawn for the activation of the power. As with all Obfuscate 
  abilities, a character with Auspex might be able to see through Touch of Shadow, though he 
  would still have to ﬁ nd the object normally if it were inside a pocket or otherwise physically 
  concealed from view as well. 
  Once the character does anything to draw attention to the object — such as deliberately 
  showing it to someone or using it to attack or threaten another character — Touch of Shadow 
  immediately ends. If someone successfully detects the item, he can point it out to others. A 
  Wits + Composure draw is made for each such person, and successes achieved must exceed 
  those acquired in the Wits + Larceny + Obfuscate draw made for the Discipline user. If an 
  onlooker’s successes aren’t high enough, he still doesn’t recognize the item, even when it’s 
  pointed out.
  Note that this power affects only the item in question — it is not intended to hide other 
  items as a byproduct. A character could not, for example, conceal a mailbox and then hide 
  behind it or conceal a computer and hide a stake beneath it. The mailbox or computer would 
  indeed be concealed but the character or stake would not.
  Once invoked, Touch of Shadow lasts for a scene or until ended prematurely. 
   Touch of Shadow cannot be used on well-traveled areas such as the main entrance to a 
  location, a connecting hallway that links a number of rooms throughout the play area, or 
  the only entrance to a room that a character has just entered in the same scene. In other 
  words, you can’t lure a target into a room, use Touch of Shadow on the door behind you and 
  thus trap the target in the room, because their mind knows they had to enter somehow and 
  refuses to believe the illusion. 
  
  187
  obfuscate
  2.12 — TOUCH OF SHADOW MODIFIERS
  Modiﬁ er 
  Situation
  +2 
  A tiny item, one easily concealed in the palm of a hand.
  +1 
  An item that can be hidden in a pants pocket.
  —  
  An item that can be squeezed into a pants pocket or easily 
  hidden in a jacket pocket.
  -1 
  An item that can only barely be squeezed into a large jacket 
  pocket.
  -2 
  An item that can be concealed under a jacket without too 
  obvious a bulge.
  -3 
  An item too large to be naturally hidden, but still small enough 
  to be carried .
  -4 
  An item as large as the vampire herself or just a bit bigger, 
  such as a motorcycle or a door.
  -5 
  An item bigger than the vampire herself, such as a car or large 
  shipping crate, but smaller than ﬁ ve times the vampire’s Size.
  A NOTE ON HIDDEN OBJECTS
  Touch of Shadow can provoke some pretty bizarre arguments in a live-action game 
  session. Should it become a question, troupe members should remember that it does 
  not make anything invisible in the sense of becoming transparent. Using Touch of 
  Shadow on a door does not mean that people will walk into it thinking the doorway 
  is open, nor do they imagine they can see into the room beyond. Rather, it makes 
  things easy to overlook. A door that has Touch of Shadow used on it doesn’t literally 
  vanish, people just fail to notice it. Likewise, using Touch of Shadow on a coat and 
  then wearing the coat doesn’t conceal what else you’re wearing or carrying, nor does 
  it render you invisible by proxy.
  •• MASK OF TRANQUILITY
  The Kindred masters the art of hiding himself to such a degree that he may subvert some 
  of the stains that undeath leaves upon his soul. A vampire who knows this power can mask 
  his Kindred nature from onlookers, leaving them without the impression that the Predator’s 
  Taint inﬂ icts.
  Cost: — 
  Test Pool: Wits + Stealth + Obfuscate. This power can be activated as an Instant Action at 
  no cost at any point and is considered “always on” until sunrise or until the character enters 
  torpor. A character with this power does not trigger the Predator’s Taint (see p. 237). Therefore, 
  the character doesn’t appear as a vampire to other Kindred who see him. Kindred who can 
  discern auras fail to register the vampire as undead; his aura is no different from a mortal’s 
  (the colors are not pale like a normal Kindred’s). This too can be pierced with Auspex, as 
  usual. Note that this power doesn’t render the user immune to the Predator’s Taint himself, 
  he merely doesn’t cause the reaction in others. Diablerie stains can’t be hidden in this man-
  ner: the vampire merely appears to have a mortal aura with streaks in it that are remarkably 
  close to those left by diablerie or a similar vile act.
  The character may turn off this power if he wishes, but such is an all-or-nothing proposi-
  tion. He may not turn off certain aspects of this power and keep others active. Note also that 
  uses of Auspex may call this power into question — see the “Clash of Wills” sidebar on p. 159 
  for details. In those cases, the Auspex user – while performing the test for Aura Perception 
  
  chapter two: character
  188
  – indicates that she wishes to use her Auspex versus Obfuscate successes to test for Mask of 
  Tranquility. The Clash of Wills test is then run as normal.
  Action: N/A
  ••• CLOAK OF NIGHT
  An essential expression of the Kindred’s secretive nature, Cloak of Night allows a vampire 
  to literally fade from sight, becoming completely invisible to observers. Though it’s easiest to 
  invoke the capability out of sight, Cloak of Night is so potent that it allows the vampire to 
  vanish even under direct observation.
  The actual process of fading away is subtle, but its effect on witnesses might not be. Mortals 
  are likely to panic and ﬂ ee the area, or to ﬁ nd some way to justify what they’ve witnessed, 
  even if it means constructing new memories of the event. (“I glanced away for a moment, 
  but when I looked back, I think I saw him leave through that back door.”) Some especially 
  weak-willed mortals might simply forget the vampire was ever present at all.
  Kindred, of course, tend to be less strongly impacted than mortals, though even an experi-
  enced and knowledgeable vampire might ﬁ nd the experience somewhat startling. Attacking 
  an individual from behind using the invisibility bestowed by such Obfuscate powers usually 
  requires the defender to test for surprise. Attacks from the front or the sides are less suscep-
  tible to require a surprise test.
  Cost: — 
  Test Pool: Intelligence + Stealth + Obfuscate
  Action: Instant
  Roleplaying: Cloaked characters should employ the standard “Invisibility” gesture from 
  the Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook: arms crossed over the chest, thumbs touching either side 
  of the neck.  
  Draw Results
  Failure: The character does not vanish at all, and knows it.
  Success: The character vanishes from sight. Mortal witnesses reconstruct the scene in their 
  memory to justify the character’s disappearance if successes achieved on the invocation draw 
  exceed their Willpower dots.
  Successful use of Cloak of Night renders the character invisible until and unless he does 
  something to draw attention (launching an attack, smashing a window, shouting a warning), 
  in which case the cloak drops.
  Hiding oneself with this power even accounts for a character inadvertently revealing 
  himself through other means. A vampire doesn’t accidentally bump into bystanders, as they 
  subconsciously move out of his way. No one hears when he steps on a squeaky ﬂ oorboard 
  unless they have somehow already pierced his Obfuscate.
  2.13 — CLOAK OF NIGHT MODIFIERS
  Modiﬁ er 
  Situation
  +1 
  Character is by himself when he activates the power.
  —  
  Character vanishes before a single witness.
  -1 
  Each witness after the ﬁ rst present when a character invokes 
  the power.
  •••• THE FAMILIAR STRANGER
  This power preys on the natural tendency of the mind to quickly categorize people based 
  on very few superﬁ cial details, allowing the Kindred to project a powerful subconscious sug-
  gestion that makes everyone he meets believe they are looking at a member of a profession 
  or social group of the vampire’s choice. Vaguely deﬁ ned identities such as “doctor” or “club 
  
  189
  kid” are easy to assume with this power, 
  but more speciﬁ c roles like “chief resident 
  of neurosurgery” or “ultra-hip Goth scene 
  queen” require a great deal more effort to 
  enact. Likewise, the features of a vampire 
  using this power become generalized as well, 
  to the point of being essentially unrecogniz-
  able to those that know her. She retains the 
  impression of any notable beauty or ugliness 
  she might possess, but her overall appear-
  ance becomes so thoroughly generic that a 
  positive identiﬁ cation is impossible. 
  This new role is projected so strongly that 
  targets actively try to accept the vampire’s 
  identity so long as it doesn’t contradict any 
  hard facts they know. For example, if the 
  vampire using a “doctor” role is confronted 
  by a veteran hospital security guard, the 
  guard won’t believe it if the vampire tells him 
  has worked there for years (since the guard 
  knows otherwise), but he will be naturally 
  inclined to buy the disguise if the vampire 
  tells him that he is a new resident or a 
  visiting physician. Likewise, a vampire who 
  assumes a “gang member” role and runs into 
  a local set won’t be able to convince them 
  he’s a member of their particular crew, but 
  he’d probably be able to pass himself off as 
  a member from another crew. 
  Indeed, the suggestion created by this 
  power is actually strong enough that it 
  allows the the vampire to use some small 
  props to reinforce her identity — for exam-
  ple, if she’s impersonating a police ofﬁ cer 
  and a mortal asks to see her identiﬁ cation, 
  assuming the power is used successfully he 
  would look at her regular driver’s license 
  and see a police badge, because that’s what 
  he’s expecting to see. However, the prop 
  used must be at least roughly similar to what 
  the target is expecting — it doesn’t conjure 
  a fake badge out of thin air, for example, 
  nor would it allow the vampire to hold up 
  a small stuffed animal and claim it was a 
  police badge. Likewise, a vampire could 
  pass off a replica or toy gun as the real thing 
  while impersonating a police ofﬁ cer, but 
  not a banana or a stick. 
  obfuscate
  
  chapter two: character
  190
  Lastly, with considerable effort a vampire may attempt to make minor alterations to her 
  features as part of assuming a role, rather than simply “blurring” them into more generic 
  ones. She may only change simple features like hair or eye color, skin tone, hairstyle, and 
  perhaps some slight voice modiﬁ cations. She cannot appear to be of the opposite gender, 
  mimic hideous Nosferatu features (unless she is already somewhat disﬁ gured herself), display 
  a signiﬁ cant shift in apparent age, or make any other major body changes. She also cannot 
  appear to radically alter her body type, so a six foot vampire cannot appear to be a small child. 
  Any such changes must be made with makeup or noted on the description tag.   
  Note: While the vampire can change her appearance, she cannot actually attempt to im-
  personate a speciﬁ c individual or voice, even if she actually resembles a target already. The 
  power ultimately relies on the tendency of individuals to make generalized assumptions about 
  other people in order to function. Convincingly imitating speciﬁ c individuals is therefore 
  completely against the power’s nature. She may end up looking or sounding vaguely similar 
  to a person, but no one with even casual knowledge of that person will be fooled, nor will 
  witnesses ever point to the original person as being the same individual they encountered if 
  they met the character in disguise. 
  Cost: — 
  Test Pool: Wits + Subterfuge + Obfuscate versus subject’s Resolve + Blood Potency to ac-
  tivate in front of another individual; Wits + Investigation + Auspex versus the user’s Resolve 
  + Stealth + Obfuscate to see through it as per Clash of Wills
  Action: Instant and Contested; resistance is reﬂ exive. The character activates The Familiar 
  Stranger as an instant action; if he acts in an unusual manner while using his new persona, other 
  characters may make reﬂ exive draws to resist as per the Clash of Wills description on p. 159.
  Roleplaying: Adopt makeup and costuming suitable for new identity, or use a description 
  tag describing the role being adopted. If tags are used, it is recommended that characters 
  using this power wear tags with a distinctive color, size or shape, to make it very clear when 
  this power is active.
  Draw Results
  Failure: The vampire loses or ties the contested action. The character’s apparent identity 
  does not change, and the vampire is aware of the failed attempt. Onlookers see the vampire 
  for who she is.
  Success: The vampire wins the contested action and is recognized as her chosen role for 
  the duration of the scene. Mortal targets will do their best to accept the vampire’s identity, 
  provided the vampire doesn’t make a major faux pas, do something wholly inappropriate for 
  their role (such as a priest beating someone up) or claim something that directly contradicts 
  facts the targets are well aware of. (“Hold on a second, ‘Father,’ there’s no Catholic church 
  on 8th street — who are you, anyway?”) Kindred and other supernatural creatures see what 
  the vampire desires, though they do not necessarily buy the role any more than that. Most 
  likely, supernaturals will simply perceive a ‘generic’ individual and give no special attention 
  to him. 
  A character can only adopt one role at a time. A character may switch roles if he desires, 
  but cannot do so in front of witnesses; she must somehow leave sight before she can change 
  her appearance again.
  A character with Auspex can potentially see through this disguise, as per the normal rules 
  for Auspex versus Obfuscate (see p. 159). 
  Once fooled, an onlooker cannot attempt to pierce the vampire’s disguise again unless he 
  does something that would betray his identity, in which case the subject performs a standard 
  Clash of Wills test.  
  
  191
  Note that a character cannot use this power as a shortcut to higher Presence by choosing a 
  role like “supermodel.” She is still considered to be limited by her own base Presence in terms 
  of how striking her overall appearance can be, though vampires with high natural Presence 
  may choose to lower their effective rating if they do not wish to attract undue attention. So 
  if a Kindred is attempting to pass as a supermodel but only has an average Presence, onlook-
  ers might think that she’s a model trying to go incognito, or perhaps that they’ve caught her 
  on an “off day.” Conversely, she might appear superﬁ cially beautiful to the eye, but up close 
  there’s something ﬂ awed about her looks or mannerisms that betrays the vampire’s true 
  Presence level underneath. 
  obfuscate
  2.14 — FAMILIAR STRANGERS MODIFIERS
  Modiﬁ er 
  Situation
  +2 
  Character is adopting a role that is well known to him (a 
  vampire with medical training passing as a doctor, a veteran 
  scenester imitating a typical local club patron).
  +2 
  Power is turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood 
  tie (see p. 228).
  -1 
  Character displays an emotion or undertakes an action not 
  entirely appropriate to the circumstances.
  -3 
  Character tries to assume a more speciﬁ c role, such as trying 
  to appear as a “homicide detective” instead of just a generic 
  “police ofﬁ cer.”
  -3 
  Character makes slight changes to his appearance, such as a 
  different hairstyle and eye color, or a slight change to skin 
  tone.
  ••••• CLOAK THE GATHERING
  A more powerful manifestation of Cloak of Night, Cloak the Gathering allows the vampire 
  to extend her powers of vanishing from the mind’s eye over others.
  Cost: — 
  Test Pool: Intelligence + Stealth + Obfuscate
  Action: Instant
  Roleplaying: Cloaked characters should employ the standard “Invisibility” gesture from 
  the Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook: arms crossed over the chest, thumbs touching either side 
  of the neck. 
  Draw Results
  Failure: The characters do not vanish at all.
  Success: The characters vanish from sight. Mortal witnesses reconstruct the scene in their 
  memory to justify the characters’ disappearance if successes achieved on the invocation draw 
  exceed their Willpower dots.
  A vampire can hide one extra individual per dot of Obfuscate she possesses, not count-
  ing herself. She may attempt to hide more, but in doing so invokes a penalty to the player’s 
  draw.
  While under the effects of this power, each individual must obey the rules of Cloak of 
  Night. That is, anyone who draws attention through loud or brash actions likely becomes 
  visible. If the Discipline user herself becomes visible for any reason, the effect fades away 
  utterly, exposing everyone involved. Vampires under the effects of Cloak the Gathering can 
  see each other, but if an individual ever leaves the immediate area of the vampire extending 
  “invisibility,” the power ceases for him. He becomes visible while the rest of the characters 
  remain hidden.
  
  chapter two: character
  192
  PROTEAN
  Easily one of the most overtly spectacular of the gifts of the Damned, the Discipline of 
  Protean is the study of physical metamorphosis and transformation. The nature of this power 
  is hotly debated among the Kindred, for its abilities are so varied while simultaneously stem-
  ming from no obvious aspect of the Curse. Whatever its cause or origin, Protean allows its 
  masters to assume virtually any form or shape.
  Since the core of a vampire’s self doesn’t alter with his shape, a transformed Kindred can 
  generally take any action or use any Discipline that his new form can reasonably allow. Gangrel 
  in the form of a cloud of mist, for example, could read auras (as the sense of sight doesn’t 
  vanish), but couldn’t Dominate someone effectively (as the prerequisite eye contact can no 
  longer be established). A vampire’s clothes and personal effects change shape with him, but 
  he cannot normally transmute especially large objects or other creatures.
  Unless stated otherwise, Protean powers — being permanent physical changes — last as 
  long as the vampire wishes them to, or until he is forced into torpor. Any state that prevents 
  the character from taking action (such as being staked) likewise prevents transformation; the 
  vampire needs the freedom to invoke his will. Reverting from any alternate form is an Instant 
  Action and takes a full turn unless otherwise speciﬁ ed. The character reforms on his Initiative 
  and may not act during that turn.
  • ASPECT OF THE PREDATOR
  The most basic ability of this Discipline allows a vampire to project a supernatural mien 
  of savage predatory ferocity. 
  Cost: — 
  Test Pool: This power involves no draw. A character is not subject to the usual relationships 
  of Blood Potency upon meeting an unknown Kindred for the ﬁ rst time. If the character’s Blood 
  Potency is lower than that of the unknown Kindred, he treats it as equal. If the character’s 
  Blood Potency is equal to or higher than the unknown Kindred, this power has no effect. In 
  the event of two or more Kindred using this power simultaneously, treat them all as equals.
  A character may choose to suspend this power if he so desires, but if he does, it ceases to 
  function for an entire scene. He may not selectively apply it to individual vampires he meets 
  within that scene. 
  Action: N/A
  •• HAVEN OF SOIL
  The vampire who has achieved this much-prized level of mastery over Protean has learned 
  how to meld his form with that of any natural substance. One can blend his form only with 
  simple soil at ﬁ rst, but with time and experience, he can eventually learn how to conjoin 
  with other elements. While so interred, the character is immune to threat of harm from the 
  2.15 — CLOAK THE GATHERING MODIFIERS
  Modiﬁ er 
  Situation
  +1 
  Character is with only those to whom she extends this power 
  when she activates it.
  —  
  Characters vanish before a single witness.
  -1 
  Each witness after the ﬁ rst present when a character invokes 
  the power.
  -1 
  Each person Obfuscated beyond the number equal to the 
  character’s level of Obfuscate, not counting the character 
  herself.
  
  193
  sun’s rays, or to any physical attack as his corporeal form is actually merged with that of the 
  substance itself. Some Gangrel rely on this ability while traveling from domain to domain, 
  as its power gives them the ultimate freedom to do so.
  This style of rest is the method of choice for many Kindred who must enter torpor. Whiling 
  away the decades in a largely protected state, free from risk of detection or Final Death, is an 
  attractive prospect. While such a character cannot be dug up, any signiﬁ cant disturbance to 
  the area in which he resides alerts the vampire to the presence of intruders, though not nec-
  essarily to the details of their intrusion. If enough damage is done to the sleeping Kindred’s 
  resting place, he returns immediately to corporeal form (and full wakefulness) in a shower of 
  whatever substance he had taken for his haven.
  Cost: 1 Vitae
  Test Pool: No draw is necessary. Becoming one with a natural substance is automatic and 
  takes a character’s action in a turn to complete. While in this state, the character’s conscious-
  ness hovers slightly above the torpor level (unless the vampire is both in torpor and in this 
  state, in which case he is unaware), making perception of his surroundings distant at best. A 
  player must succeed in a Humanity draw in order for his character to be aware of the presence 
  of others in or around his place of rest (barring signiﬁ cant alteration to the vampire’s haven, 
  of course, in which case he becomes aware automatically).
  Since the character is literally part of the earth, all attempts to locate him (via his scent, his 
  aura or even through mystical methods of tracking) suffer a minimum of a -3 penalty to their 
  test pools. Indeed, unless he is aware of exactly what he’s searching for, a searcher is likely to 
  be confounded a bit even if he is successful. No attack can harm the interred vampire while he 
  is in this state; a signiﬁ cant disruption of his surroundings can only cause him to resurface.
  When this power is ﬁ rst acquired, the character can meld his form only with natural 
  earth or soil. If any other substance — including asphalt, wood or concrete — lies in the way 
  between the vampire and natural ground, he cannot activate this power. (He must dig his way 
  to natural soil or else ﬁ nd a way to stand thereupon.) With the expenditure of an additional 
  three experience points, however, the vampire can select another natural substance from 
  the following list: wood, water, natural stone or processed stone. “Processed stone” includes 
  varieties of prepared surfacing materials such as concrete and asphalt. He can now meld into 
  soil and this extra substance with equal ease. Therefore, if his player spends 12 experience 
  points, a vampire can rest in all ﬁ ve materials — virtually anywhere. Note that there must still 
  be enough of a substance to accommodate the vampire’s form in roughly his natural Size. 
  (A large tree trunk might sufﬁ ce, but a small branch does not.) Those who meld with water 
  leave a barely visible, humanoid-shaped outline just below the surface, but are otherwise just 
  as protected and concealed as though they were inside soil.
  Action: Instant
  ••• CLAWS OF THE WILD
  Upon activation of this power, the vampire’s nails grow into long, fearsome talons, capable 
  of rending bone and ﬂ esh alike. This power makes many Gangrel truly fearsome combatants, 
  and other Kindred tend to give them a wide berth. Note that not every vampire’s claws look 
  the same. Some seem to be modeled after real-world animals’, such as wolves’, tigers’ or the 
  talons of birds of prey, while other claws seem to have no natural correlative at all. As might 
  be expected, when these last vampires unsheathe their claws, they tend to greatly unnerve 
  those around them.
  Cost: 1 Vitae
  Test Pool: This power involves no draw. The wicked claws grow by silent act of will on the part 
  of the vampire, and they can be sprouted from both a vampire’s hands and feet as desired.
  protean
  
  chapter two: character
  194
  Imbued with the unholy power of Vitae, these ferocious weapons offer a +1 bonus to 
  attack pools in unarmed close combat, and they inﬂ ict aggravated damage. In addition to 
  their combat potential, the claws add a +2 bonus to any climbing-related draws as long as 
  they remain invoked. 
  The claws remain for the entire scene, though the vampire may retract them prematurely. 
  Characters may not use Claws of the Wild with Fighting Styles.
  Action: Reﬂ exive
  •••• SHAPE OF THE BEAST
  The canon of vampire legend is ﬁ lled with stories of undead lords taking the semblance of 
  the “children of the night.” This power is the source of those legends. With it, a Kindred can 
  take the shape of an ordinary animal, most commonly a bat or a wolf. While in this form, the 
  vampire retains his mind and temperament, but he can call upon the physical qualities of his 
  newfound body (increased speed and senses as a wolf, sonar sense and ﬂ ight as a bat). 
  With time and experience, the character can learn to adopt the other form (bat or wolf) 
  or others.
  Cost: 1 Vitae
  Test Pool: This power requires no draw to activate. The transformation from human to 
  animal or back again requires a character’s action in a turn. All clothing and small possessions 
  shift with the vampire, and he can remain in his animal state until he chooses to shift back. 
  A vampire can even sleep the day away in animal form, but must still avoid sunlight, which 
  always affects vampires regardless of form. In addition, sleeping in animal form is taxing on 
  the vampiric state, requiring the expenditure of an additional Vitae upon awakening.
  While in animal form, a vampire can use any Discipline in his repertoire except for Theban 
  Sorcery, Crúac and Dominate (which becomes impossible when one tries to bark and yip com-
  mands). Each animal form conveys a separate host of beneﬁ ts. As a wolf, the vampire’s claws 
  and teeth inﬂ ict lethal damage and add a +1 bonus to attack pools, Running Speed is doubled, 
  and a +2 bonus is added to any Wits + Composure draws to be aware of events that happen in 
  the wolf’s environment. As a bat, the vampire’s Strength becomes 1, but he can ﬂ y at a Running 
  Speed of 20 (plus ﬁ ve more per dot of Vigor activated); a +3 is added to all hearing-based draws, 
  and Defense increases by two. Adjust the vampire’s Health to reﬂ ect the Size of the new form.
  (At the player’s discretion, he may spend another Vitae and allow a character in wolf form or 
  any other suitable form as described here to activate Claws of the Wild. As with normal uses 
  of that power, these claws are obviously supernatural or otherwise remarkable, and even those 
  unfamiliar with the world of the Damned will know that something is not quite right about 
  the animal in question. A character who has assumed Shape of the Beast and also activates 
  Claws of the Wild gains a +1 bonus to attack pools and inﬂ icts aggravated damage instead of 
  gaining a +1 bonus to attack pools and inﬂ icting lethal damage with claw attacks.)
  When this power is ﬁ rst acquired, only bat or wolf form is available. With Storyteller 
  permission, every three experience points spent allows a character access to the other form, 
  or to an altogether different animal, usually a mammal, although it’s rumored that Kindred 
  in far-ﬂ ung lands can assume the forms of predatory and scavenger birds. Storytellers are 
  encouraged to use the models given here and on p. 323 of the Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook 
  as examples of animal traits.
  A vampire in animal form is not subject to the Animalism Discipline. Dominate may still 
  be used on him in whatever form — human or animal — he assumes. Characters using Shape 
  of the Beast cannot use any Fighting Styles and most combat-related Merits.
  Action: Instant
  
  195
  ••••• BODY OF SPIRIT
  The pinnacle of most vampires’ achievement in the transﬁ guring art, this power enables a 
  Kindred to transform his entire body into a ﬁ ne, chilling mist. As a small cloud of vapor, the 
  character can ﬂ oat along above the ground at his normal Acting Speed, slipping under doors 
  and in between screens with ease. Although especially strong winds can divert him from his 
  desired course for a time, not even gale-force winds can fully disperse his misty essence. 
  Cost: 1 Vitae
  Test Pool: This power involves no draw to invoke. The full change takes one instant action 
  to complete.
  If a strong enough wind picks up, the character’s vaporous body could be subjected to 
  unwanted direction change if he does not resist successfully. Draw Strength, plus any Vigor 
  that the vampire activates. There’s no modiﬁ er for a light wind. A strong one imposes a -1 
  penalty, and a gale-force wind imposes a -3 penalty. A success allows the vampire to travel in 
  any direction desired for the turn, even against the wind.  Four or more successes allows him 
  to travel in any direction for the remainder of the scene. A failure indicates that the vampire 
  is pushed by the wind for one turn at the speed it travels. And a  failure on a chance draw 
  (under particularly windy conditions) causes the vampire to blow out of control (but still as 
  a cohesive whole) for the entire scene.
  While in mist form, the character is immune to all physical attacks, which merely pass 
  through his gaseous body. Mystical attacks, however, still affect him normally, though mysti-
  cal attacks that use mundane methods of delivery are similarly ineffective (such as claws or 
  enchanted physical weapons). Even ﬁ re and sunlight inﬂ ict one less point of damage than 
  normal. The trade-off, of course, is that a vampire in this state cannot physically attack anyone 
  (not even another vampire using this power). Disciplines that do not require a body might 
  still be effective, though. A vampire in gaseous form can use any Discipline he knows except 
  for Theban Sorcery, Crúac, Celerity and Dominate (which is useless when he has no true eyes 
  with which to make contact and no mouth with which to speak commands). 
  A vampire in mist form cannot be “bottled” or otherwise trapped in part by someone try-
  ing to contain or disrupt his form. Bottling a portion of a vampire’s mist doesn’t cause him 
  to resume human form without an arm, for example. A vampire’s entire mist form can be 
  contained in a room or other large space that is airtight. Of course, the question arises of 
  how one can lure a vampire in mist form into an airtight room, or how one even has access 
  to a truly airtight room.
  Action: Instant
  Roleplaying: Players whose characters have entered mist form should adopt appropriate 
  costuming, description tags or postures to indicate their mist form state. While different 
  troupes may certainly adopt more extensive requirements as they desire, the default hand 
  gesture for mist form uses the symbol for being on an alternate plane, extending the pinkie 
  and index ﬁ nger.
  RESILIENCE
  Legends abound of vampires who are able to withstand even the most brutal punishment to 
  their unliving forms. While all Kindred possess a certain degree of the toughness of which these 
  tales speak, those with the Discipline of Resilience are commensurately more stalwart. Vampires 
  with several dots of Resilience are capable of walking through a hail of bullets, shrugging off even 
  the most punishing blows, and even resisting the deadly claws and fangs of supernatural foes.
  Cost: 1 Vitae per scene to provide “downgrading” beneﬁ ts; additional Health levels are 
  permanent once bought
  protean • resilience
  
  chapter two: character
  196
  Test Pool: Resilience is unlike many other Disciplines in that it is not actively drawn. 
  Rather, it provides an augmentation of physical potential that lasts for the scene in which it 
  is activated, and which affects other draws.
  Each dot of Resilience permanently increases the character’s Stamina by one . This bonus also 
  increases the character’s Health (a character with Resilience can thus surpass his normal Attribute 
  maximum  for Stamina). Additionally, once invoked Resilience also “downgrades” a number of 
  aggravated damage points per scene equal to a Kindred’s Resilience dots. This damage becomes 
  lethal instead. Aggravated wounds suffered in excess of the character’s Resilience dots remain 
  aggravated, however. This downgrade doesn’t apply to any aggravated wounds that the vampire 
  already possesses, just to newly acquired ones suffered while Resilience is active. 
  Example: Michael is engaged in combat with a witch-hunter, who clubs him with a ﬂ aming torch. 
  The torch inﬂ icts ﬁ ve points of aggravated damage — but Michael’s Resilience of 4 downgrades that to 
  four points of lethal damage, with one point of aggravated damage remaining.
  Also, if a character suffers damage that upgrades her Health chart, Resilience does not 
  downgrade it. For example, if a character with seven Health dots and a single dot of Resilience 
  suffers nine points of lethal damage, that ninth point stays aggravated. The other eight points 
  are recorded normally as lethal (seven for the Health dots plus one for the Resilience), but the 
  ninth stays aggravated as it upgrades the leftmost box on the character’s Health chart. 
  Action: Instant
  VIGOR
  Nearly every vampire legend across the globe expresses the preternatural strength possessed 
  by the undead. In truth, not all Kindred possess such inhuman might, but the Discipline of 
  Vigor makes those who do far more powerful than any mortal could ever hope to be. Vigor 
  allows Kindred to strike opponents with the force of a falling boulder or speeding car; to lift 
  enormous weights as though they were paper; to shatter concrete like glass; to leap distances 
  so great that those elders with obscenely high levels of Vigor may, in fact, be responsible for 
  legends of vampiric ﬂ ight.
  Cost: 1 Vitae per scene
  Test Pool: Vigor is unlike many other Disciplines in that it is not actively drawn. Rather, 
  it provides an increase of physical strength that lasts the duration of the scene in which it is 
  activated, affecting other draws.
  Each dot of Vigor increases the character’s Strength by one while the Discipline is active. 
  Vigor cannot be invoked more than once per scene. That is, you may not spend a second Vitae 
  and double the beneﬁ ts of the power. Note also that certain derived traits (such as Running 
  Speed) might also be affected by the use of Vigor.
  Note: When used in combat, such as to modify Strength + Brawl or Strength + Weaponry 
  test pools, Strength dots gained from Vigor are applied only once a successful hit is determined. 
  In other words, this Discipline does not make it any more likely that the vampire will hit her 
  target, but it makes any hits she lands much more devastating than normal. Likewise, Vigor 
  does not increase the maximum amount of damage that can be inﬂ icted with a successful 
  attack, it only makes it more likely the vampire will hit her existing maximum (see “Damage 
  Limit ” in Mind’s Eye Theatre, p. 210).
  Example: Rachel has Vigor 3, Brawl 3 and Strength 4. She is surprised to ﬁ nd a mortal creeping 
  about her haven after she returns from a meeting with the Prince. Rachel decides to teach this ghoul a 
  lesson and activates her Vigor — her Strength increases to 7 for the duration of the scene. Her test pool 
  for a Strength + Brawl attack is still 7, however, not 10. She doesn’t hit any more often than normal, but 
  when she does, it hurts a whole lot more. She adds the extra +3 gained from Vigor only if she hits.
  
  197
  Vigor does not affect a character’s ability to jump. 
  Action: Instant
  EXTENDED ACTIONS AND SORCERY
  Many rituals and sorceries require extended actions to accumulate successes. 
  During downtimes and outside of game sessions, use the normal time constraints for 
  extended actions. During a game, gaining a success on an extended action for any 
  type of sorcery or ritual requires a full turn outside of combat and three full turns if 
  performed during combat.
  CRUAC
  Crúac is the common name for the pagan blood sorcery practiced by the Circle of the 
  Crone. A type of ritual magic, Crúac, meaning “crescent,” is a mixture of pre-Christian and 
  pagan magic from across the globe whose only common element is a reliance on blood sacri-
  ﬁ ce. Crúac is denounced by many traditional Kindred as “black magic” or “witchcraft,” and 
  in areas where the Lancea Sanctum holds sway, Crúac’s known practitioners are occasion-
  ally persecuted as heretics. Of course, it is such very derision and fear of Crúac that leads 
  many to the Circle of the Crone and, by extension, to this Discipline’s study. The Circle of 
  the Crone’s message of empowerment speaks to many a neonate, and, for some, there is no 
  greater expression of that empowerment than this Discipline.
  Crúac is one of the central mysteries of the Circle of the Crone’s belief structure, as well 
  as a potent weapon in the covenant’s arsenal. As might be expected, knowledge of the dif-
  ferent rituals that comprise this Discipline is a closely guarded secret. New initiates are not 
  usually trusted with its mysteries. As a new member in a quasi-religious Kindred faction, a 
  vampire might well have to prove his loyalty to the Circle through tests and ordeals before its 
  adherents are willing to share their knowledge. Although vampires who leave the Circle of the 
  Crone for other covenants take their knowledge with them, many ﬁ nd it all but impossible 
  to increase their knowledge of Crúac outside the Circle’s structure. A character must have 
  at least one dot of Covenant Status (Circle of the Crone) in order to learn Crúac. A player 
  who buys at least one dot worth of that Merit at character creation may spend one of his 
  character’s three Discipline dots on Crúac if he wishes. This expenditure does not count as 
  an in-clan Discipline expenditure, however. Any time a player wants to increase his character’s 
  Crúac score, the character must still have at least one dot of Covenant Status (Circle of the 
  Crone) to do so.
  Because of myriad cultural differences within the Circle of the Crone, many rituals exist that 
  approximate the following ones in effect if not in name. Thus, the level-one ritual Pangs of 
  Proserpina may be known as the Appetite of Limba in New Orleans or the Curse of Tawrich 
  in Tehran. Other Vampire books offer new Crúac rituals, and players and Storytellers are 
  encouraged to create their own using those presented here as models.
  Cost: Uses of Crúac always cost at least one Vitae. Unless the text for a speciﬁ c power 
  (known as a ritual) speciﬁ es otherwise, assume that the cost is one Vitae. Vitae plays a very 
  important role in the use of Crúac — it literally calls upon the power inherent in the Blood 
  to fuel supernatural effects. Use of Crúac requires that the Vitae be “spent” in a visible or 
  otherwise signiﬁ cant manner. For example, when a Vitae is spent for a character to activate 
  a ritual, he likely has to cut himself with a dagger and bleed on the ground, activating the 
  magic with the spilled Vitae (or through some other direct appeal to the power of the Blood). 
  Unless noted otherwise, any use of Crúac breaks Obfuscate. If a character is already under 
  the effects of Crúac, the same ritual can’t be used on her again for added effect.
  resilience • vigor • crúac
  `
  
  chapter two: character
  198
  Crúac does not have the same linear progression that other Disciplines do. A character’s 
  mastery dictates the highest level of rituals that he may learn. Rituals are bought with experi-
  ence points. For example, a character with two dots of Crúac can know an unlimited number 
  of level-one and level-two rituals (provided the experience points to learn each of them are 
  paid). He may not learn any level-three Crúac rituals until his Crúac dots increase to 3. Each 
  time a character acquires a dot of Crúac (including at character creation), he gains a ritual 
  of that level at no additional cost. 
  Crúac is insidious. It demands a certain degree of subservience and even cruelty from its 
  practitioners, possibly in deference to the dire old gods whence the Discipline is rumored to 
  come. For some power-hungry sorcerers, Crúac indulges the will instead of enlightened use 
  of the Discipline. A character’s dots in this Discipline, subtracted from 10, is the maximum 
  to which his Humanity may rise. For example, the Gangrel Roland Gentry possesses three 
  dots of Crúac. His maximum Humanity is therefore 7. If a character increases his Crúac 
  score higher than his Humanity would normally allow, his Humanity immediately drops to 
  the appropriate level and the player makes a Humanity draw to see if the character acquires 
  a derangement in the process of heightening his occult knowledge. (See pp. 258-266 for 
  more on Humanity draws and derangements.)
  Test Pool: Manipulation + Occult + Crúac. Because of its sanguinary nature, Crúac doubles 
  any bonuses that a vampire’s blood ties might apply, such as in a ritual performed on a sire, 
  grandsire, childe or grandchilde. Also, the Nosferatu clan weakness does not apply to the 
  Discipline user’s draw. Occult Specializations can only apply to individual rituals, not all of 
  Crúac.
  Action: Extended. The number of successes required to activate a ritual is equal to the level 
  of the ritual (so a level-three ritual requires three successes to enact). Each draw represents 
  one turn of ritual casting. Note also that each point of damage suffered in a turn is a penalty 
  to the next casting draw made for the character, in addition to any wound penalties that a 
  caster might suffer.
  Costs to activate Crúac rituals must be paid before the draw can be made. Normally this 
  isn’t an issue, as a ritual that costs one Vitae can have its activation draw made in the same 
  turn (as spending Vitae is a reﬂ exive action). In some cases, though, a ritual costs more Vitae 
  than the caster can spend in a single turn. In cases like these, the caster’s player makes the 
  draw on the turn he (reﬂ exively) spends the last Vitae necessary to invoke the ritual.
  If a character fails to complete the ritual in time (such as by being killed before accumulat-
  ing enough successes) or decides to cancel the ritual before garnering enough successes to ac-
  tivate it, the effect simply fails. Any Vitae expenditures made are not recovered, however.
  Roleplaying: Crúac is not the sanitized version of the Old Ways that most mortals think of 
  when they think of “pagan” practices. Whether wild and ecstatic or grim and vengeful, Crúac 
  rituals are seldom very subtle, and the primal power and raw emotions on display are often 
  as unsettling as they are intriguing for onlookers to behold. (This is a largely unintended but 
  not entirely undesirable side effect, as far as the Circle of the Crone is concerned.) Ritualists 
  frequently chant in a variety of old tongues, employ items of ancient ritual signiﬁ cance such 
  as wands or prepared animal skins, and invoke the many different names of the divine beings 
  Crúac pays homage to in its many forms. Ritual bloodletting over sacred designs or to create 
  mystical patterns is also highly common. 
  Draw Results
  Failure: The ritual fails entirely, but not dangerously. Vitae is consumed as normal, but 
  the ritual has no effect.
  Success: The ritual takes place as described.
  
  199
  Unless speciﬁ ed otherwise, rituals last for the duration of a scene or until the next sunrise, 
  whichever comes ﬁ rst.
  crúac
  2.16 — CRUAC MODIFIERS
  Modiﬁ er 
  Situation
  +4 
  Power is turned on or applies to a vampire with whom the 
  user has a blood tie (see p. 228).
  —  
  The character is unaffected by threats or distractions. 
  -1 to -3 
  The character is rushed or distracted, such as by invoking 
  a ritual in combat or while being harried by pursuers. This 
  penalty is cumulative with multiple distractions (such as by 
  casting a ritual in combat during a hurricane). Successes 
  gained on a meditation draw for the night (see p. 55 of the 
  Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook) offset interruption penalties 
  on a one-for-one basis.
  `
  A CAUTIONARY NOTE ON SORCERY
  Always remember that The Requiem is just a game. While roleplayers are 
  grounded enough to know that they are not really performing real magical rituals, 
  outsiders might not see it quite the same way. Even some fellow players might be 
  uncomfortable with particularly vivid depictions of vampiric sorcery. Therefore, while 
  we encourage roleplaying the use of these Disciplines as part of players portraying 
  their characters, remember that real-world concerns like scandalized neighbors 
  or offended troupe members aren’t worth that extra bit of “realism.” If it comes 
  down to it, just perform some more low-key, inoffensive actions and save the more 
  elaborate or controversial stuff for times when you’re away from the eyes of others 
  who might disapprove.
  PANGS OF PROSERPINA (LEVEL-ONE CRUAC RITUAL)
  The sorcerer causes feelings of intense hunger in a subject, who must be within sight. The 
  afﬂ icted subject feels the desire to eat or feed. Activation involves a contested draw against 
  the subject’s Composure + Blood Potency, and resistance is reﬂ exive. If the performer gets the 
  most successes, the victim avails himself of any sustenance available. A mortal even eats raw 
  meat, though he doesn’t resort to such dire acts as cannibalism or drinking blood. Kindred 
  might attack nearby vessels or even fellow vampires if their hunger is severe enough to make 
  them frenzy. Even after he eats or feeds, a subject’s rapacity does not subside until the effects 
  of the ritual pass. (Vampires affected by this ritual are considered “starving” for the purposes 
  of resisting frenzy; see p. 255.)
  RIGOR MORTIS (LEVEL-ONE CRUAC RITUAL)
  With the power of this ritual, a vampire may temporarily interrupt the reanimating effect 
  of vampiric Vitae, impairing a Kindred’s movements as the stiffening of muscles common to 
  dead bodies takes hold. The number of successes garnered on the Crúac draw determines 
  the number of points by which the victim’s next Physical test pool is penalized. This applies 
  only to test pools for actions, and does not affect Physical resistances. Rigor Mortis is useless 
  against mortals, ghouls, Lupines, mages and most other beings, since they don’t depend on 
  the power of vampiric Vitae to animate their bodies. A vampire may only be affected by the 
  effects of one Rigor Mortis ritual at any given time.
  The draw to activate this power is penalized by the subject’s Composure.
  `
  `
  
  chapter two: character
  200
  CHEVAL
  (LEVEL-TWO CRUAC RITUAL)
  This ritual allows the performer to “ride 
  the senses” of his subject. The subject must 
  be within direct sight when the ritual is per-
  formed, but the subject can stray from the 
  caster to any distance thereafter. At any time 
  he wishes for the duration of the effect, the 
  performer may see or hear through the eyes 
  or ears of his subject. No other senses can be 
  substituted — if the subject is blind or deaf or 
  both, all “riding” yields is blackness and/or 
  silence. A subject so “ridden” is unaware 
  that his senses also report to another. 
  While riding another’s senses, the ritual-
  ist is only dimly aware of her own body, 
  which falls into on a trance-like state. She 
  is unaware of minor environmental stimuli 
  affecting her own body (such as an insect 
  crawling across her skin or drops of water 
  falling on her head), but more aggressive 
  actions perpetrated against her body such as 
  moving it more than a few inches or attack-
  ing it immediately draw her consciousness 
  back to it.
  This ritual remains in effect for one 
  night per success on the invocation draw, 
  though the caster may end the ritual at any 
  time. The performer can therefore indulge 
  in a subject’s senses and return to her own 
  body as often as she likes throughout the 
  rite’s duration. Generally speaking, the 
  ritualist may leave behind a note indicating 
  where her body is and directing would-be 
  assailants to seek her out, and then follow 
  the target of the ritual while adopting an 
  out-of-game pose to indicate that she is not 
  actually there.
  The draw to activate this power is penal-
  ized by the subject’s Composure.
  THE HYDRA’S VITAE
  (LEVEL-TWO CRUAC RITUAL)
  By invoking this ritual, the performer 
  protects himself from would-be diablerists 
  and from those who would otherwise feast 
  upon his blood. This ritual transforms 
  the sorcerer’s Vitae into a kind of poison. 
  `
  `
  
  201
  Kindred who drink it suffer one point of lethal damage for every Vitae consumed; mortals 
  who imbibe suffer two points of lethal damage for each Vitae. When a Kindred consumes a 
  quantity of venomous Vitae, she earns no nourishment from it.
  Vitae altered by this ritual is poisonous only so long as it’s in the performer’s body (or until 
  the next sunrise). If the Vitae leaves, it becomes as any other Vitae spilled from a Kindred’s 
  body. Thus, it cannot be used to create poisoned weapons, and if one consumes the Vitae 
  from a container after it leaves the body, it is simply normal, non-poisonous Vitae.
  DEFLECTION OF WOODEN DOOM (LEVEL-THREE CRUAC RITUAL)
  The performer invokes a mystic protection against attempts to impale her heart with a 
  stake. If the ritual succeeds, any attempt to stake the vampire fails for the duration of the 
  spell. Stakes used in this manner rot or disintegrate as wielders attempt to use them against 
  the performer, leaving no useful pieces behind. An attempt to stake the Kindred in question 
  must be made for this ritual to take effect. (It does not simply rot all stakes and would-be 
  stakes in her presence.) This power cannot be invoked to protect others; it works only on 
  the sorcerer herself. This ritual fades at sundown of the subsequent night, though it may be 
  invoked again immediately thereafter.
  TOUCH OF THE MORRIGAN (LEVEL-THREE CRUAC RITUAL)
  The caster performs this ritual (Manipulation + Occult + Crúac is drawn) and channels his 
  righteous ire into a tangible force. If the performance draw is successful, the user’s mere touch 
  becomes deadly. The sorcerer must then touch a subject with his open palm. (See “Touching 
  an Opponent,” p. 217 of the Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook.) Contact inﬂ icts an amount of 
  lethal damage equal to the number of successes gained on the activation draw. (The power 
  cannot be delivered through a punch or other unarmed close-combat attack.) This harm can 
  be delivered only once per performance of the ritual, and this rite lasts for one hour for every 
  success drawn. If that period of time passes without a touch being made, the power fades.
  The mark made by contact is physically manifest in accordance with its severity. A Touch 
  of the Morrigan that inﬂ icts one point of damage looks like a minor scar or livid bruise, 
  while one that delivers ﬁ ve points of damage leaves the subject almost entirely blackened and 
  charred looking. The visible injury fades as the damage is healed. This power affects only 
  vampires, ghouls and other supernatural creatures. It seems that Kindred cannot inﬂ ict their 
  viciousness on mortals in this manner.
  At the Storyteller’s discretion, victims of particularly powerful uses of this rite may acquire 
  penalties to relevant appearance-related draws until the damage is healed or be forced to adopt 
  appropriate makeup or description tags to simulate their ravaged looks.
  BLOOD PRICE (LEVEL-FOUR CRUAC RITUAL)
  The sorcerer mystically claims one third of the Vitae that a subject imbibes. The subject 
  must be within sight when this ritual is performed. Every time the subject feeds, a third of the 
  Vitae he consumes is denied him and transfers invisibly to the sorcerer, regardless of either 
  vampire’s location. (In other words, every third point of Vitae consumed is passed to the caster.) 
  This Vitae is always “neutral,” which is to say that the feeding Kindred does not subject the 
  sorcerer to a Vinculum in this manner, and neither does feeding from a third-party vampire 
  apply any blood bonds to the sorcerer (though it certainly does to the feeding vampire). The 
  effects of this ritual expire after one feeding or the next sunrise, whichever comes ﬁ rst.
  A contested draw is made to activate this power, pitting the sorcerer’s Manipulation + Occult 
  + Crúac versus the subject’s Composure + Blood Potency, and this resistance is reﬂ exive. If 
  the most successes are drawn for the caster, the subject has no idea where some of the Vitae 
  he consumes disappears to, yet he knows that he goes slightly undernourished.
  crúac
  `
  `
  `
  
  chapter two: character
  202
  WILLFUL VITAE (LEVEL-FOUR CRUAC RITUAL)
  The performer makes herself immune to the Vinculum and blood addiction when another 
  Kindred’s Vitae is consumed. After this ritual is performed, if another vampire’s blood is 
  imbibed in the same night, no step is taken toward a Vinculum with the provider of the 
  blood, and no addiction to blood forms for the character. Of course, the blood donor has 
  no idea that the recipient is immune. The ritual cannot be performed on another vampire, 
  only on the caster’s self. The ritual does not countermand or alleviate any existing Vinculum 
  to which the caster is already subject.
  BLOOD BLIGHT (LEVEL-FIVE CRUAC RITUAL)
  This potent ritual taints the blood of its target, whether mortal or vampire. draw Manipu-
  lation + Occult + Crúac in a contested action against the target’s Stamina + Blood Potency 
  (resistance is reﬂ exive). If the draw for the caster gets the most successes, that number of 
  successes is inﬂ icted as lethal damage to a mortal target.
  A vampire target immediately loses the equivalent of Vitae in his system and could be subject 
  to frenzy as a result. Indeed, a vampiric victim might be forced into torpor. The caster must 
  be able to see the intended victim when the ritual is performed.
  FEEDING THE CRONE (LEVEL-FIVE CRUAC RITUAL)
  When the performer calls upon the power of the Crone herself (by whatever name is used), 
  and a Vitae is spent, the vampire’s mouth transforms into a maw of wicked, gnashing teeth. 
  The vampire need not perform a grapple attack in order to bite a victim; the attack is made 
  directly. The number of successes achieved on the ritual’s activation draw is added as a bonus 
  to attack draws, and aggravated damage is inﬂ icted.
  In addition, these teeth are so vicious that feeding cannot occur when they are borne; too 
  much blood is wasted in the gory slaughter to get any real nourishment. Feeding the Crone 
  remains in effect until another Vitae is spent to revoke the change, or until sunrise. In addi-
  tion, appropriate makeup or a highly visible description tag should be worn to alert others 
  to the use of this ritual, as it cannot be concealed from even casual inspection. Feeding the 
  Crone cannot be used in combination with any Fighting Styles and the character does not 
  receive bonuses from any weapons held as this is a brawling attack.
  OPTIONAL RULE: GUARDED SECRETS
  This optional rule allows Storytellers to have a greater measure of control over 
  what characters are able to safely learn and practice regarding the various forms of 
  vampiric sorcery, without placing an artiﬁ cial cap on the learning process. With this 
  rule, a character may learn any amount of sorcery or number of rituals as he has the 
  requisite experience points to master, but if he wishes to use this knowledge without 
  fear of reprisal, he must also possess a level of Status in the appropriate covenant 
  equal or greater than the level of the ritual in question. If he does not have sufﬁ cient 
  Status, he is considered to have somehow learned the ritual(s) illegitimately, thus 
  risking stiff punishment by other members of the covenant.
  This rule provides a social restriction to help curb potential misuse of sorcery, 
  especially by relatively weak and untested characters. It also encourages characters 
  in sorcerous covenants to play the games of Status and reputation in order to gain 
  full access to the choicest secrets, rather than merely purchasing one dot of Status 
  simply to serve as a springboard for mystical wisdom. Of course, in-game exceptions 
  can be made on an individual basis when it comes to learning and using particularly 
  common or useful rituals, especially if doing so will help serve the covenant’s goals 
  in the region. After all, this rule is merely meant to reﬂ ect how jealously secrets are 
  guarded within each covenant and how much trust a character must earn before he 
  is allowed to openly demonstrate more advanced mastery.
  `
  `
  `
  
  203
  If the Storyteller desires an even stricter limitation on sorcery, he may choose to 
  say that a character simply cannot have more dots in a particular sorcery than her 
  current Status rating within that covenant. Thus, if a character has Covenant Status 
  (Lancea Sanctum) 2, she cannot learn Theban Sorcery 3 at all until she ﬁ rst improves 
  her Covenant Status by at least another dot. She is simply not well known or trusted 
  enough within the covenant to be granted access to those secrets. This variant of the 
  rule allows strong Storyteller control and ensures that sorcery does not become too 
  powerful too quickly, but it comes at the expense of some player freedom and might 
  also weaken the balance between the covenants to a degree.
  THEBAN SORCERY
  Theban Sorcery is the miraculous magic practiced by members of the Lancea Sanctum. 
  According to the covenant, it is a tradition of magic taught (or stolen, depending on to 
  whom one listens) by an “avatar of God.” The practice is said to have been received when 
  early members visited Thebias in northern Egypt with a contingent of Christian soldiers 
  during the reign of Diocletian, after Longinus had vanished from the world. The Disci-
  pline has decidedly judgmental overtones, combining a focus on Biblical elements (rains 
  of blood, plagues of locusts, the vengeance of God) with a very overt and occult reliance 
  on righteousness.
  Theban Sorcery is as jealously guarded as anti-Sanctiﬁ ed factions widely believe, if not 
  more so. While few Lancea Sanctum hit squads lurk in the shadows to whack non-Sanctiﬁ ed 
  vampires who seem to be able to use the Discipline, few covenant members want to see their 
  divinely inspired powers taken for granted. The Lancea Sanctum isn’t foolish. It makes its 
  mystical knowledge available “on loan” if the covenant has something to gain.
  Vampires who leave the Lancea Sanctum for other covenants invariably take their knowledge 
  with them, but ﬁ nd it all but impossible to increase it, no matter what occult connections 
  they might have. A character must have at least one dot of Covenant Status (Lancea Sanctum) 
  in order to learn Theban Sorcery. A player who takes at least one dot worth of that Merit at 
  character creation may spend one of his character’s three Discipline dots on Theban Sorcery 
  if he wishes. This expenditure does not count as an in-clan Discipline expenditure, however. 
  Any time a player wants to increase his character’s Theban Sorcery score, the vampire must 
  still have at least one dot of Covenant Status (Lancea Sanctum) to do so.
  Cost: Uses of Theban Sorcery always cost one Willpower point. Willpower is critical to use 
  of the Discipline. It invokes the soul of the Kindred who performs a ritual. Willpower spent in 
  this manner does not add the +3 bonus to activation draws. Indeed, because one may spend 
  only one Willpower point per turn, a Willpower point may never be spent to augment Theban 
  Sorcery draws unless speciﬁ ed otherwise. Willpower merely makes the magic possible.
  Additionally, Theban Sorcery rituals require certain items to be used or consumed to activate 
  the powers. These components are known as offerings. Practitioners believe these items are 
  offered in sacriﬁ ce to God, Longinus or to whomever provides the actual manifestation of 
  the power. Attempts to invoke Theban Sorcery without suitable offerings simply fail outright. 
  Offerings are completely consumed upon the invocation of a ritual, leaving behind nothing 
  but a handful of nondescript ash or dust. Unless noted otherwise, any invocation of Theban 
  Sorcery breaks Obfuscate and the sacriﬁ ce of the ritual offerings has to be made in plain 
  sight. If a character is already under the effects of Theban Sorcery, the same power can’t be 
  used on her again for added effect until the ﬁ rst use has worn off.
  Like Crúac, Theban Sorcery does not have the same linear progression that other Disciplines 
  do. A character’s mastery dictates the highest level of rituals that he may learn. Rituals are 
  bought with experience points. For example, a character with two dots of Theban Sorcery can 
  crúac • theban sorcery
  
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  204
  know an unlimited number of level-one and level-two rituals (provided the experience points 
  are paid to learn each), but he may not learn any level-three Theban Sorcery rituals until his 
  base Theban Sorcery dots are increased to 3. Each time a character acquires a dot of Theban 
  Sorcery (including at character creation), he gains a ritual of that level at no additional cost. 
  More rituals may be acquired with experience points. Other Vampire books offer Theban 
  Sorcery rituals, and players and Storytellers are encouraged to create their own using those 
  presented here as models.
  Test Pool: Intelligence + Academics + Theban Sorcery. Unlike Crúac and its relationship to 
  the Nosferatu, the Gangrel clan weakness does apply to the Discipline user’s draw on attempts 
  to invoke Theban Sorcery rituals. Academics Specializations can only apply to individual 
  rituals, not all of Theban Sorcery.
  Action: Extended. The number of successes required to activate a ritual is equal to the level 
  of the ritual (so a level-three ritual requires three successes to enact). Each draw represents one 
  turn of ritual casting. Note also that each point of damage incurred in a turn is a penalty to 
  the next casting draw made for the character, in addition to any wound penalties suffered.
  If a character fails to complete the ritual in time (such as by being sent into torpor before 
  accumulating enough successes) or decides to cancel the ritual before garnering enough 
  successes to activate it, the effect simply fails. Any Willpower expenditures made are not 
  recovered, however, and offerings are still burned to ash.
  Roleplaying: Like Crúac, performing a Theban Sorcery ritual is generally not a subtle 
  process. Unlike Crúac’s intensely primal rites, however, the practice of Theban Sorcery itself 
  is much more controlled and precise. While individual casters have styles that diverge widely 
  from each other, Theban Sorcery rituals tend to resemble dark, quasi-religious ceremonies 
  on the whole. Solemn chanting, candle arrangements, mystic inscriptions and readings from 
  ancient texts in classical languages are common themes. This is not to say that Theban Sorcery 
  rituals are plodding, monotonous affairs — simply that what Crúac achieves through a more 
  spontaneous ecstatic communion, Theban Sorcery achieves through rigid ritual invocation 
  and force of will.
  Draw Results
  Failure: The ritual fails entirely, but not dangerously. Willpower and offerings are consumed 
  as normal, but the ritual has no effect.
  Success: The ritual takes place as described.
  2.17 — THEBAN SORCERY MODIFIERS
  Modiﬁ er 
  Situation
  +2 
  Power is turned on or applies to a vampire with whom the 
  user has a blood tie (see p. 228).
  —  
  The character is unaffected by threats or distractions.
  -1 to -3 
  The character is rushed or distracted, such as by invoking 
  a ritual in combat or while trapped in a burning building. 
  This penalty is cumulative with multiple distractions (such as 
  by casting a ritual in combat during a hurricane). Successes 
  gained on a meditation draw for the night (see p. 55 of the 
  Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook) offset interruption penalties on 
  a one-for-one basis.
  BLOOD SCOURGE (LEVEL-ONE THEBAN SORCERY RITUAL)
  The vampire transforms a portion of his own blood into a wicked instrument of punish-
  ment. For each dot that the character possesses in Theban Sorcery, he may create a stinging 
  
  205
  whip of Vitae with which to scourge his foes. An attack with the weapon has a test pool equal 
  to the character’s Strength + Weaponry + the number of lashes created, and inﬂ icts lethal 
  damage. The Blood Scourge lasts a number of turns equal to the player’s successes on the 
  invocation draw. At the end of that time, the Vitae whips turn to dust.
  A character can invoke Blood Scourge only once until its duration expires. He may there-
  after invoke another whip, however. A character may voluntarily terminate a Blood Scourge 
  if he does not want to keep it for the full duration of the power.
  Offering: The Kindred’s own blood is the offering. In enacting the ritual, the vampire must 
  slice open his wrist with a sacriﬁ cial knife. The scourge created — regardless of its number of 
  lashes — costs one Vitae.
  VITAE RELIQUARY (LEVEL-ONE THEBAN SORCERY RITUAL)
  The character takes an ordinary object that can be carried in one hand and stores an 
  amount of Vitae in it that may be called upon later (whether as sustenance or for any other 
  purpose that requires Vitae). Any Kindred or ghoul can call upon the stored Vitae, not just 
  the caster, though the person using the Vitae must know that it’s there. The amount of Vitae 
  that can be stored in the object is equal to the amount of successes the player achieves on the 
  invocation draw, although the caster may infuse the object with less if he wishes. The Vitae to 
  be stored comes directly from the caster’s own body. This ritual can be cast only once on the 
  item in question. The nature of the object to contain the Vitae doesn’t really matter, though 
  the item must be at least the size of a person’s ﬁ st. The Vitae remains indeﬁ nitely until con-
  sumed. The act of consuming the blood might involve taking it to one’s lips, or holding the 
  item tight and willing the blood to pass from object to body. This Vitae is “neutral,” which is 
  to say that the feeding Kindred does not subject the sorcerer to a Vinculum in this manner, 
  though blood addiction is still a risk.
  Offering: The vessel of infusion itself is the offering, and must be something the caster 
  can lift with one hand. The offering crumbles to dust after the last Vitae is removed. The 
  offering crumbles to dust. Prior to that point, the item functions as it normally would (a 
  knife may still be used to attack, a book may still be read).
  CURSE OF BABEL (LEVEL-TWO THEBAN SORCERY RITUAL)
  This ritual leaves a victim speaking in tongues, unable to communicate. Even his written 
  word is rendered nonsensical; both handwritten and typed messages come out as gibberish. 
  Not only is the Curse of Babel an effective means of controlling the spread of blasphemy 
  (and gossip), it proves an effective limit to a subject’s use of the Dominate Discipline. The 
  number of successes achieved on the invocation draw determines the duration of the ritual’s 
  function: one hour per success or until the next sunrise, whichever comes ﬁ rst. The subject 
  must be within earshot when this ritual is performed.
  The draw to activate this power is penalized by the subject’s Resolve.
  Offering: An animal’s or person’s tongue
  LIAR’S PLAGUE (LEVEL-TWO THEBAN SORCERY RITUAL)
  The character curses her subject so that if he speaks any lies over the course of the scene, 
  beetles swarm from his mouth. Needless to say, the effects of this ritual must be announced 
  loudly any time they apply — there is simply no way to hide the swarm that emerges.
  The ritual involves a contested action, pitting the sorcerer’s Intelligence + Academics 
  + Theban Sorcery against the subject’s Resolve + Blood Potency. Resisting this power is a 
  reﬂ exive action.
  Offering: An insect’s carapace, whole and uncrushed.
  theban sorcery
  
  chapter two: character
  206
  BLANDISHMENT OF SIN (LEVEL-THREE THEBAN SORCERY RITUAL)
  The subject of this power suffers increased damage the next time any harm is inﬂ icted 
  on him. That wound is upgraded one degree of damage. Three bashing damage becomes 
  three lethal, and three lethal damage becomes three aggravated. (Aggravated wounds do not 
  increase to any other sort, and the effects of the ritual are wasted.) If, at the end of the night, 
  the subject has not suffered any damage, the ritual ends, though it may be invoked against 
  him on the following night.
  If the subject has Resilience, that Discipline offsets the beneﬁ ts of this ritual for the next 
  wound he suffers only if the damage upgrade would make the next wound aggravated. The injury 
  in question inﬂ icts its upgraded, aggravated damage, which Resilience downgrades again.
  The action to activate this power is contested, pitting the sorcerer’s Intelligence + Academ-
  ics + Theban Sorcery against the subject’s Resolve + Blood Potency (resistance is reﬂ exive). 
  The subject is initially unaware of the power applied to him and doesn’t know why his next 
  injury is so severe.
  Offering: A scrap of paper, upon which the subject’s name must be written. The paper is 
  then burned in sight of the subject as the ritual is cast.
  MALEDICTION OF DESPAIR (LEVEL-THREE THEBAN SORCERY RITUAL)
  The sorcerer curses his subject with regard to a speciﬁ c action. The next time the subject engages 
  in that action, her normal test pool is not drawn. A chance draw is made, instead. The curse can 
  be as general (“Your next attack in combat is doomed to failure!”) or as speciﬁ c (“When next you 
  feed upon a blind Christian at midnight…”) as the caster chooses. The curse remains until its 
  conditions are met. If the subject suspects that she is cursed by this ritual, the player may spend 
  a Willpower point and make a Composure + Resolve draw. If this draw yields more successes 
  than were achieved to invoke the malediction, the curse ends without ever coming to pass.
  The action to activate this power is contested, pitting the sorcerer’s Intelligence + Academ-
  ics + Theban Sorcery against the subject’s Resolve + Blood Potency. Resisting in this manner 
  is reﬂ exive.
  Offering: A lock of hair from the subject.
  GIFT OF LAZARUS (LEVEL-FOUR THEBAN SORCERY RITUAL)
  A successful invocation of this ritual brings the dead back to a semblance of life, though 
  it is a pale echo at best. While the rite certainly reanimates the dead, it does not return a 
  being’s soul, nor does it halt the body’s slow decline into rot and putrescence. The power 
  effectively creates a painfully self-aware zombie, who most likely just wishes to be allowed to 
  rest in peace. Initially, all of the former person’s faculties may be intact (retaining access to 
  its former Skills, but having no Willpower). The pathetic wretch can neither heal damage 
  nor feel physical sensations in any true sense, however, so it suffers no wound penalties. The 
  length of time in nights that the creature remains animate equals the number of successes 
  on the Theban Sorcery draw made to create it. A Theban Sorcerer may create a number of 
  simultaneous walking dead equal to his Willpower.
  For every day that the creature was dead prior to the invocation, subtract one dot of the 
  Storyteller’s choosing from an Attribute in each of its Physical, Mental and Social categories, 
  and also do the same for every day it is animated by this ritual. When any Attribute is reduced 
  to zero, assume that any draws involving that trait fail automatically. Multiple animations 
  of the same corpse are possible but sequentially more disturbing and less useful. A walking 
  corpse of this sort that loses all of its Health dots to lethal damage is too wounded to move, 
  but still aware and possibly even capable of communication (depending on the type of dam-
  age sustained and to what portions of its body).
  
  207
  The vampire who enacts this ritual is the only one who can command the zombie. That 
  vampire may, however, instruct the corpse to accept direction from other individuals. A 
  corpse-creature left to its own devices takes no actions of its own volition; it must be given 
  direction, and undoubtedly laments being forced to carry them out.
  A corpse suffers damage — lethal, bashing and aggravated — as it did in life. It remains 
  active until its rightmost Health box is occupied with aggravated damage. A zombie does 
  not bleed to death upon suffering lethal damage in its rightmost Health box, and must be 
  attacked repeatedly until utterly destroyed. Needless to say, appropriate makeup or (failing 
  that) prominent description tags are a necessity to portray this ritual’s use correctly. Zombies 
  can be affected by the same Disciplines that would have affected them before their death 
  although they cannot become vessels for Dominate or Animalism or become possessed by 
  ephemeral beings. Vampires and ghosts, despite being technically speaking deceased, can not 
  be turned into walking corpses.
  Offering: A Communion wafer placed under the dead person’s tongue.
  STIGMATA (LEVEL-FOUR THEBAN SORCERY RITUAL)
  Although the majority of Theban Sorcery’s rites have a decidedly Old Testament ﬂ avor, 
  Stigmata takes the very suffering of the New Testament’s Prince of Peace and turns it into a 
  weapon of divine punishment. The victim of this ritual must be within sight when it is cast. 
  He bleeds from the wrists, feet and side, the traditional ﬁ ve wounds of Christ. Mortals suffer 
  one point of lethal damage per turn from blood loss, while Kindred lose one Vitae each turn. 
  If a vampire runs out of Vitae during the course of the ritual, she proceeds to suffer lethal 
  damage and is likely to frenzy (see p. 253). A vampire whose rightmost Health box is ﬁ lled 
  with lethal damage by this means falls into torpor (see p. 248).
  The draw to activate this power is penalized by the subject’s Stamina.
  The number of turns the subject suffers from Stigmata equals the number of successes 
  achieved on the Theban Sorcery draw.
  Offering: A cruciﬁ x, which crumbles to ash as the ritual is enacted.
  TRANSUBSTANTIATION (LEVEL-FIVE THEBAN SORCERY RITUAL)
  The character transforms one substance or object into another. It can be water into blood, 
  for example, or a tree branch into a snake, or a person into a pillar of salt. The object or 
  substance transformed becomes a generic, perfectly normal, mundane version of whatever 
  it is. Transubstantiation cannot turn a frog into a Lupine or a human into a Kindred, for 
  example, though it could change a frog into a wolf or a human into a bat. There are a few 
  additional limits on the transformation. It works only on targets of an equal or smaller Size  
  than the caster, and the result cannot simulate human or supernatural intelligence. In ad-
  dition, the result also cannot be larger than the caster unless several sorcerers participate. 
  That is, the same frog could be transformed into a child, but the child wouldn’t be able to 
  have any intelligent discourse or even perform many complicated activities since it’s just a 
  frog turned into the simulacrum of a child. Vampiric Disciplines cannot be used to possess 
  simulacra of living creatures. Lastly, unless the Storyteller speciﬁ cally rules otherwise, this 
  ritual cannot be used to create sophisticated devices, extinct animals, rare elements or other 
  exotic creatures and substances. The ritual must result in a relatively mundane species or 
  material which appears in its normal state. Transubstantiating something into rock would 
  not for instance create lava. The substance or object reverts to its original form when the sun 
  next rises (though a person transformed into, say, ice and whose arm is broken off has both 
  portions of herself turn back to normal in different locations, and swiftly bleeds to death). 
  Supernatural creatures are unaffected by Transubstantiation.
  theban sorcery
  
  chapter two: character
  208
  If this power is used to affect another creature, the invocation is contested, pitting the 
  sorcerer’s Intelligence + Academics + Theban Sorcery against the subject’s Stamina  (resis-
  tance is reﬂ exive). The sorcerer must be able to see the subject to be changed, be within arm’s 
  length of it, and in the case of an unwilling target, the victim must be completely restrained 
  or otherwise subdued for this ritual to work. Even sleeping targets will immediately awaken 
  to ﬁ ght the power of this ritual. Objects held or worn by other characters cannot be changed 
  and attempts to use Transubstantiation on near-intangible objects such as air or ongoing 
  chemical reactions such as ﬁ re usually fail.
  At the Storyteller’s discretion, larger inanimate objects (but not living ones) may be trans-
  formed using this ritual, but summoning the requisite mystical strength requires a number 
  of additional casters to participate in the ritual. Additional casters are deﬁ ned as voluntary 
  participants who spend a Willpower point and somehow take part in the rite itself — holding 
  candles, drawing mystical symbols, chanting, et cetera. For every additional caster who actually 
  knows the ritual, every three casters who have at least Theban Sorcery 1 or every ﬁ ve additional 
  casters who do not have any knowledge of Theban Sorcery (but still actively participate), the 
  maximum Size of the targeted object (or the resultant one) rises by two. No matter the number 
  or sorcerers, however, Transubstantiation can never affect objects larger than Size 15.
  Offering: A drop of liquid gold
  WRATHFUL JUDGMENT (LEVEL-FIVE THEBAN SORCERY RITUAL)
  This ritual metes out divine punishment by turning a Kindred’s own Vitae to ﬁ re in his 
  veins. The ritual is unlike other Theban Sorcery practices in that the sorcerer “charges” the 
  ritual before the player makes the ﬁ nal draw, and that charge can consist of multiple points 
  of Willpower. (Remember, though, that a player may spend only a single point of Willpower 
  in a single turn, so invoking this power can take multiple turns.) Each point of Willpower 
  invested in this ritual deals one point of aggravated damage to the subject and consumes one 
  Vitae from her as the victim’s blood burns away in a conﬂ agration of divine ﬁ re. For more on 
  ﬁ re damage, see p. 243. If the sorcerer has some personal object of the subject’s, he may invoke 
  this ritual from anywhere in the same domain as the subject . Otherwise, the vampire must 
  be able to see his subject. The object must be of some importance to the intended victim — a 
  picture of his dead wife works, while his car keys or cell phone might not.  For a vampire or 
  ghoul, a pint of their blood would be satisfactory.
  This ritual has no effect on mortals or other supernatural beings. It does affect ghouls, 
  however. In addition to other damage limitations, the invocation of this ritual can never inﬂ ict 
  more than the Theban Sorcerer’s permanent Willpower rating in damage, and an individual 
  can only be targeted once every twenty-four hours by Wrathful Judgment. An attempted 
  Wrathful Judgment — whether successful or not — also destroys the personal object used in 
  it. This ritual can’t be used during the day or in downtime.
  The draw to activate this ritual is penalized by the subject’s Stamina + Resilience. If no 
  successes are drawn for the ritualist, all Willpower invested into the rite is lost.
  Offering: One of the casting vampire’s eyes or hands, either plucked out or cut off. The 
  Kindred suffers two points of lethal damage in the process.
  THE COILS OF THE DRAGON
  The Requiem presents Kindred with a number of advantages that no mortal can attain, 
  but the curse of vampirism far overshadows these petty powers. The vampires of the Ordo 
  Dracul, however, believe that such doesn’t have to be the case. Through the Coils of the 
  Dragon, this covenant strives to cheat the curse levied upon its founder, stripping away the 
  limitations and requirements of undeath until members achieve purity.
  
  209
  The Coils of the Dragon include three distinct philosophies, each of which has three 
  tiers. The Coils of the Dragon, like Crúac and Theban Sorcery, truly belong to no one clan. 
  Members of the covenant can study any or all of the coils, but they recognize that no vampire 
  has ever truly achieved mastery — at least, not to the Order’s knowledge. A character must 
  have at least one dot of Covenant Status (Ordo Dracul) in order to learn any Coils of the 
  Dragon. A player who takes at least one dot worth of that Merit at character creation may 
  spend one of his character’s three Discipline dots on the Coils of the Dragon if he wishes. 
  This expenditure doesn’t count toward his in-clan Discipline expenditure, however. Any time 
  a player wants to increase his character’s Coils of the Dragon score, the character must still 
  have at least one dot of Covenant Status (Ordo Dracul) to do so.
  Activating a tier of the coils requires no draw or asset expenditure in and of itself (though 
  some tiers augment draws or permit certain abilities when they might not otherwise be al-
  lowed). A character always has the option of using a tier available to him, and the beneﬁ ts of 
  the tier may be “turned off” at the Kindred’s discretion.
  New dots of the Coils of the Dragon are purchased like a Discipline, with the number of tiers 
  the character already commands serving as the current level and the “new level” being the next 
  to be achieved. For example, a character knows ﬁ ve tiers of the Coils of the Dragon. For him to 
  learn a sixth, his player has to spend 42 experience points (6 [the new level in the coil] times 7 
  [the experience-point multiplier for out-of-clan Disciplines]). Tiers must be learned in order in 
  each coil, though a character need not advance one coil to completion before he can advance 
  another. That is, a character with two tiers of Coil of Blood could learn the ﬁ rst tier of Coil 
  of the Beast without learning the third tier of Coil of Blood. Because the Coils of the Dragon 
  do not constitute a true Discipline, they are not limited by Blood Potency trait maximums. A 
  character need not have a Blood Potency of 6 to learn six different tiers of coils, for example. 
  Yet, increasingly more dots in a coil are always bought as if they’re out-of-clan Disciplines.
  THE COIL OF BLOOD
  Vampires must feed on living blood to survive, and only the weakest of the Kindred can draw 
  sustenance from the blood of animals. The Coil of Blood seeks to lift this requirement, allow-
  ing the Kindred to feed on their own terms, rather than forever be slaves to their hunger. 
  First Tier: Blood Seeps Slowly
  The Dragon’s undead body doesn’t demand as much Vitae to animate itself as do those of 
  other, less enlightened Kindred. The player need spend only one Vitae for his character to 
  wake for a number of nights equal to the vampire’s Resolve. So, a Kindred with a Resolve of 
  2 loses a Vitae every other night for rising. This slower Vitae loss also makes it easier to keep 
  a character’s Vitae levels high, since he can hunt at a slightly more leisurely pace. Rather than 
  make a hunting test before a chapter to determine how much Vitae he has when it begins, 
  the Dragon simply draws a single card from a standard deck. If it’s black, he enters play with 
  his Vitae pool full, minus the one point required to wake that night. If it’s red, he still enters 
  with 1/2 of his pool, rounded up. He need not risk the usual problems and complications 
  of failed hunting test, at least before play begins.
  Second Tier: Blood of Beasts
  No matter what the vampire’s Blood Potency is, she can take sustenance from animals 
  and humans.
  Third Tier: Perspicacious Blood
  The character gains three Vitae for every two Vitae she takes from a human, and receives 
  double the Vitae consumed from Kindred or other supernatural vessels. It is not possible to 
  “cycle” blood between two or more supernaturals to inﬁ nitely increase the Dragons’ Vitae 
  supply in this manner.
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  chapter two: character
  210
  THE COIL OF BANES
  The two major banes of the Requiem are ﬁ re and sunlight. Any attempt to conquer the 
  curse of vampirism must overcome these two obstacles. While no vampire has yet managed 
  to truly surmount them, the Coil of Banes provides a place to start.
  First Tier: Conquer the Red Fear
  The character gains a +2 bonus to resist fear frenzy triggered by ﬁ re or sunlight. Fear frenzies 
  triggered by other stimuli occur as normal.
  Second Tier: Surmounting the Daysleep
  The player can spend a Willpower point for the character to remain awake for an entire 
  day without penalty (though the character must still take precautions to remain out of the 
  sunlight and “waking” the next night still costs a Vitae). Test pools during the day are still 
  limited by Humanity (see p. 263). If the character does sleep and is disturbed, add three 
  points to the player’s wake-up draw. 
  Third Tier: Sun’s Forgotten Kiss
  Sunlight at twilight and dawn causes only bashing damage to the Dragon, rather than 
  aggravated. After the sun has fully risen, however, its rays cause aggravated damage as usual. 
  At sea or on a mountaintop, the sun might fully rise within a mere ﬁ ve minutes and take 
  some time to set (10 minutes). In a dense forest or deep in a city, the sun might rise slowly 
  (10 minutes) and set quickly (ﬁ ve minutes).
  THE COIL OF THE BEAST
  The Beast seeks always to subsume the Man, which is probably the most serious impairment on 
  the Coils of the Dragon. If legends are true, the order’s founder struggled with his Beast even be-
  fore his Embrace, so it only makes sense that he would have pioneered a means to control it.
  First Tier: Chastise the Beast
  The player spends a Willpower point for his character to resist a frenzy of any kind auto-
  matically. The player may choose to draw Resolve + Composure as usual for his character to 
  resist frenzy, spending the Willpower only if the draw fails.
  Second Tier: Lure the Beast
  “Riding the wave” does not cost a Willpower point, and it requires a base of only three 
  successes, not ﬁ ve. All other rules still apply (see p. 257).
  Third Tier: Exhaust the Beast
  The character may spend an hour per night in frenzy (usually doing so under controlled 
  conditions such as in a locked room or far from mortals). For the sake of game balance, this 
  hour generally must be taken from play time. For example, the character must arrive at the game 
  an hour late, or take an hour out of the game later on. For the rest of the night, the character 
  does not enter frenzy unless she wishes to do so, no matter how strong the trigger is.
  DEVOTIONS
  The rote Disciplines that are common to all Kindred are not the only supernatural capa-
  bilities at their disposal. Every so often, an entirely new Discipline “technique,” formed by a 
  curious combination of two or more standard powers, emerges from the ranks of the undead. 
  Like standard Disciplines, these techniques — called Devotions — can be learned from or taught 
  to other Kindred in much the same time frame and manner as the broader powers from which 
  they originate. Any vampire with the appropriate prerequisite Discipline dots can, in theory, 
  develop the Devotions for which he qualiﬁ es. It’s simply a matter of time and effort. 
  Some claim to have truly secret Devotions, however, and the claim does have some basis 
  in truth. Kindred may ﬁ nd themselves incapable of developing some of the more esoteric 
  techniques without a learned mentor at their side. Indeed, not all Kindred have even heard 
  
  211
  of Devotions. By their nature, they are far rarer than the common Disciplines are, and knowl-
  edge of them is a bit more ﬂ eeting than the understanding of the unique Disciplines that 
  sometimes accompany the creation of new bloodlines. Only a relative handful of Kindred 
  possess Devotions, and fewer still have been wise enough to create their own. Kindred may 
  learn of them through a “secret knowledge” a sire wishes to pass on to them, the conﬁ dences 
  of a mentor, stolen wisdom in the hands of rebellious vampires, or by any other manner in 
  which they come up in a story.
  Although any Kindred can potentially learn any Devotion as long as she has the Discipline 
  prerequisites, some measure of “creator’s pride” exists pertaining to each, depending upon 
  who claims to have developed the power ﬁ rst. Most of the Devotions stemming from and 
  involving the Protean Discipline are known as Gangrel Devotions, for example, while those 
  involving Theban Sorcery are referred to as Lancea Sanctum Devotions. 
  The following are sample Devotions that vampires might encounter and learn. Remember 
  that if a Devotion is turned against or applied to a vampire with whom the user has a blood 
  tie (see p. 228), a +2 bonus is gained on the power’s activation draw. For information on 
  creating one’s own Devotions, see p. 380.
  PERFECT STRANGER (AUSPEX ••••, OBFUSCATE ••••)
  The Familiar Stranger is a versatile and useful ability, but its use can become frustrating when 
  the vampire’s rather generic identity or limited disguise talents aren’t sufﬁ cient to allow him to 
  achieve his goals. Perfect Stranger serves as a short-term ﬁ x to that problem, allowing the character 
  to transcend the rather generic identities The Familiar Stranger is normally limited to, and instead 
  create the façade of a speciﬁ c individual. The character may use this power to mimic an existing 
  individual, or they may simply craft an illusory appearance entirely of their own devising. 
  This Devotion allows the vampire to circumvent the many of the restrictions of The Famil-
  iar Stranger. The Kindred can make any changes to her appearance that she likes: alter her 
  apparent age, modify her voice to suit her needs, adopt a different illusory wardrobe, change 
  her facial features, switch apparent genders, etc. She can even appear as a radically different 
  body type than her actual form. Thus, with this Devotion a six foot vampire can appear to be 
  a small child. However, the form must still fall within basic human parameters — the vampire 
  can now mimic a hideous Nosferatu (even if she is not deformed), but she cannot disguise 
  herself as an animal, nor can she appear to be some sort of nightmarish four-armed demon 
  or other similarly outlandish or impossible shapes. 
  However, it should be noted that because this power does not work on quite the same 
  supernatural principles as The Familiar Stranger, it does not share all of that power’s beneﬁ ts 
  either. While a vampire can appear to change her clothing with Perfect Stranger, she does not 
  have the ability to pass off one object for another. For example, if she appears to be a police 
  ofﬁ cer, a target will not see her driver’s license as a police badge as he might if she were using 
  The Familiar Stranger to assume the role of a police ofﬁ cer. On the other hand, with some 
  research or even some quick Telepathy she could potentially use this Devotion to take on 
  the appearance of a particular ofﬁ cer the target already trusts, which might avoid the need 
  to show a badge in the ﬁ rst place.
  A role adopted with The Familiar Stranger is thus typically less inﬂ uential or imposing with 
  regard to onlookers, but it’s also a lot easier to maintain since targets are naturally inclined 
  to accept the vampire’s presence and don’t tend to expect much from her speciﬁ cally. By 
  contrast, creating an identity or impersonating an individual with Perfect Stranger carries a 
  much greater risk of discovery, but in return it gives the vampire the capability to fool targets 
  in a much more precise and devastating way. Both powers therefore have advantages and 
  disadvantages to consider.
  the coils of the dragon • devotions
  
  chapter two: character
  212
  Like all Obfuscate-based powers, a façade created by Perfect Stranger does not  appear on 
  video equipment, nor will any apparent voice changes carry over on recording devices. Im-
  mediate observers using such devices are still fooled normally. 
  Cost: 1 Vitae
  Test Pool: Intelligence + Subterfuge + Obfuscate versus Resolve + Blood Potency
  Action: Contested; resistance is reﬂ exive
  A  failure on this test means that no change takes effect, though the vampire is aware of 
  this failure.  Success means that the vampire is perceived as having the appearance she desires 
  for the rest of the scene. 
  Once fooled, an onlooker cannot attempt to pierce the vampire’s disguise again unless 
  he does something that would betray his identity, in which case the subject may test Wits + 
  Awareness + Auspex against the vampire’s own test pool.
  A character with Auspex can potentially see through this disguise, as per the normal rules 
  for Auspex versus Obfuscate (see p. 159). 
  Perfect Stranger lasts for one scene, until the vampire drops the façade or the disguise is 
  prematurely dispelled somehow. 
  This power costs 21 experience points to learn.
  ARCANE SIGHT (AUSPEX ••, CRUAC •)
  Those who know this Devotion have learned how to expand their mystical sight by incorpo-
  rating rudiments of blood magic. Kindred with this power can use their Auspex to scrutinize 
  the auras of objects, as well as people, and may glean information from the eddies of power 
  that whorl through the world.
  Cost: 1 Vitae per scene
  Test Pool: Wits + Occult + Auspex
  Action: Instant
  Rather than sensing patterns of emotions as with Aura Perception, the user sees the ebb and 
  ﬂ ow of magical power. A Kindred possessing this Devotion can learn a variety of information, 
  including the following: whether an object (or person) has any magic of its own or is currently 
  under enchantment; whether the magic comes from the object or creature directly or from an 
  external source; the nature of the magic (beneﬁ cial, harmful, illusory); even detailed informa-
  tion as to the type and level of magic employed. Scrutinized individuals who are capable of 
  any sort of magic (vampiric or otherwise) always glow with sparkling crackles of energy. 
  Although this Devotion does identify sources of magic or items possessed of enchantments, 
  it does not reveal magic effects in action (such as a magical ﬁ reball or an illusion). Each success 
  on the activation draw yields one piece of information from the list above about the magic 
  in question. If use of this Devotion becomes reasonably common, the Storytelling staff may 
  even place task cards labeled “Arcane Sight” on important items or locations, which can only 
  be attempted by characters with this Devotion. 
  This power costs 10 experience points to learn.
  BODY OF WILL (RESILIENCE •••, VIGOR •)
  Truly tough Kindred can call upon personal reserves of will to shore up their toughness in 
  the face of adversity. By means of this Devotion, a vampire learns how to funnel his strength 
  of will through his supernaturally altered form, allowing him to shrug off the deleterious 
  effects of his wounds — for a time.
  Cost: 1 Vitae
  Test Pool: Composure + Athletics + Resilience
  Action: Reﬂ exive
  `
  
  213
  Each success gained on the activation draw allows the character to ignore any current wound 
  penalties, as well as any penalties he acquires from new wounds, for one turn. Therefore, if 
  three successes are drawn, the character is wound-penalty-free for the duration of the existing 
  turn and for two turns thereafter. A new Vitae expenditure and draw is required each time 
  the vampire wishes to reactivate the Devotion.
  This power costs 15 experience points to learn.
  INSTANTANEOUS TRANSFORMATION (CELERITY ••, PROTEAN ••••)
  Sometimes the shift into animal (or otherwise inhuman) form simply takes too long. De-
  veloped by the Gangrel, Instantaneous Transformation allows such a shift to take place, not 
  over the span of seconds, but literally in the blink of an eye.
  Cost: 1 Vitae (in addition to other costs required by the transformation)
  Test Pool: Stamina + Survival + Protean
  Action: Reﬂ exive
  Success on the activation draw indicates that the character transforms from his natural 
  human form into an alternate shape instantly — so fast, in fact, that he may still take a normal 
  action in that turn. If the draw fails, the character still transforms normally for the Protean 
  Discipline used (in the space of one turn). He simply loses the one Vitae for this Devotion, 
  and any other points must still be spent for the change itself. If a character is already in an 
  alternate form, changing again requires a normal instant action. 
  Note that this Devotion is most useful to those vampires who can exhaust multiple Vitae 
  in a single turn.
  This power costs 18 experience points to learn.
  IRON FACADE (OBFUSCATE ••, RESILIENCE ••)
  Sometimes intimidation is a vampire’s best weapon, particularly when facing an opponent 
  who is unaware of the Kindred’s true ability. Through the use of this power, the vampire 
  appears to shrug off even the mightiest of blows, to ignore wounds that should cripple even 
  one of the undead. Kindred with this power have been known to rout far more capable foes, 
  for the enemy truly believed that such vampires were invulnerable.
  Cost: 1 Vitae
  Test Pool: Intelligence + Survival + Obfuscate
  Action: Instant
  With a successful invocation draw, the character can hide the full extent of his injuries. 
  Wounds are invisible, and he does not appear to slow down, limp or grow weary. He seems 
  to function at full capability, regardless of how badly injured he actually is. Iron Façade does 
  not actually heal wounds or reduce test pool penalties. It simply appears to do so, making 
  it impossible for any observers to determine the character’s true condition. A player whose 
  character is using this Devotion need not announce any apparent injury as the result of an 
  attack, nor adopt any of the usual makeup or description tags associated with his wounds.
  Once activated, Iron Façade lasts for a scene or until the character is sent into torpor by his 
  wounds. A vampire with Auspex might be able to see through this power, as per the standard 
  Auspex-versus-Obfuscate rules (see p. 159).
  This power costs 10 experience points to learn.
  LESSONS IN THE STEEL (AUSPEX •, RESILIENCE •••)
  Some rather intrepid Kindred develop the ability to gain insight into a foe’s combat prowess 
  by willingly subjecting themselves to opponents’ attacks. Knowledge is power, after all, and any 
  vampire wounded in this way is gifted with power that can then be used against the enemy.
  devotions
  
  chapter two: character
  214
  Cost: 1 Vitae
  Test Pool: Resolve + Investigation + Resilience – opponent’s Resolve
  Action: Instant
  In order to activate this Devotion, the vampire must ﬁ rst suffer an attack from an opponent 
  that successfully inﬂ icts at least one point of damage of any type in close combat. Upon suffering 
  this wound, the vampire’s player makes the requisite draw. His test pool decreases by one for each 
  piece of information sought about the attacker (up to a maximum of ﬁ ve) beyond the ﬁ rst. The 
  information the character seeks must be related to combat or other martial prowess. For example, 
  Joe’s character wishes to learn two bits of relevant information about the Kindred who just hit 
  him, so Joe draws Resolve 3 + Investigation 2 + Resilience 3, minus one point for the second piece 
  of information sought. One success is achieved and the Storyteller reveals that the attacker has 
  great prowess with a blade (Weaponry 4), but rather poor follow-through (Strength 1). 
  This power has no effect on ranged attacks, nor on attacks that are themselves manifestations 
  of other Disciplines. Theban Sorcery’s Blood Scourge, for example, provides no information, 
  but an opponent invoking Vigor for a pummeling attack does.
  This power costs 12 experience points to learn.
  PARTIAL TRANSFORMATION (PROTEAN ••••, RESILIENCE •)
  With this power, any vampire who is capable of assuming a bestial or inhuman shape may 
  choose to stop the process partway through, granting herself a single aspect or trait of the 
  animal. The nose of a wolf allows for tracking prey, and the wings of a bat or bird — while 
  unable to provide true ﬂ ight, as the Kindred simply aren’t built for soaring — are useful for 
  breaking falls or gliding short distances. Technically, this power can also be used for sprout-
  ing claws, but as the Protean Discipline already allows for that effect such a use would be 
  somewhat redundant.
  Cost: 1 Vitae
  Test Pool: This power involves no draw to invoke.
  Action: Instant
  Once the transformation begins, the character halts it, granting herself only those animalistic 
  features that she chooses. Obviously, the character may take on only the qualities or features 
  of an animal she can already become through use of Protean. Thus, a character with two 
  alternate forms — a wolf and a bat — could assume wings or a wolf’s nose, but not the tail of 
  a scorpion or the eyes of a hawk. Partial transformations of this sort last for the duration of 
  the scene or until the character chooses to remove them.
  Use of this power provides a bonus of +1 or +2 to the circumstances in question, as 
  determined by the Storyteller. A character using a wolf’s nose might gain +2 to attempts to 
  track something by scent. Combat applications of this power add one die to attack draws 
  and inﬂ ict lethal damage. Needless to say, this power’s use should be marked with suitable 
  makeup or description cards.
  This power costs 15 experience points to learn.
  QUICKEN SIGHT (AUSPEX •, CELERITY •)
  With this power, the Kindred is able to combine her Heightened Senses and superhuman 
  reaction time to see fast-moving objects in detail that neither Discipline alone can reveal. She 
  can follow a speciﬁ c card in a deck as it’s shufﬂ ed, track the loaded chamber in a game of 
  Russian Roulette, pick out subliminal messages in a ﬁ lm or on television, and even read the 
  headline on a newspaper as she drives past the newsstand at 60 miles per hour.
  Cost: 1 Vitae
  Test Pool: This power involves no draw to invoke.
  
  215
  Action: Reﬂ exive
  Any time the character wishes to observe, follow or examine something that moves too 
  quickly to follow with normal sight, the player may add +5 to a Wits + Composure test pool 
  while this Devotion is active. (Especially fast-moving or small items might impose a penalty of 
  -1 to -3 on the draw, at the Storyteller’s discretion, for a net +2 to +4 bonus.) Quicken Sight 
  lasts for the duration of a scene.
  This power costs ﬁ ve experience points to learn.
  TOUCH OF DEPRIVATION (AUSPEX ••••, DOMINATE ••)
  With a simple touch, the Kindred can temporarily shut down one of a victim’s ﬁ ve senses. 
  This Devotion is most frequently used as a combat or interrogative tool to blind or deafen a 
  subject, but it can just as easily be used to negate one of the other senses. In fact, a vampire 
  who is immune to pain does not suffer wound penalties, so some Kindred have been known 
  to use this power on their allies in a crisis.
  Cost: 1 Vitae
  Test Pool: Intelligence + Medicine + Auspex versus Resolve + Blood Potency (if the subject 
  is unwilling)
  Action: Contested; instant if the subject is willing
  The character must touch the subject (see “Touching an Opponent” in the Mind’s Eye 
  Theatre rulebook, p. 217) or an unarmed attack might be made. Once contact is established, 
  the contested draw is made if the subject is resistant. If the player gets the most successes, 
  the vampire chooses which of the ﬁ ve senses is negated. The victim goes blind, deaf or is 
  otherwise impaired. If an equal number of successes is drawn or the subject gets more, the 
  power has no effect.  This effects of this power last for a scene. (See “Fighting Blind” in the 
  Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook, p. 227.)
  If the vampire possesses a higher Auspex than the subject, she may negate a supernatural 
  sense (such as The Spirit’s Touch), rather than one of the mundane ﬁ ve.
  This power costs 21 experience points to learn.
  VERIDICAL TONGUE (DOMINATE ••, MAJESTY ••)
  With this power, a character is able to sift through the tide of Kindred lies by rendering 
  one subject unable to speak anything but the entire truth as he knows it. Lies cannot escape 
  his mouth, nor is his tongue able to utter them. Targets may choose to remain silent, of 
  course, but when they speak, they simply can’t lie, even by omission. The subject must be in 
  the Discipline’s user’s presence when this power is invoked.
  Cost: 1 Vitae
  Test Pool: Presence + Subterfuge + Majesty – Composure
  Action: Instant
  If the draw is successful, the target must speak the truth for a number of minutes equal 
  to the successes gained. He may choose not to speak at all, but silence often equates to guilt 
  among the Kindred.
  This power costs 12 experience points to learn.
  devotions
  
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  216
  chapter three:  special rules and systems
  216
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  217
  217
  I am Beauty, I am Youth, I am Life. Come to 
  me! Together we shall be Love. Can Jehovah offer 
  thee aught, in exchange? Our lives will ﬂ ow on 
  like a dream, in one eternal kiss.
  —Theopile Gautier, 
  “La Morte Amoureuse”
  Chapter Three: 
  Special Rules 
  and Systems
  
  mind’s eye theatre: requiem
  218
  chapter three:  special rules and systems
  218
  In addition to the powers and advantages provided by such aspects of the Requiem as Blood 
  Potency and Disciplines, vampires are subject to certain physical, mental and emotional states 
  outside those of the mortals through whose world they secretly move. This chapter describes 
  and explains a number of special rules and conditions that apply to Kindred characters alone, 
  or that affect the undead differently than they affect mortals.
  Topics covered in this chapter include the following.
  • Properties of the Blood: How the Kindred acquire and use Vitae, in addition to the 
  unique effects it has on vampires.
  • The Predator’s Taint: How vampires instinctively react to one another.
  • The Traditions: How the physiological laws of being affect the undead, as well as the 
  restrictions (and protections) it places on them.
  • Damage, Wounds and Healing: Suffering harm is inevitable when one becomes a vampire, 
  and recovering from it is paramount. Torpor is handled herein as well.
  • Frenzy: From fear frenzies to hunger frenzies to berserk rampages, the Kindred are given 
  to ﬁ ts of uncontrollable passion.
  • Humanity: How the Kindred stave off the wiles of the Beast Within, and the toll its 
  actions take upon their sense of morality.
  • Derangements: When a Kindred’s mental or moral state erodes, she sometimes exhibits 
  dangerous psychological quirks.
  • Golconda and Other Means of Transcendence: Some Kindred believe that vampirism 
  itself can be overcome, its curse overturned by good works or a greater understanding of the 
  Kindred condition.
  • Status and the Danse Macabre: Kindred jockey endlessly for position in their gilded 
  cages, trading favors and drawing strength from their clans and covenants. 
  Properties of the Blood
  More than anything else, blood deﬁ nes the Kindred. Within seconds after a vampire 
  consumes blood, the vital ﬂ uid changes into something quite different that the Kindred 
  call Vitae. Vampire Vitae looks like mortal blood, but it doesn’t ﬂ ow like mortal blood. A 
  vampire’s Vitae moves through her body at the behest of the character’s will, not because of 
  a beating heart. Kindred don’t bleed when they are wounded; Vitae might pool slightly in 
  the wound, but it does not ﬂ ow forth unless the vampire wills it to do so.
  Vitae retains its supernatural properties for a few minutes after it leaves a vampire’s body 
  and is exposed to air, then it reverts to ordinary blood. A scientist who examines a sample of 
  former Vitae would ﬁ nd a mixture of blood from many sources, with some of the cells broken 
  down. Some Theban Sorcery practitioners know procedures to preserve the supernatural 
  power of Vitae outside a vampire’s body, and blood that came from a vampire always retains 
  a mystical connection that ritualists can exploit.
  Kindred employ their Vitae for many purposes. As a vampire calls upon the occult power in her 
  stolen blood, the actual mass and volume of Vitae in her body decreases. As a character uses up her 
  Vitae, her skin tightens and blanches and her body shrinks slightly. She looks less alive. Feeding 
  enables her to restore her lifelike appearance — as lifelike as the character can manage, anyway.
  A player may spend Vitae in the same turn in which he spends a point of Willpower. Spending 
  a Vitae is always a reﬂ exive action. Even if the actions that doing so enable might not always be 
  reﬂ exive themselves (such as with certain Disciplines), the act of spending the Vitae is.
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  219
  219
  USING BLOOD RESPONSIBLY
  Please remember that The Requiem is just a game. No actual bloodletting or blood-
  drinking of any kind should ever occur during play. Likewise, no quantity of real blood 
  should ever be brought to the game in any sort of container, even as a prop. Such 
  practices are not only highly disturbing to onlookers, but pose a health risk as well. 
  Lastly, be aware that excessively bloody makeup or costuming may cause bystanders 
  to summon the authorities. Even if used well out of sight of non-players, fake blood 
  can still stain costuming, carpeting, props and other essentials, so make sure to apply 
  and monitor it very carefully.
  WAKING UP
  A vampire expends one Vitae in the course of his daily slumber. If a Kindred falls asleep 
  without any Vitae in his body (an unlikely event, but it could happen), he enters a longer 
  torpor for a duration set by his Humanity and Blood Potency, just as if he had lost all his 
  Health points to lethal damage. See the rules for torpor that follow.
  For accounting on the character sheet, mark off the Vitae when the character awakens. 
  Usually, the Vitae is counted as being spent at nightfall, the normal time for vampires to rise. 
  If a Kindred forces herself to wake up during the day, the character must expend a Vitae. If 
  the vampire lets herself sleep again before night falls, she expends another Vitae when she 
  rises again that evening.
  COUNTERFEITING LIFE
  Although vampires are dead, they can imitate some of the things that living people do. The 
  Damned know this process as “the blush of life.” A Kindred can force Vitae into his outer 
  tissues to give his skin a lifelike ﬂ ush, or to force his heart to beat and his lungs to inhale and 
  exhale in a normal rhythm. Kindred who want to engage in sexual intercourse — perhaps to 
  feed upon a suitably distracted mortal vessel, or perhaps for simple pleasure — can force blood 
  to the appropriate section of anatomy as well.
  Normally vampires vomit up any food or drink they consume immediately. If a Kindred 
  wishes to consume food or drink, her player must spend a Vitae. This is in addition to the 
  “blush of life” a character may have already paid during the scene, though a character need 
  not invoke the blush of life to be able to consume food. At the end of the scene, the character 
  noisily, messily and bloodily eliminates the consumed matter by way of regurgitation, so it’s 
  best to make sure that no one’s around to see the Kindred afterward.
  Imitating the appearance and functions of life or the ability to consume food for one scene 
  costs a character one Vitae, and both expenditures are reﬂ exive. 
  Players whose characters employ the blush of life may forgo applying makeup to portray a 
  suitably vampiric countenance, since they can pass for human at casual inspection. Indeed, 
  some troupes may even require players to have their characters spend Vitae on the blush of life 
  if they do not wear some sort of vampiric makeup, to balance things with the other players 
  who made the effort to look appropriately undead. 
  PHYSICAL AUGMENTATION
  A vampire can call upon his Vitae to enhance his muscular power, speed and agility, or 
  ability to withstand harm. In rules terms, for each Vitae the player expends, he adds two 
  points to one Physical test pool — one based on Strength, Dexterity or Stamina. This boost 
  lasts for one turn and is a reﬂ exive action, ignoring Initiative. Enhancing Attributes with 
  properties of the blood • waking up • counterfeiting life • physical augementation
  
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  220
  chapter three:  special rules and systems
  220
  Vitae does not change a character’s damage limits in any way and only changes test pools, 
  not the actual Attributes themselves.
  Example: Eamon is beset by three foolish street thugs who think they can mug him walking through 
  the park one night. Eamon feels reluctant to endanger the Masquerade by using Disciplines, so he 
  resolves to give the thugs a thorough but still mundane thrashing. Picking up a stout branch from the 
  ground nearby as the young toughs advance (and wishing he had his broadsword instead), Eamon calls 
  on the Blood.
  Thanks to his Blood Potency of 6, Eamon can expend three Vitae in each turn. He fed earlier in the 
  night, so he has a full 15 Vitae. Eamon sees that all three punks carry guns, so he decides that his ﬁ rst 
  priority is to not get shot. Three Vitae are pumped into his Strength, raising his test pool by six. This 
  tremendous boost deals quite a drubbing to one of the thugs. The additional Strength (Eamon’s player 
  turns over three Vitae slips to the Narrator.) On the next turn, Eamon’s player spends two more Vitae, 
  again boosting his damage as he pounds another one of the hooligans senseless. The stoic Gangrel doesn’t 
  mind expending so much Vitae on the ﬁ ght. After he batters the punks unconscious, he plans to restore 
  his losses from their veins.
  HEALING WOUNDS
  A vampire can also use Vitae to heal wounds. See p. 244 for details, as the subjects of wounds 
  and healing are signiﬁ cantly different for Kindred than they are for mortals. Spending Vitae to 
  heal wounds is a reﬂ exive action that doesn’t require a character to wait for her Initiative.
  DISCIPLINE USE
  Most Disciplines do not cost Vitae to use. Some of the most formidable powers do, how-
  ever, as do the rituals of Crúac, Devotions and the rare, exotic Disciplines known to some 
  bloodlines. See each power or ritual to see how much they cost.
  BLOOD ADDICTION
  Even mortals can taste the stolen life that charges them with power and turns them into 
  ghouls (see p. 233). That power makes Vitae the most delicious taste in the world. What 
  could satisfy more than life itself? Stolen fruit is always sweetest. Anyone — mortal, animal, 
  vampire or other — who drinks a vampire’s blood risks becoming addicted to it. They want 
  to taste that power again. A character might know perfectly well that this bloodthirst could 
  enslave him, maybe even destroy him, but knowing doesn’t make the thirst easier to resist. 
  Just like an alcoholic offered a shot of whiskey, it’s all too easy to swear that you’ll quit 
  — after this one.
  In rules terms, any time a character who has imbibed Vitae receives a chance to do so 
  again, the player draws Resolve + Composure. A single success allows the character to resist 
  the temptation.
  The more one gives in, the harder it is to exercise self-control. Each time a character gives in 
  to the thirst for Vitae, subsequent attempts to resist temptation suffer a cumulative -1 penalty 
  on the Resolve + Composure draw. Eventually, the character’s Resolve + Composure test pool 
  drops to zero and a chance draw is all that’s left. At that point, the character is completely 
  addicted. Not only does he have very little chance to resist the thirst, he doesn’t want to. 
  A derangement (see p. 268) is imposed instantly if the player draws an Ace  on a Resolve + 
  Composure draw to resist the temptation of the Blood.
  Addicted mortals and animals often become obsessed with drinking mundane blood, 
  thinking that they might gain some power by doing so. They also frequently grow obsessively 
  dependent on any vampire who supplies their Vitae, becoming willing to do anything — any-
  
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  thing! — for another ﬁ x. The Kindred exploit such addiction, but doing so carries its own 
  risks. Obsession can take many strange forms. Ghouls might preemptively punish themselves 
  for imaginary infractions, to show “the master” the depth of their loyalty. Two ghouls might 
  become insanely jealous of each other, and do their best to sabotage each other without dis-
  obeying their domitor’s plans in the process. A ghoul might think that his master speaks in 
  his mind, telling him to do things. Others suffer even stranger varieties of insanity.
  Addicted Kindred have been known to wound themselves to lap at their own blood. Vitae 
  addicts also often turn to diablerie in their search for an even greater rush. The connection 
  between Vitae addiction and diablerie is so strong that many Kindred simply assume that a 
  known Vitae addict is also a diablerist and blame him for any unexplained disappearances 
  of local Kindred. If no one has disappeared, the Prince and Primogen might still order the 
  Vitae addict to be chained and driven into torpor. Twenty-ﬁ ve years of torpor — long enough 
  for a vampire’s Blood Potency to drop by one — cures Vitae addiction… or at least the physical 
  craving. The memory of pleasure can start the cycle all over again, but at least the character’s 
  test pool to resist Vitae is reset to the standard.
  If a mortal or Kindred character can resist the lure of Vitae, a +1 bonus is gained to 
  subsequent attempts to deny the thirst. The character can beat her nascent addiction if 
  the player ever scores  four successes on a single Resolve + Composure draw. It’s as if the 
  character never tasted Vitae at all. If she drinks vampire blood again, however, she feels the 
  thirst once more.
  When a character falls short of complete addiction, the thirst for Vitae can fade with time, 
  as long as the character avoids temptation. For each year in which a character stays away from 
  any exposure to Kindred blood, one point is added to Resolve + Composure pools to avoid 
  temptation.
  SPECIAL EXCEPTIONS
  In certain special cases, Kindred can drink another vampire’s blood without risking 
  Vitae addiction. Most importantly, the Vitae consumed during the Embrace does not 
  provoke a further thirst for vampire blood. Compared to the shattering power of 
  the Embrace itself, the addictive qualities of Vitae are as a light breeze compared to 
  a hurricane.
  Some rituals also require one vampire to drink another’s blood. Such blood rites 
  do not addict participants. In such cases, however, the Kindred use small quantities of 
  Vitae, and the ritual channels the blood’s power to a speciﬁ c goal. The ordinary Vitae-
  junkie just lets the power roll over him. It’s the difference between a doctor prescribing 
  an opiate and a ﬁ end shooting up. The drug is the same, but the application, the 
  effects and the dangers are very different.
  ELDERS, ADDICTION AND DIABLERIE
  Vitae addiction does not seem to become a problem for vampires who are so old and potent 
  that mortal blood no longer sustains them. They must feed on other Kindred, but they do not 
  seem to suffer the derangements and lack of control of most Vitae addicts… unless they commit 
  diablerie. In that case, the elder risks diablerie addiction. (Indeed, merely drinking vampire 
  blood is different from the act of diablerie — described momentarily.) Diablerie addiction 
  works just like Vitae addiction, but a player must draw her character’s Resolve + Composure 
  for her to resist the urge to diablerize another vampire, even if the character knows her crime 
  could be discovered in a short time and bring her destruction. Few threats inspire as much 
  terror among the Kindred as the possibility of such a diablerie-crazed elder.
  healing wounds • discipline use • blood addiction
  
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  DIABLERIE
  The act of diablerie, sometimes known by the poetic name of Amaranth after a ﬂ ower that 
  never fades, is the process of drinking not only a Kindred’s Vitae, but her very soul. Needless 
  to say, diablerie is a heinous crime, much feared and punished by elders, and much misun-
  derstood and mystifying to young Kindred. If drinking Kindred Vitae is looked down upon 
  by other Kindred, the act of diablerie is held as an ultimate sin against both the Damned as 
  a whole and their society proper.
  To call it a crime doesn’t do it justice, as diablerie provides a host of beneﬁ ts along with its 
  detriments and social stigmas. This is why the elders fear it — it is potentially an equalizer for 
  young Kindred looking to cheat their way toward power, instead of letting time and experi-
  ence hone the power of the Blood.
  COMMITTING DIABLERIE
  Diablerie itself is a fairly straightforward act. Most importantly, the potential victim must 
  be staked or in torpor, when the soul is sluggish enough to be caught off guard, and the body 
  is placid. Most would-be diablerists attempt their crimes on Kindred who are already staked 
  or already in torpor, and little ignites the passions of power-hungry neonates like the rumor 
  of a torpid elder. It is not unknown, however, for particularly violent Kindred to beat their 
  victims into torpor themselves.
  The diablerist must drink all of the Vitae the subject has in his system. Thereafter, the 
  diablerist must keep drinking, sucking at the blasphemous essence that animates the Damned. 
  Diablerie can beneﬁ t only one vampire; it is not possible for a coterie of diablerists to con-
  sume the soul of a single Kindred and spread it among themselves. In the event of multiple 
  Kindred attempting diablerie on a single target, the ﬁ rst one to win the draw series outlined 
  as follows is the only one who reaps the beneﬁ ts — and penalties — of diablerie. Should 
  multiple vampires tie during this draw series, whoever has the highest natural test pool is 
  victorious. Should this continue to result in a tie, any randomized process should sufﬁ ce to 
  determine the outcome.
  Consuming the soul requires a Resolve + Stamina draw on the part of the diablerist’s 
  player. This is an extended action. A number of successes must be accumulated equal to the 
  Willpower dots of the Kindred being diablerized. Each draw represents one turn of effort. It 
  is advised that the Storyteller does the record keeping, so the player doesn’t know exactly what 
  happens to his character, at least immediately. Circumstance penalties (such as those associated 
  with wounds and supernatural curses) apply to Resolve + Stamina draws. Furthermore, if the 
  attacking character is in frenzy or “rides the wave” (see p. 247) when attempting diablerie, 
  draws suffer an additional -3 penalty. Attempting diablerie has a limit of draws equal to the 
  diablerist’s Willpower dots. If the required successes haven’t been accumulated in that many 
  draws, the victim’s soul is just too potent or resistant and cannot be consumed. The victim 
  is consigned to Final Death, instead.
  A player may not spend a Willpower point on a diablerie draw, nor do any augmentations 
  of his character’s Attributes (through blood expenditure, Disciplines or mystic artifacts) apply. 
  Only the character’s natural Resolve and Stamina are relevant.
  Failure: The character makes no further progress in consuming the soul of the victim, as 
  the soul ﬁ ghts to elude consumption. In the case of two consecutive failures, the victim’s 
  soul wrenches free at the moment of its consumption, inﬂ icting horriﬁ c trauma on the mind 
  of the diablerist. The diablerist suffers the normal Humanity loss (see p. 251) and gains an 
  appropriate derangement of the Storyteller’s choice. The victim succumbs to Final Death 
  and cannot be diablerized.
  
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  Success: The character continues to draw the soul of the fallen Kindred into his own.
  After all of a victim’s Vitae has been taken, but before all successes are achieved in consum-
  ing the subject’s soul, a diablerist in possession of his faculties can cease to feed at any time 
  and allow the victim to reach Final Death in (relative) peace.
  Upon diablerie’s completion, the Humanity of the diablerist drops by one automatically. 
  He also gains the beneﬁ ts and drawbacks described here. A diablerized Kindred crumbles to 
  ash immediately, regardless of how old her body actually was upon the Amaranth.
  BENEFITS OF DIABLERIE
  If the diablerized vampire had a higher Blood Potency than the Kindred committing the 
  Amaranth, the diablerist’s Blood Potency immediately increases by one. Blood Potency in-
  creases by only one, regardless of the difference between the vampires’ Blood Potencies. This 
  increase need not be paid for with experience points, though it still must be properly veriﬁ ed 
  and recorded by a member of the Storytelling staff. 
  In consuming the fallen Kindred’s soul, the diablerist actually consumes some of her 
  knowledge as well. The diablerist acquires a single dot of either a Skill or a Discipline that 
  the diablerized vampire possessed at a higher level than the diablerist does. This adds to the 
  diablerist’s dots in that Skill or Discipline, even if he didn’t have any dots at all in the Skill 
  or Discipline before. For example, if a neonate with Obfuscate 3 diablerizes an elder who 
  has Obfuscate 2, the neonate may not take an additional dot of Obfuscate. He already knows 
  more than the elder with regard to that Discipline. The diablerist may not take a dot in a 
  bloodline’s unique Discipline unless he is also a member of that bloodline (see p. 373). Also, 
  a diablerist may not exceed the trait maximum imposed by his Blood Potency (although if 
  that Blood Potency now increases to a level that allows a higher level of those traits, he enjoys 
  the beneﬁ t of that newly raised Blood Potency when deciding which dot of what to acquire). 
  This increase need not be paid for with experience points, though again it must be veriﬁ ed 
  by the Storytelling staff.
  It should be noted that the only beneﬁ t to diablerizing a vampire of lower Blood Potency 
  is acquiring an extra dot in a Discipline or Skill. All of the detriments still apply, however.
  DRAWBACKS OF DIABLERIE
  As noted prior, when a vampire commits diablerie, his Humanity decreases by one au-
  tomatically. The Humanity draw that follows this loss to check for a derangement occurs 
  normally; see p. 260.
  A vampire committing the Amaranth risks blood addiction as normal when he consumes 
  his fallen foe’s Vitae and soul. See p. 220 for more information on blood addiction. This 
  risk isn’t redundant — the vampire need not check for addiction right as he tastes his victim’s 
  Vitae and then again as it turns into diablerie.
  Finally, the act of Amaranth stains the diablerist’s own soul upon its commission. The 
  character’s aura acquires telltale black veins that reveal her crime to those who can scrutinize 
  such things (see p. 161). These black veins remain in the diablerist’s aura for  one year per 
  dot of Blood Potency the victim possessed. This time is cumulative; a vampire who diablerizes 
  two Kindred of Blood Potency 6 has veins in his aura for 72 months. If a character diabler-
  izes his victims months apart, the additional months add on to the end of last. For example, 
  if a Kindred diablerizes a vampire of Blood Potency 4 and a year later diablerizes a vampire 
  of Blood Potency 5, the black veins appear in her aura for 42 months following the second 
  diablerie — or perhaps even longer, if she keeps to her wicked ways and diablerizes again.
  diablerie
  
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  OPTIONAL RULE: DIABLERIE DURATION
  The standard diablerie duration listed was designed to suit an ongoing chronicle 
  expected to run between two to four years, which holds chapters roughly once a 
  month or every other month. Consuming the souls of powerful Kindred will likely 
  stay with the character for the rest of the chronicle (as it should), but a wily vampire 
  might be able to get away with a less potent meal if she’s careful. If this standard 
  diablerie duration does not suit the game, however, the Storyteller may  use the 
  short diablerie rules: This option is designed for shorter chronicles, or chronicles of 
  any length where the Storyteller does not mind having diablerie be slightly easier 
  to hide. With this option, tell-tale black veins persist in the diablerist’s aura for  six 
  months per dot of the victim’s Blood Potency.
  OPTION RULE: SOUL SHARDS
  If a Kindred diablerizes another vampire with a Blood Potency at least two points 
  higher than her own, the overwhelming strength of the older vampire’s mind may 
  crush the weaker soul, resulting in the body being taken over by the diablerized 
  vampire after a successful diablerie. The diablerized character makes a reﬂ exive 
  contested draw of Willpower vs. the diablerist’s Stamina + Blood Potency without any 
  bonuses from Willpower, Vitae, Disciplines or sorcery. If both get an equal number 
  of successes, additional draws are made until a winner emerges. If the diablerist gets 
  more successes, nothing unusual happens. If the diablerized character gets more 
  successes then her soul takes over the diablerist’s body, destroying that soul entirely. 
  The resulting vampire gets no beneﬁ ts from the diablerie and retains all of the 
  diablerist’s dots as their minds merge - with one exception: Any Discipline and sorcery 
  dots not possessed by both vampires are permanently lost. A point of Humanity is 
  lost in the process of the bestial act that includes the destruction of another soul. 
  Her Advantages are then recalculated. The Storyteller should assign an appropriate 
  Derangement, signifying the traumatic act of having one’s mind crushed and then 
  freed in such an inhumane fashion.
  LIMITATIONS
  Only vampires can commit diablerie. Ghouls, werewolves, mortals and the like aren’t Kin-
  dred, so they lack the ability to consume the souls of the Damned. Furthermore, only vampires 
  can be diablerized. Those selfsame ghouls, werewolves or mortals do not have the same spark 
  of undeath animating them, so their souls cannot be consumed in this manner.
  A vampire in Golconda cannot be diablerized. A would-be diablerist can certainly try, but 
  the Kindred’s soul eludes the consumption. In a situation like this, make the draws as normal 
  (in this case, it is certainly better for the Storyteller to draw for the player), but tell the player 
  that the character feels that something isn’t quite right as she commits the baneful act.
  A diablerized vampire never leaves behind a ghost, as the diablerist consumes the soul that 
  might become one of the lingering dead.
  AN EXAMPLE OF DIABLERIE
  Danny the Ventrue is supposed to deliver a message to a Daeva contact. When he arrives at the 
  meeting place, he ﬁ nds nothing but a trail of blood and a torpid Nosferatu in bad shape. Danny ﬁ gures 
  that he has a golden opportunity before him — he’ll diablerize the Nosferatu and if anyone raises a fuss, 
  he can implicate the missing Daeva.
  The torpid Nosferatu has only one Vitae remaining, which Danny quickly devours. Thereafter, the 
  process of diablerie begins, and Danny has seven turns in which to succeed, as his Willpower is 7. The 
  Storyteller draws Danny’s Resolve + Stamina, gaining two successes. The Nosferatu also has a Willpower 
  of 7, so Danny needs ﬁ ve more successes to complete the deed, but he doesn’t know this. Danny chooses 
  to continue, so the Storyteller draws again, this time acquiring three more successes. Danny presses on, 
  
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  determined to complete the deed in spite of this tough old Haunt’s tenacity. The Storyteller yields two 
  more successes in the third turn, signifying that the diablerie is complete.
  Danny’s Humanity automatically drops from 5 to 4 to pay for his base treachery, so his player draws 
  four times to determine whether Danny gains a derangement. Sure enough, he fails, and the Storyteller 
  decides that Danny acquires the derangement of narcissism. Flush with his new power (but secretly afraid 
  someone will expose his scheme), Danny feels on top of the world and has trouble hiding his supremely 
  conﬁ dent demeanor from others around him. On the other hand, the Ventrue feels a rush of power. 
  The Nosferatu had a Blood Potency of 3 and Danny’s was only 2, so it now rises to 3. In addition, he 
  chooses to acquire a dot of Obfuscate, which he didn’t know at all before.
  Now all Danny has to do is hope that no one studies his aura for the next , as the black veins therein will 
  remain for that long. With any luck and his new knowledge of Obfuscate, he’ll be able to lie low long enough 
  to allay any undue attention. Helping him in that aim will be Kindred suspicion of the Daeva contact.
  THE VINCULUM
  The addictive power of Vitae takes a special twist if a mortal or Kindred repeatedly tastes 
  the blood of a single Kindred. In this case, an emotional dependence on that speciﬁ c vampire 
  adds to the general thirst for Vitae. The Kindred call this dependence the Vinculum, the 
  blood bond or the blood oath. The vampire who created the bond is called the regnant; the 
  bound Kindred or mortal is the thrall.
  Some Kindred say that the Vinculum is the closest the Damned come to true love. If such 
  is accurate, it is a terrible letdown, as the Vinculum is artiﬁ cial and empty. It is not true love; 
  it is simply a supernatural approximation. For many Kindred, it is a painful reminder of 
  what they once had available to them as mortals, while the emotions they experience in the 
  Requiem are little more than echoes of those lost feelings. The victim of a blood bond feels 
  utterly devoted to his regnant and does nearly anything she asks. Dominate cannot overpower 
  the thrall’s feelings for his regnant. Majesty imposes feelings for other Kindred, but it cannot 
  negate the Vinculum’s hold.
  The Kindred most often apply the Vinculum to mortals. A ghoul is, necessarily, blood bound 
  after a period of days, weeks or even months. Kindred can also bond other Kindred. No one, 
  however, can be thrall to more than one regnant. A Vinculum to one Kindred precludes the 
  character becoming bound to another vampire, as long as the regnant still exists.
  ATTITUDES TOWARD THE VINCULUM
  Most Kindred feel a healthy fear of the Vinculum. They know how their kind treats its 
  slaves, and they shudder at the thought of becoming the pawns of one of their fellow mon-
  sters. In most cities, the Prince or other dignitaries threaten to apply the Vinculum only as 
  a punishment for misbehavior. A Prince who too often orders other Kindred to submit to 
  his regnancy might provoke a rebellion. Kindred who believe that love can be eternal (if not 
  entirely natural) might drink each other’s blood to form a mutual bond. They also recognize 
  that their mutual bond protects them from ever becoming bound to anyone else.
  The Invictus tolerates the Vinculum more than any other covenant does. Its elders see the 
  blood oath as another tool by which they can rule over their juniors. In some cities, elders 
  routinely blood bond their childer and all of their line. In most cities, however, a sire may not 
  subject her childe to the Vinculum without special permission from the Prince. Princes do 
  not like Kindred who love their sires more than they fear their rulers. Invictus elders accept 
  such prohibitions because opposing them would turn too many Kindred against the covenant 
  and would too blatantly contradict the covenant’s pretense of meritocracy.
  The other covenants generally disapprove of Vinculums, or at least their members say they 
  do. The Ordo Dracul sees Vinculums as distractions, emotional baggage that diverts atten-
  diablerie • the vinculum
  
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  tion best focused elsewhere. The Lancea Sanctum holds that Kindred should serve only God 
  and Longinus. The Carthians see Vinculums as the acme of antidemocratic elder tyranny, 
  while the unbound simply loathe submitting to anyone else. The Circle of the Crone merely 
  notes that while Kindred should accept the Vinculum as one more aspect of their existence, 
  forcing a Kindred into a blood oath serves no spiritual purpose. Political or spiritual dogma 
  seldom prevents members of these covenants from blood bonding other Kindred when it 
  suits their purposes, though.
  GAME MECHANICS
  Each time a character drinks another Kindred’s blood, the character’s emotional bond to 
  her grows stronger. A character may have several partial Vinculums to any number of Kindred. 
  Once an actual third-stage Vinculum forms, however, all other partial Vinculums vanish.
  The ﬁ rst taste generates a mild interest, but the delicious power in the Vitae outweighs any 
  personal interest. The character knows that the other vampire tastes good. The donor of the 
  blood gains no particular hold over the character.
  The second drink generates a stronger connection between the two Kindred, quite apart from 
  potential Vitae addiction. The imbibing character considers the blood’s donor an important 
  ﬁ gure in his unlife, though he is hardly enslaved. The character’s interest might take the form 
  of affection, trust, admiration or protectiveness, depending on the character’s personality. The 
  Storyteller might ask the character’s player to attempt a Resolve + Composure draw if the char-
  acter tries to attack the nascent regnant, or seriously harm her interests. The other vampire’s 
  player, meanwhile, receives a +1 bonus to all Social draws directed at the nascent thrall.
  The third drink probably creates the complete Vinculum. Usually it does, so most Kindred 
  believe “three drinks, you’re bound.” Strong-willed or strong-blooded Kindred sometimes resist 
  the third drink, though. The third time a character drinks a potential regnant’s blood, ask 
  the player for a Stamina + Resolve draw (using the character’s natural dots in those Attributes 
  only). Adjust the draw by the difference between the two Kindred’s Blood Potency dots. If 
  the potential thrall has the higher Blood Potency, add the difference. If the potential regnant 
  has the higher Blood Potency, subtract the difference. If the adjusted Stamina + Resolve draw 
  generates  four successes, the Vinculum doesn’t “take,” though the potential thrall still feels 
  great affection for the would-be regnant. If the character drinks the other vampire’s blood a 
  fourth time, call for another adjusted Stamina + Resolve draw to see if the bond forms this 
  time. Eventually, any vampire must succumb.
  In the case of multiple Kindred’s blood being consumed simultaneously (such as through 
  commingled blood in a group ritual, for example), if the potential exists for multiple third-stage 
  Vinculums being formed, the most potent Blood takes precedence. If that Vinculum fails to 
  form, move down to the next most potent blood, and so on. If multiple vampires’ blood is 
  equally potent, determine randomly which of those equally potent Vitae takes precedence. 
  For example, Armand the Gangrel is two steps toward a Vinculum to the other two mem-
  bers of his coterie. They all share blood in a chalice passed around before a night of raising 
  hell. Since this is Armand’s third taste of both of his coterie-mates’ Vitae, he might become 
  subject to a Vinculum to either of them. He makes his ﬁ rst check for a Vinculum toward the 
  coterie-mate with the highest Blood Potency. If that Vinculum doesn’t form, he checks for a 
  Vinculum with the other coterie-mate. 
  A character whose Blood Potency is higher than that of the blood donor has a chance 
  to resist the formation of that blood bond. Once at each stage of the Vinculum, the player 
  may spend a Willpower point for the opportunity to make a Stamina + Composure draw 
  (the Willpower point does not add the +3 bonus to this draw). If the draw succeeds, the 
  Vinculum doesn’t take root at that stage. This does not, however, cancel any previous partial 
  
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  Vinculums. For example, a player who succeeds on the second draw doesn’t negate the pres-
  ence of the ﬁ rst stage of the Vinculum. If the character drinks again from the same vampire, 
  his player might choose to draw again (with the expenditure of another Willpower point) to 
  see if the second stage does occur. Vampires who have the same Blood Potency still threaten 
  Vinculums as normal. No Stamina + Composure draws are allowed to resist the steps toward 
  a blood bond.
  Subjecting a thrall to the Vinculum certainly offers some beneﬁ t to the regnant. The regnant 
  can use certain applications of Dominate on a thrall without the need for eye contact (see p. 
  168). The thrall merely has to hear the regnant’s voice.
  Regnants are the objects of their thralls’ love, artiﬁ cial and unwilling though it might be. A 
  regnant gains a +2 bonus on all Social draws affecting her thrall. Further, thralls are subject to 
  a Resolve + Composure draw at a -3 penalty any time they want to take an action (or engage 
  in inaction) that might result in indirect harm to their regnants. For example, a ghoul thrall 
  who tries not to run to her regnant when she sees obviously hostile Kindred breaking into 
  his haven would be subject to this draw. A thrall who directly tries to act against her regnant 
  — say, the same ghoul trying to stake her regnant as he slept — is subject to the Resolve + 
  Composure draw at a -5 penalty. Failing either of these draws means the thrall cannot act 
  against the regnant (or allow her to engage in the dangerous inaction). 
  BREAKING VINCULUMS
  The Kindred know of a few ways to break a Vinculum. The most certain consists of the 
  regnant’s Final Death. Torpor does not sufﬁ ce. Some Kindred tell how they felt their blood 
  oath break like a chain snapping and knew their regnant was no more. In other cases, Kin-
  dred have continued to work their regnant’s will for years after their thralldom should have 
  ended. In such cases, the thrall had an unusually dependent personality or an unusually kindly 
  regnant, so the former thrall genuinely wanted to complete his master’s last commands… or 
  what he thought his master might command.
  Simple time can erode a Vinculum. A mortal loses her blood oath if she goes for a full 
  year without tasting her regnant’s Vitae. One taste a year can preserve a mortal’s thralldom 
  indeﬁ nitely.
  For the Kindred, a Vinculum takes much longer to fade. Some Kindred have remained 
  blood bound through decades of their regnants’ torpor. More dubious tales speak of regnan-
  cies lasting through centuries of separation, after everyone else had forgotten that one elder 
  labored beneath a Vinculum to another — until the regnant reappeared and invoked the 
  blood oath once more.
  Generally, a successful Resolve + Composure draw can free a character who goes 50 years 
  without tasting her regnant’s Vitae. The character’s player attempts another draw for every 
  50 years of separation thereafter. This guideline becomes important in a century-spanning 
  “chronicle of ages.”
  Mistreatment can also weaken a Vinculum. If a regnant gives his thrall reason to hate him, 
  that hatred can prove stronger than forced devotion. When love, hate and terror roil within 
  a thrall’s heart, the conﬂ ict might resolve itself with a murderous assault on the regnant. 
  Succeed or fail, the thrall probably goes mad as well. We cannot provide a system for such 
  hatred or madness, though. Too much depends on the details of how the regnant treats the 
  thrall, the thrall’s personality and the speciﬁ c events that cause his mind to snap.
  ROLEPLAYING THE VINCULUM
  Portraying such intense feelings can be a challenge for many players, especially if their 
  character isn’t fond of their regnant and had to be somehow been forced or tricked into the 
  the vinculum
  
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  bond. (Willingly bonded characters seldom have trouble displaying their devotion.) Regard-
  less of the character’s frustration, however, players should remember that ignoring how their 
  character is supposed to feel is against the rules. A character who badmouths his regnant at 
  every turn, constantly urges others to work against her and splits semantic hairs to ﬁ nd ways 
  to undermine her interests without actually violating the letter of the rules is not playing the 
  Vinculum correctly. Just because a thrall might be painfully aware that his feelings for his 
  regnant are artiﬁ cially created doesn’t make them any less potent. It eventually might help 
  him rebel, especially if his regnant treats him particularly cruelly on top of it, but for the time 
  being, he’s bound and should play accordingly.  
  Indeed, a thrall might despise his regnant and wish for his freedom with all his might, but 
  he still ﬁ nds himself powerless to resist when his regnant calls for aid or he sees her interests 
  in danger. Even when he tries to do nothing more than speak ill of her, he will often present 
  her side of an argument in rebuttal to himself without realizing it, or apologize profusely 
  for his temerity, even if everyone present agrees with his assessment. This has no strict game 
  mechanic, but should be roleplayed.
  Lastly, players should remember that not all Vinculums need to be portrayed as romantic 
  love. An older or more powerful Kindred might view his regnant like a favored child or 
  treasured protégé, while a younger or less potent vampire might look up to her regnant like a 
  revered parent. A peer could see his regnant as an admired comrade or close sibling instead 
  of a lover. As a rule of thumb, whatever kind of relationship would inspire the most love, 
  loyalty and devotion in the thrall is what the Vinculum creates, even if the thrall no longer 
  believes herself capable of those sorts of feelings.
  Indeed, this is not to say that these alternative models don’t have the normal potential for 
  sour feelings as a “regular” Vinculum. After all, a thrall whose feelings place his regnant akin 
  to a sibling might not be very fond of his “sister.” He might even hate what he does on her 
  behalf, but he still ﬁ nds himself compelled to look out for her interests because of the bond 
  he feels with her. Different as they might be from their mortal counterparts, the dysfunctional 
  “families” created by the webs of the Vinculum are still a part of Kindred society. 
  BLOOD TIES
  Vampires call themselves “Kindred,” but some are closer kin than others. The connection 
  between sire and childe carries supernatural power. Kindred can affect their immediate, linear 
  “family” with their Disciplines more easily than they affect other vampires. 
  For this purpose, all Kindred within two Embrace “steps” of each other count as immedi-
  ate family and are subject to this effect. Therefore, a character receives the blood-tie bonus 
  to affect her sire, her sire’s sire, her childer and her childer’s childer.
  The character receives a +2 bonus when she tries to affect these close “relatives” with 
  certain Disciplines. These Disciplines include Auspex, Dominate, Nightmare and Majesty. 
  Others state when such bonuses apply in their write-ups in Chapter Two. Certain bloodline 
  Disciplines might apply as well (and Storytellers should consider this when allowing a player 
  to create a new Discipline; see Appendix One for more details). A character must try to affect 
  a “relative” directly with the Discipline in question. The bonus is not gained by a character 
  for using a Discipline on herself and then doing something to another Kindred. 
  For example, a character does not receive a bonus to hit a relative while using Vigor. Likewise, 
  indirect powers don’t enjoy the bonus. A character employing the Auspex power The Spirit’s 
  Touch does not receive the bonus. That Discipline affects the character herself, and what she 
  does with the capability is incidental. Powers that affect targets automatically without the 
  need for a player to make a draw do not gain any bonus. Further, the blood-tie bonus does 
  
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  not apply to any resistance to which a subject is entitled (logically, if the user gained a bonus 
  and the subject gained the same bonus, that bonus would be effectively negated). The bonus 
  is awarded only to the proactive user of a given power.
  Example: Sir Edward decides he doesn’t want to continue an argument with his childe, Jane, so 
  he orders her to forget about it — and backs up his command with Dominate. Edward’s player would 
  normally have a test pool of 12 for this effort. Because Jane is Edward’s childe, however, Edward’s player 
  has a test pool of 14 instead.
  THE TASTE OF FAMILY
  Kindred can tell how closely they’re related to another vampire by tasting their blood (with 
  all the hazards of addiction that entails). The blood of one clan tastes a little different than 
  the blood of another; a discriminating undead palate can tell the blood of a Kindred “rela-
  tive” from that of a more distantly related clan member.
  When a Kindred tastes Vitae, the player can draw Intelligence + Occult. Having active 
  Heightened Senses (Auspex) grants a +2 bonus to the draw. One success is enough to tell 
  whether the blood comes from the character’s own clan, or to recognize the blood as coming 
  from his immediate Kindred “family” — that is, in the taster’s own line of sires and childer (see 
  “Blood Ties”). Two successes enable the character to recognize the clan (assuming the character 
  has tasted Vitae from several clans). Or two successes tell the character if the subject is within 
  two generations of him in the line (that is, if the subject is a grandsire or grandchilde).
  The character can also mystically recognize blood from his mortal relations, if he should hap-
  pen to drink it without his knowledge, with one success on the Intelligence + Occult draw.
  Example: Ethon, a Nosferatu, tastes the Vitae of a Kindred whom he plans to diablerize. Ethon’s 
  player obtains four successes on the Intelligence + Occult draw to determine if Ethon has any insight into 
  the blood’s origins. With four successes, Ethon determines that the individual he’s about to diablerize 
  is, in fact, his sire’s sire! If Ethon’s player had obtained only one success, Ethon would know only that 
  this Kindred was closely related to him in the sequence of Embrace. If no such connection existed, one 
  success would have conﬁ rmed that the other vampire was a Nosferatu.
  blood ties
  
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  BLOOD SYMPATHY
  On some occasions, Kindred can feel the proximity of their Kindred “relatives” (as speciﬁ ed 
  by the blood-ties rules) or know what’s happening to them. This normally happens spontane-
  ously, when a “relative” feels some strong emotion or sensation such as frenzy, a grave wound 
  or the pleasure of diablerie.
  On such occasions, the Storyteller may simply announce that a character or character(s) 
  have these feelings for the sake of drama, or she can ask a player to draw the character’s Wits 
  + Occult. The number of successes tells how much information the character gains from this 
  ﬂ ash of sensation. Active Heightened Senses (Auspex) adds a +2 bonus to this draw.
  Failure: Nothing happens.
  Success: The character has a strong feeling of what the other Kindred experiences and has 
  a general notion of the direction and distance to his relative.
  A character can also try to force this psychic awareness of a relative and so learn the other 
  Kindred’s activities. Doing so costs a point of Willpower, which may not be used to add the +3 
  bonus to the Wits + Occult draw. A character can also expend a point of Willpower to try to make a 
  relative know what the character herself feels. The other character’s player draws Wits + Occult, but 
  the ﬁ rst character has no way of knowing whether the attempt to “transmit” succeeds. The blood 
  sympathy does not seem to extend further than about 50 miles, or beyond a metropolitan area. This 
  50-mile limit applies to affecting relatives with Disciplines, too. For example, if a character uses a 
  far-ﬂ ung Theban Sorcery ritual on a blood relation who’s 500 miles away, she loses the bonus.
  The Kindred bless and curse this blood sympathy. If a Kindred sends another vampire to 
  Final Death or diablerizes him, his victim’s sire, childer or other “relations” might feel it. 
  The chances are small that any of them will know exactly what happened and who did it, but 
  would-be murderers (and diablerists…) must consider the possibility. Kindred also sometimes 
  fret that their relatives might spy on their own moments of strong emotion, be they benign, 
  criminal or merely shameful. A proud Prince who holds court at the opera might not want 
  his childe knowing that he breaks down weeping when he hears songs about lost love.
  FEEDING
  It is the undeniable, dreadful truth of the Kindred condition: Vampires must hunt, and 
  vampires must feed. In many cases, Storytellers will detail individual hunts themselves. In 
  other cases, the details of the hunt are less important than the larger story. The Storyteller 
  must strike a ﬁ ne balance. Too little attention to hunting makes the story little more than a 
  “dark superheroes” game, in which vampires simply need to recharge their “blood batteries,” 
  forsaking horror for displays of supernatural power. Too much attention to feeding, however, 
  can slow the story’s pace to a crawl, derailing it from its plot direction and making it a series 
  of feeding vignettes in between which other things happen.
  Unfortunately, we can offer no perfect solution. Storytellers must ﬁ nd the perfect balance 
  that suits their troupes’ tastes. To that end, we offer an abstract method by which vampiric 
  feeding may take place. The system is relatively simple. Have a player describe the method in 
  which his character wishes to feed, a Narrator determine which test pool applies to the effort, 
  and then the player makes the draw.
  As a rule of thumb, the amount of Vitae a character has at the beginning of a given chapter 
  is determined by a single card draw, where the ace counts as a one. Add one Vitae to this 
  draw result for every dot a character has in the Herd Merit. If characters wish to increase 
  the amount of Vitae they enter play with, they must use the feeding rules presented here. 
  Needless to say, in no instance can this result in the character having more Vitae than her 
  Blood Potency allows.
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
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  231
  Example: Fever seeks to feed by seducing a vessel at a rave, going off to a dark corner and slaking 
  his thirst during a feigned act of passion. The Storyteller decides that the appropriate test pool in this 
  situation is Presence + Persuasion. The Storyteller decides on Presence over Manipulation because 
  Fever’s not being too terribly subtle — he wants his prey to know that he intends for her to take him 
  someplace private.
  Example: Thomas Bain is ravenous after a physical conﬂ ict in which he has barely triumphed. He 
  staggers out of the gallery where he was ambushed and grabs the ﬁ rst derelict he can ﬁ nd, intending to 
  drink him dry. The Storyteller decides that Strength + Subterfuge is the appropriate test pool. Strength 
  represents the fact that Thomas’s plan is to simply trap his prey in his clutches, but Subterfuge is necessary 
  to keep potential victims from discerning his malign intent and ﬂ eeing him immediately.
  Draw Results
  Failure: The character is unable to ﬁ nd a suitable vessel, or the vessel proves somehow 
  elusive.
  Success: The character obtains a vessel and may take as much Vitae as he wishes. (Wise 
  Kindred don’t take too much, though. The risk of harming the vessel increases with the blood 
  consumed — see “Blood Supply”).
  Unless otherwise noted, each hunting draw requires half an hour of real time during a 
  chapter. During this time, the player is required to sit in an out-of-game area to simulate the 
  time her character spends out hunting. If a player wants her character to hunt before entering 
  play, perhaps to ensure that she has enough Vitae for any potential surprises, she must enter 
  at least half an hour after the game has ofﬁ cially begun. Needless to say, this is an excellent 
  time to encourage players to roleplay or at least imagine the circumstances of the feeding, so 
  it doesn’t just seem like a “time out.”
  If this proves too troublesome for the sake of game efﬁ ciency — say, everyone routinely 
  wants to make a feeding test before the chapter begins — allow all the players to make a feed-
  ing draw before the session, and don’t penalize anyone any time. If a character doesn’t like 
  the results, however, or needs to go out and feed during the game, each subsequent feeding 
  draw requires half an hour, as normal.
  Hunting times may be increased to represent characters taking a lot of time to feed care-
  fully or who are hunting in desolate locations. The minimum time should not be reduced 
  below half an hour, however.
  blood ties • feeding
  3.1 FEEDING MODIFIERS
  Modiﬁ er 
  Situation
  +2 
  The character seeks an animal vessel or some other source of 
  Vitae that poses less risk than active human prey (such as a 
  blood bank).
  +2 
  The character hunts in the Rack or some other place where 
  vessels are both plentiful and comparatively willing.
  —  
  Vessels are neither especially numerous nor reckless with whom 
  they share their company.
  -2 
  The character takes efforts to hide his identity from other Kin-
  dred (whether present or through secondhand accounts).
  -2 
  The character hunts in the Barrens or some other place where 
  vessels are scarce or particularly suspicious of others.
  -3 to -5 
  The character seeks a very speciﬁ c vessel, such as “brunette 
  women less than 40 years old” or “children of Eastern Euro-
  pean descent.”
  
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  BLOOD SUPPLY
  When a vampire takes blood from a vessel, he may take one Vitae per turn. A vampire need 
  only lick the wound when he’s done to hide the marks left by feeding. This effect applies to 
  only bite marks made for the purposes of feeding from prey, not to aggressive bites intended 
  to cause damage. Further only the vampire’s own bite marks are affected thus — a Kindred 
  may not lick a wound left by another vampire and heal it.
  A vessel has a number of Vitae equal to its Health dots. In game terms, an average adult hu-
  man contains seven points worth of Vitae. When a vampire feeds from a vessel, each Vitae taken 
  inﬂ icts one point of lethal damage on that vessel. (Special effects that augment a character’s 
  Stamina or add temporary Health dots do not add to the quantity of Vitae in a character’s 
  body. A character always has a number or Vitae equal to her unmodiﬁ ed Health dots.) 
  In most cases the vessel doesn’t resist, as the ecstasy of the Kiss overwhelms the shock the 
  Kindred inﬂ icts on the mortal’s system. Players of mortals and other living victims who wish 
  to resist the Kiss must gain three or more successes on a Resolve + Composure draw. This 
  depends on the environment, however. A vessel seduced or even surprised and subjected to 
  the Kiss may lose herself in it, while a foe bitten in combat (or even one who feels threatened 
  or otherwise at risk) never need yield to pleasure just because the Kiss feels good. Note that 
  vampires are immune to the Kiss of other Kindred, as they know exactly what’s going on 
  and can ﬁ ght back.
  THE VAMPIRE’S BITE
  According to p. 218 of the Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook, a character attempting 
  to bite as a combat action ﬁ rst has to achieve a grapple hold on a target. On the 
  following turn, the attacker can try to inﬂ ict damage by biting. If the victim has an 
  action between the attacker’s grab and bite, he can try to break free. The system uses 
  Strength + Brawl – the victim’s Defense to attack, but then Strength + Brawl – the 
  victim’s Strength to bite for damage. If the attack comes by surprise, the victim’s 
  Defense does not apply in the initial grab.
  If the vampire wishes to bite a foe in combat, he goes about the procedure as normal,
  except that his bite causes lethal damage, not bashing. Instead of biting to inﬂ ict 
  damage, however, the vampire may choose to consume Vitae that turn. In this case, 
  the vampire inﬂ icts harm caused by blood loss: one point of lethal damage.
  A vampire can take a few Vitae without harming a mortal unduly. Taking all the blood 
  (inﬂ icting points of lethal damage equal to the victim’s Health dots), of course, risks killing 
  the vessel. Remember that a mortal character reduced to zero Health points goes into a coma 
  when her last Health box is crossed off. She isn’t actually “bleeding to death,” as the vampire 
  has already taken all her blood, but the state represents her remaining will to survive. (Note 
  that this progression affects the Embrace, too. If a vampire waits too long to give some of his 
  own Vitae to his freshly exsanguinated childe-to-be, that potential ﬂ edgling might die before 
  the sire is able to curse him with undeath. A Kindred cannot just place Vitae on the lips 
  of any old corpse and cause it to rise as a vampire. The potential childe must have had all 
  his blood removed, but be given a taste of Vitae before he’s truly dead and gone.) For more 
  information on bleeding to death, see p. 212 of the Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook.
  Note that it takes two days for a mortal character to recover from a single point of lethal 
  damage. A vampire expends a single Vitae to rise each night. Assuming the vampire does 
  nothing other than rise — that is, his player spends no Vitae to power Disciplines, augment 
  physical Attributes, etc. — a vampire still depletes a single vessel of Vitae faster than she can 
  recuperate from him slaking his thirst on her. In other words, even if the vampire takes only 
  
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  one Health point worth of blood from her each night, the victim recovers from that feeding 
  completely only after two days. This is the reason why many Kindred vary their vessels (to 
  avoid killing them, ultimately), and also the source of tales that involve vessels feeling woozy, 
  sickly and exhausted when a vampire feeds from them.
  Animals provide less Vitae. An animal that’s smaller than an adult human often contains 
  less blood to begin with. Animal blood also carries less vital force than human blood does, 
  or at least it isn’t as useful to the Kindred. An animal whose blood the Kindred consumes 
  still suffers one point of lethal damage for each quantity of blood taken, it simply doesn’t 
  nourish the Kindred as much. Most animal blood is worth only half as much Vitae as an 
  equivalent amount taken from a human being. Kindred who feed on mammals other than 
  people receive only half the value in Vitae that they actually take from the vessel, rounded 
  down. For example, a dog has 7 Health dots. Even if a Kindred drank all of the dog’s blood, 
  he would gain only three Vitae (the dog’s 7 Health divided in two and rounded down). Lesser 
  beasts such as vermin (including rats and bats), ﬁ sh and other aquatic creatures yield only 
  one-quarter Vitae per Health point of blood taken, again rounded down.
  Kindred can also drink stored blood such as plasma reserves or the contents of a blood 
  bank, but this, too, contains less vital force than the hot blood of a living person. Kindred 
  ﬁ nd it much less satisfying. Stored blood yields only one-eighth the Vitae of a similar quantity 
  taken from a live source. For example, a Kindred would have to consume an amount roughly 
  equal to 86 percent of the blood in a human body to glean a single Vitae if the blood in 
  question was stored.
  Vampires feeding from other Kindred do not inﬂ ict damage on those Kindred, they simply 
  drain a direct quantity of Vitae. (Vampires may, however, choose to aggressively bite another 
  vampire with the express purpose of causing damage.) Note that feeding from other vampires 
  comes with its own host of other problems in the form of possible Vinculums and blood 
  addiction.
  Kindred rumor holds that Lupine blood is far more potent than mortal blood. Werewolf 
  Vitae yields two-and-a-half times the equivalent amount taken from a human source, rounded 
  down; two Health points of blood taken from a werewolf equal ﬁ ve Vitae. The tales also say, 
  however, that Kindred who drink werewolf blood become prone to frenzy for several nights 
  afterward. Vampires who drink Lupine blood suffer -2 penalties to their draws to resist frenzy 
  for two nights per Health point (not the multiplied Vitae) so consumed. Therefore, taking 
  two Health points worth of blood from a werewolf causes a vampire to suffer a -2 frenzy 
  penalty for four nights.
  Mortal mages, meanwhile, contain no more blood than any other human, but legend says 
  their Vitae can induce strange hallucinations in Kindred who drink it. At least, they’d better 
  be hallucinations. If these Kindred actually see aspects of reality known only to mages… well, 
  most Kindred would not like to think that they know so little about the World of Darkness. 
  Still, few Kindred feel much desire to test the truth of such stories. Kindred who take at least 
  one Vitae from a mage suffer a derangement as chosen by the Storyteller for one night per 
  Vitae so consumed. Storytellers are advised to take mages’ mystical abilities into account when 
  deciding what derangement is most appropriate.
  GHOULS
  A ghoul is a creature somewhere between the deathless state of the Kindred and the normal 
  state of most mortals. In fact, ghouls are mortals, with the added condition that they have 
  been fed Kindred Vitae and invested with some aspect of the curse of undeath. Not every 
  mortal who simply tastes vampiric Vitae becomes a ghoul, though. It takes a speciﬁ c devotion 
  blood supply • ghouls
  
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  234
  on the part of the Kindred to create ghouls, but once they do, those creatures can become 
  as independent or reliant as their masters wish.
  Creating a ghoul is an endeavor laden with risk. Ghouls are, by their nature, threats to the 
  Masquerade, as they are mortals who have knowledge of the existence of vampires. Kindred 
  who use ghouls argue that this knowledge also protects the secret, since a ghoul depends on 
  vampiric Vitae to sustain that very state. Ghouls (and other mortals) suffer the same potential 
  for blood addiction that the Kindred do, and since a single ghoul is rarely a match for any 
  given vampire, most willingly suffer whatever eccentricities or cruelties their masters inﬂ ict 
  on them as long as the promise of that precious Vitae is delivered.
  Of those Kindred who create ghouls, most use them as agents for their agendas during the 
  daytime, or as extra aides, muscle or specialists during their own active hours. Ghouls can and 
  do come from all walks of life, from menservants of high-class Kindred to gangsters under 
  a vampiric crime lord’s sway to crooked cops or valued informants. In most cases, ghouls 
  are utterly dependent on their Kindred masters. Many of them are codependent, addicted 
  to blood or their masters’ attention, or otherwise trapped in abusive, horrible relationships 
  with their lords. And yet, stories travel through Kindred networks now and again concerning 
  ghouls who go rogue, beholden to no particular master. They creep into sleeping Kindred 
  havens to steal valuable Vitae.
  Not every mortal who is a vampire’s thrall is a ghoul. At the same time, not every ghoul 
  labors under a Vinculum to a single vampiric regnant. It takes an act of will to create a ghoul, 
  but a ghoul must drink from the same vampire three times to be subject to the Vinculum, 
  just like everyone else.
  GHOUL CREATION AND SUPPORT
  A vampire who wishes to create a ghoul must feed a mortal at least a single Vitae. In 
  addition, the vampire’s player must spend a point of Willpower to invest the ghoul with 
  some degree of the mystic state with which she is cursed. If a vampire simply gives a mortal 
  Vitae but no Willpower point is expended, the mortal does not become a ghoul (though he 
  is potentially subject to the Vinculum and blood addiction). This Willpower expenditure 
  represents the creation of an artiﬁ cial state, inﬂ icting some of the beneﬁ ts and detriments 
  of undeath on the ghoul.
  Upon becoming a ghoul, a mortal stops aging. Although time still passes normally, the 
  ghoul’s body doesn’t become any more decrepit with age, nor does a ghoul child continue 
  to grow. (Pregnant ghouls almost universally miscarry after the change, and if any have ever 
  carried children to term, it is unheard of among the Kindred.) As long as the ghoul obtains 
  regular feedings of Vitae, this state of static age continues.
  A ghoul requires at least one Vitae per month to sustain the state of ghouldom. When 
  receiving this monthly “upkeep,” either the vampire or the ghoul player must spend a point 
  of Willpower. The Vitae need not come from the Kindred who initially created the ghoul. 
  For the Kindred, this is a gamble. If the vampire player spends the Willpower point and/or 
  Vitae herself, and the vampire never lets the ghoul know he can spend his own Willpower, 
  the ghoul acquires a sense of expense associated with using that Willpower and Vitae. On the 
  other hand, if the Kindred lets her ghoul know that he can spend the Willpower himself, she 
  sets herself up for possible betrayal. If a vampiric master relies upon other Kindred to supply 
  her ghouls’ Vitae, those ghouls may eventually become subject to a Vinculum to another 
  Kindred, which isn’t always in the ﬁ rst Kindred’s best interests. 
  A ghoul who does not receive his monthly infusion of blood slowly returns to his previous 
  mortal state. The erstwhile ghoul ages one year per day that he is overdue for his monthly 
  draught. If the ghoul does manage to procure more Vitae, he does not revert to his original 
  
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  235
  age of ghouldom, but rather, suspends his aging from the point at which it has caught up 
  with him. A ghoul deprived of Vitae who has outlived a normal mortal lifetime rapidly ages 
  and dies as time catches up with him after having been cheated for so long.
  STORYTELLER’S OPTION: GHOUL DERANGEMENT
  At the Storyteller’s option a ghoul who falls behind on his monthly Vitae 
  requirement might gain a temporary derangement. This derangement should be mild. 
  Alternatively, if the character already has a mild derangement, the Storyteller may 
  upgrade it temporarily to the severe form. This temporary derangement or temporary 
  exacerbation of an existing derangement ends goes away when the ghoul procures 
  his necessary Vitae.
  We include this as an option because the ghoul might already be functioning under 
  the mind-altering effects of a Vinculum and possibly blood addiction as well. If you 
  as Storyteller choose to make the debilitating effects of blood withdrawal even more 
  horrifying for ghouls, use this system.
  If a ghoul doesn’t have any Vitae in her system, she doesn’t suddenly cease to be a ghoul. 
  Rather, the transition back to the mortal state begins only when the mortal comes due for 
  her monthly sustenance. In other words, if a ghoul misses her monthly feeding and has no 
  vampiric Vitae in her system, she’s no longer a ghoul. She loses all powers associated with 
  being a ghoul and begins aging. If she later acquires more Kindred Vitae, she resumes being 
  a ghoul, but this does not reverse any aging effects that might have occurred in the interim. 
  Ghouls who go through this “wayward” state do not forget any Disciplines they might have 
  known. Without Vitae to employ them, however, those powers are useless — even those 
  Disciplines that have no Vitae costs associated with them. Once the ghoul loses that state, 
  supernatural powers are no longer available to her.
  Note that once a mortal has become a ghoul and lapsed from that state, becoming a ghoul 
  once more does not bestow another a free Discipline dot on the mortal. This rush of power 
  only occurs the ﬁ rst time a mortal is ghouled. Being ghouled again at a later date simply allows 
  him to once again access any Disciplines he might have learned in the past.
  ABILITIES AND POWERS
  Once the ghoul imbibes Vitae, he may use it in several ways similar to a vampire. One pri-
  mary difference, however, is that the ghoul does not eliminate any quantity of his own blood 
  when he expends Vitae. Similarly, when a ghoul consumes Vitae, that Vitae does not add to 
  or replace his own blood. “Vitae” in a ghoul is merely the lingering cursed power transferred 
  from the vampire. A ghoul with seven Health dots still has seven dots after taking one Kindred 
  Vitae — the Vitae does not add Health dots to him, nor does it add any volume to the ghoul’s 
  own quantity of blood. A ghoul is still a mortal, and Vitae he consumes goes into his stomach 
  as does anything else he drinks. A ghoul calling upon Vitae uses the power inherent in it, 
  not the mass of liquid itself (which is eventually digested and otherwise eliminated). When 
  using Vitae, a ghoul’s player may spend only one per turn. A ghoul may have a total number 
  of Vitae in his system equal to his Stamina. If the ghoul’s Stamina drops for any reason and 
  would leave a surplus, that extra Vitae is lost immediately. Examples of such situations include 
  becoming sick or ending a scene in which the ghoul had activated Resilience.
  Upon becoming a ghoul, the individual immediately gains a single dot in a physical Dis-
  cipline (Celerity, Resilience or Vigor). Which Discipline manifests depends on the clan or 
  bloodline of the vampire who creates the ghoul. If that clan or bloodline has two physical 
  Disciplines, the sire — not the ghoul — chooses which Discipline to impart. For example, 
  ghouls
  
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  a Ventrue ghoul gains a single dot of Resilience, while the ghoul of a Daeva obtains either 
  Celerity or Vigor as decided by his master.
  Ghouls may use Disciplines, if they have them. A ghoul may learn Disciplines by spending 
  experience points, which costs twice as much as it does for a vampire (10 times the new level 
  in experience points for a clan or bloodline Discipline, 14 times the new level in experience 
  points for an out-of-clan or -bloodline Discipline). In most cases, a ghoul must have a teacher to 
  learn a Discipline or advance in level, with the exception of physical Disciplines. As long as the 
  ghoul knows the ﬁ rst level of one of the physical Disciplines, he may learn other levels without 
  a teacher (although he must be taught the ﬁ rst level). A ghoul may learn a unique bloodline 
  Discipline if his master hails from the bloodline in question, though this is very rare. 
  A ghoul may expend Vitae to augment physical Attributes, just like a vampire (see p. 219). 
  A ghoul may also use Vitae to heal wounds, again like a vampire. If a ghoul doesn’t use Vitae 
  to heal wounds, he recovers in the same amount of time that a mortal does, as described on 
  p. 240 of the Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook.
  Ghouls do not use Humanity to measure their morality. Instead, they use Morality as 
  described on pp. 101-107 of the Mind’s Eye Theatre rules.
  Ghouls may spend one Vitae per turn. They have no Blood Potency.
  Embraced ghouls keep all of the Disciplines they learned as ghouls when they make the 
  transition to the ranks of the Kindred; however, any Disciplines dots they already have count 
  against the three dots they receive during the Embrace. (Thus ghouls with three or more dots 
  of Disciplines receive no Discipline dots from the Embrace). Vinculums and blood addictions 
  the character has survive into undeath as well.
  ANIMAL GHOULS
  Animals may be made into ghouls, but no animal is intelligent or aware enough to fully 
  know what changes Vitae imposes upon its body. Animal ghouls suffer all of the detriments 
  of being a ghoul (such as blood addiction, Vinculums, dependency on Vitae for survival) but 
  gain few of the beneﬁ ts. Ghouls animals may learn only Celerity, Vigor and Resilience by way 
  of Disciplines. Further, they can use Vitae only to fuel these powers. They may not use Vitae 
  to heal themselves or augment Physical Attributes. An animal ghoul may never spend its own 
  Willpower during its sustenance feedings. It relies on the vampiric master to do so. Indeed, 
  ghoul animals are relatively rare, and most Kindred with animal companions merely subject 
  them to Vinculums to ensure loyalty rather than to make ghouls of them.
  THE BLOOD AND OTHER SUPERNATURAL CREATURES
  Kindred Vitae, while potent, does have its limits. When the other supernatural 
  creatures with whom the Damned occasionally cross paths come into play, certain 
  realities of the World of Darkness supersede the mystic strength of the Blood.
  Werewolves, mages and other supernatural beings are immune to the Embrace. 
  If a vampire is somehow able to extract all the blood from a werewolf or mage and 
  attempt the Embrace, that Embrace fails automatically. Likewise with Vinculums and 
  attempts at creating ghouls — they simply do not work with regard to Lupines and 
  mages. Other supernatural creatures are subject to blood addiction, however, the 
  absence of other supernatural effects notwithstanding.
  Naturally, this physiological situation doesn’t deter rumors of such things from 
  spreading. Savvy Kindred who hear of such things, however, wisely dismiss them 
  as the efforts of inexperienced vampires trying to codify something they don’t 
  understand.
  
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  237
  The Predator’s Taint
  ghouls • the predator’s taint
  Despite the predilection some Kindred have for describing each other as parasites, the truth 
  of the matter is that vampires are ﬁ nely suited to the roles of predators. Their supernatural 
  abilities allow them to hunt with great efﬁ cacy. Their mesmeric personalities draw people to 
  them. Even their hideous or off-putting weaknesses can reduce their prey to impotent crying 
  wretches from whom blood can be taken at will. The Kindred are consummate solitary preda-
  tors, keenly able to procure their own sustenance without the aid of others of their kind.
  It is no surprise, then, that when such perfect predators meet each other, the Beast inside 
  each attempts to determine whether the other is a threat or an encroaching lesser. Indeed, when 
  Kindred meet for the ﬁ rst time, the Beast rages within, wishing to ﬂ ee in terror of a greater 
  predator or to conquer a less able creature in hopes of protecting one’s own territory.
  SYSTEM
  When a vampire sees another vampire for the ﬁ rst time (and only for the ﬁ rst time), compare 
  the characters’ Blood Potency. Both players should count to three, and then display either a 
  card or a number of ﬁ ngers equal to their Blood Potency.
  The player of the character with the lower Blood Potency must immediately check for 
  Rötschreck (see p. 256).
  The player of the character with the higher Blood Potency must immediately check for 
  frenzy (see p. 254).
  If the characters have the same Blood Potency, both players check for frenzy. 
  Characters risk frenzy and Rötschreck only when they are aware of the presence of the other 
  Kindred. It is entirely possible, say, for a vampire to see another, unknown vampire feeding 
  in an alley and thereby cause her own frenzy check as her Beast senses the rival Beast. While 
  the other vampire is preoccupied with feeding he remains oblivious; only when he becomes 
  aware of the other Kindred does his Beast respond to the presence of the ﬁ rst.
  One minor beneﬁ t of the Predator’s Taint is that, due to the presence of the Beast, vam-
  pires instinctively know other vampires upon seeing them. Even if a vampire has met another 
  Kindred before, the initial “surge” of the Beast takes place every time the two make contact, 
  though it is far more manageable than the initial contact of the unknown. This also, unfor-
  tunately, explains the tense and mercurial nature of relations between vampires.
  VAMPIRIC GATHERINGS
  Stories abound of the undead holding grand balls in decrepit castles as the midnight hour 
  approaches, and even modern interpretations of the legend often depict vampires holding 
  large parties of their own kind. Whether in the form of formal soirees or underground 
  raves, it’s likely that players ﬁ nd the idea of such events quite appealing, and it certainly 
  makes the Storyteller’s life easier if all the local Kindred have good cause to gather in one 
  spot for a regular meeting or a special event. Faced with Predator’s Taint, however, what can 
  a Storyteller do to keep the game from devolving into an endless series of frenzy checks as 
  new vampires enter?
  Simple. With this optional rule, the harsher aspects of Predator’s Taint — namely the pos-
  sibility of frenzy responses — are completely muted whenever the Kindred choose to gather in 
  a particular location. While players are naturally encouraged to roleplay a bit of restlessness 
  on the part of their Beasts when an unknown vampire enters, as a game mechanic no Blood 
  
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  Potency comparisons or frenzy tests need to be made. This rule applies to all gatherings, 
  whether it’s a formal affair with engraved invitations or just a casual hangout at a local haven. 
  In short, if vampires are gathering with the expectation of seeing other vampires there, they 
  need not worry about Predator’s Taint rearing its ugly head. What’s more, this rule applies 
  even if other Kindred unexpectedly “crash” the affair — no one present has to check for 
  Predator’s Taint in response to the intrusion, unless they choose to do so. Even if they do, 
  the other party does not necessarily have to follow suit — it’s possible that the intruders can 
  frenzy while the invited guests retain their composure, and vice versa.
  Think of this rule as a way of representing the fact that the undead, for all their viciousness 
  and barely suppressed animal instincts, still have some measure of human social habits, and 
  what’s more they recognize the necessity of meeting in numbers from time to time. This rule 
  therefore captures their willingness to put on masks of civility and cordiality in order to func-
  tion as a society, however savage and treacherous it may be. After a time, restraining the Beast 
  in this minor but critical way becomes second nature, an accepted part of how the Kindred 
  interact with each other. The same rule can be applied for situations where vampires expect 
  to meet each other, for instance if you are invited to another vampire’s haven or if you meet 
  and clearly recognize another vampire on the street without hostile intentions.
  3.2 — THE PREDATOR'S TAINT MODIFIERS
  Modiﬁ er 
  Situation
  — 
  The character witnesses another vampire in a potentially 
  threatening capacity for the ﬁ rst time.
  -2 
  The character perceives the other vampire as an intruder or 
  unexpected threat, such as by coming back to her haven and 
  ﬁ nding an unknown vampire there.
  STORYTELLING THE PREDATOR’S TAINT
  Important: Use of the Predator’s Taint should be based on the dramatic potential of the situation. 
  Storytellers need not employ it every time a new vampire enters the chronicle. They should 
  not feel that they have to incorporate the Predator’s Taint into every interaction between 
  Kindred.
  This rule exists to highlight the xenophobic world of the Kindred, as well as to reinforce 
  the local phenomenon of Kindred domains. After all, even in a domain where one is on 
  poor terms with the other local vampires, at least one knows them. In a new domain, the 
  Predator’s Taint threatens a would-be immigrant so as to make a “fresh start” in a new domain 
  a very dangerous affair.
  Storytellers, don’t use the Predator’s Taint to be adversarial. Use it only to drive home 
  the notion that a particular vampire is strange, threatening and, most important, unknown. 
  Storytellers may assume that players’ characters have met most of the other local Kindred 
  in their domains during their period of indoctrination or protection under their sires. By 
  the time the actual chronicle begins, characters are familiar, at least in the back story, with 
  most Kindred of at least minor acknowledgement in their home domains. Characters have 
  probably met the Prince. They are likely to have spoken with their Prisci and at least have 
  been introduced to their Primogen.
  Where the Predator’s Taint comes into play most effectively is when a new Kindred shows 
  up on the scene. Maybe this unknown vampire is a prophet of Golconda, but her unknown 
  nature prompts a hostile, immediate response from the Beast. Perhaps a rabble-rouser drum-
  
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  239
  ming up support in the characters’ domain spurs the Beast to a violent action. The envoy 
  from a nearby domain might have the best of intentions, but the Beast instinctively causes the 
  locals’ hackles to rise. With high emotions charging the encounter, Kindred grow confused as 
  to whether they can trust this interloper or must eliminate her as a possible cunning threat 
  to their own well-being.
  Most times, the result of a frenzy caused by the Predator’s Taint is a violent confrontation. 
  In a few rare cases, however, other avenues may be pursued. Frenzied vampires may play a 
  dangerous game of cat-and-mouse across a city’s rooftops, for example, or they exert their 
  dominance by engaging in some test of mettle such as running through a burning building, 
  withstanding the impact of a speeding car or other gesture of power or endurance. As with 
  other considerations regarding the Predator’s Taint, let the drama of the situation dictate the 
  results, rather than rote adherence to the letter of the rules.
  Note also, Storytellers, that the general guidelines need not always apply. In a plot develop-
  ment that should cause the characters to mistrust their Primogen, maybe they haven’t yet made 
  her acquaintance. A pretender-Prince or some similar archetype might not have met everyone 
  in the domain, particularly at early stages of his rise to power. On the other hand, it might 
  just bog everything down to check for frenzy with every new vampire a given character sees. 
  For example, there’s probably no reason to check for frenzy if a character walks down the 
  street and a vampire passes by in a car. But if a character comes creeping home just before 
  dawn and sees a foreign vampire hunched over the body of a bloodless vessel left lying in 
  her doorway, a frenzy check is almost certainly in order. The situation should be taken into 
  account as well. Two vampires catching each other’s eye in a nightclub may not provoke an 
  outright battle, but it deﬁ nitely sets both of their nerves on edge and makes them a bit more 
  alert to their surroundings than they might otherwise be. They might even “compete” to see 
  who can take home the most desirable vessel, or some other form of contest within the bounds 
  of their surroundings. A vampire seeing another vampire through binoculars, however, would 
  almost never suffer a frenzy check.
  Certain Storytellers might wish to adapt the Predator’s Taint to other circumstances as 
  well. A hungry Kindred might not see another vampire but might catch the scent of her on 
  the wind as she prepares for the hunt (assuming her player states that the character searches 
  for scents on the wind, as Kindred don’t normally breathe), causing the Storyteller to call for 
  a frenzy check. A Kindred might slide along a wall in utter darkness, only to abruptly touch 
  a cold, clammy hand — and realize the hand belongs to another of the Damned, risking 
  frenzy in the shock of the situation. These examples and environments are far less concrete, 
  but might serve as good dramatic opportunities, anyway. Certainly the range of other senses 
  doesn’t apply as universally as vampires recognizing each other on sight, but given the proper 
  story criteria, they can be just as valid.
  The bottom line is that the Predator’s Taint is certainly a downside to being a vampire, 
  as well as one more thing that makes being a new vampire that much more difﬁ cult. Don’t 
  antagonize players’ characters with the rules, though. Use them to heighten the drama of a 
  situation when the aspect of the unknown comes to the fore.
  storytelling the predator’s taint
  
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  The Traditions
  According to numerous Kindred legends, three laws have governed the Damned since their 
  ﬁ rst nights: that they should hide from mortals, that they should not sire any childer, and 
  that they should not slay each other to consume the souls of the fallen. The Kindred break 
  all three laws, but they ﬁ nd that the metaphysical limitations governing them are not easily 
  ﬂ outed. Meanwhile, players learn that each Tradition has a tangible effect within the game.
  THE TRADITION OF MASQUERADE
  The Tradition of Masquerade, sometimes known as the Tradition of Secrecy, commands the 
  Kindred not to reveal their presence to mortals. Clearly, Kindred walk among mortals every 
  night, but the Masquerade defends itself in a subtle way. Indeed, the Kindred discovered the 
  full implications of this Tradition in recent nights. What they once took to be a self-defeating 
  curse upon them now stands revealed as a blessing granted millennia in advance. Of course, 
  any blessing on the Damned carries its own price.
  The Kindred appear as blurry images in mirrors, photographs, video monitors and other media 
  that capture or transmit visual images. This mystic distortion protects the identity of individual 
  Kindred. As security cameras become more common, the odds increase that a camera will capture 
  the image of a vampire feeding, committing some other crime, surviving a gunshot that would 
  slay a mortal, or using a Discipline to perform some impossible feat. Anyone who looks at a 
  photograph or camera image might tell that something strange, criminal or impossible has taken 
  place, but they cannot identify the Kindred in question. Without a person to attach to the deed, 
  the distorted image becomes just one more insoluble mystery in a mysterious world.
  In some ways, this blurring endangers the Masquerade. Kindred need to stay away from large 
  mirrors, lest mortals notice the one distorted reﬂ ection. Canny witch-hunters have identiﬁ ed vam-
  pires by glancing back and forth from the people around them to a small mirror hidden in hand. 
  A security guard watching a monitor might be puzzled by why one person looks like a blur when 
  everyone else shows up crisp and clear. Characters walking around with a portable video camera, 
  trying to spot hidden or otherwise masked characters will fail: even if the recording eventually shows 
  a blurred shape, the onlooker’s mind will still be fooled – even if a minor delay is built-in.
  A Kindred can turn off this blurring effect for a scene by expending a Willpower point. With 
  regard to lasting media, such as video tapes, photographs and digital ﬁ lm footage, spending a 
  Willpower point allows a vampire’s image to remain intact on that media for a number of days 
  equal to 11 minus the Kindred’s Blood Potency. A player may choose to spend a Willpower 
  dot on behalf of the character when she is photographed (or ﬁ lmed) to make that particular 
  image permanent. As such, with an effort of will, a Kindred can have a photographic iden-
  tiﬁ cation or “prove” to a vampire-hunter that of course she’s not a vampire — she shows up 
  in photographs just like anyone else! Although new and inventive means of visual recording 
  may appear, the magic blurring effect will continue to exist on them as well.
  The strange occlusion that occurs to vampire images does not apply to voice recordings. 
  Kindred voices are recorded normally, without the expenditure of Willpower.
  THE TRADITION OF PROGENY
  The Tradition of Progeny commands the Kindred not to curse any other mortals with 
  undeath. Here, surely, the Kindred have most egregiously disobeyed whatever unholy force 
  has spawned them.
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
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  241
  The act of creating a new Kindred exacts a steep price from those who break this law, 
  requiring a supreme effort of will. Kindred who sire childer seem to pass part of their souls 
  to their offspring. Their force of will weakens slightly, a debility that can remain for years. A 
  Kindred who sires several childer in a short time could render himself so weak-willed that his 
  enemies would surely ruin him — if his conniving spawn didn’t get to him ﬁ rst.
  In rules terms, a character must sacriﬁ ce a dot of Willpower in order to sire a childe. Nothing 
  can restore the lost Willpower dot except increasing the trait with experience points.
  THE TRADITION OF AMARANTH
  As a sort of ﬁ nal commandment, the Damned ﬁ nd it difﬁ cult to commit diablerie upon 
  each other. Any time the Kindred disobey their undead natures, they learn that their deﬁ -
  ance carries a price.
  Kindred rarely feel sorry when they kill each other. Or if they do, their regret seldom lasts 
  long. Any Kindred, from the most ethical to the most jaded, ﬁ nds herself a little more callous 
  and ruthless after killing a fellow vampire and consuming his heartsblood. No contrition 
  or atonement can avert this erosion of the Man and strengthening of the Beast. Vampires 
  become less able to pass for human with mortals, they ﬁ nd that temptations to vice increase, 
  and deeds that once repelled them no longer prick their conscience.
  In rules terms, the Humanity dots of a character who commits diablerie decrease by one. 
  The loss happens automatically, with no need for a degeneration draw (though the Humanity 
  draw that follows to check for a derangement occurs normally; see p. 260). The circumstances 
  don’t matter, either. No matter how much another vampire deserves to die, none may be 
  judged except by God, and the Tradition of Amaranth allows for no exceptions. A Kindred 
  who diablerizes another Kindred can recover her lost Humanity in time… but once again, 
  doing so requires accumulating and spending experience points.
  Damage, Wounds and Healing
  The Kindred dwell in a dangerous world. Aside from the threats they face from each other, 
  werewolves and other supernatural creatures, they can run afoul of muggers or thugs just like 
  mortals do. Although the Kindred possess a few advantages over mortals in dealing with such 
  dangers, they are not invulnerable. Kindred can also encounter disease, poison, electrocution 
  and other hazards. Players and Storytellers need to know how Kindred suffer damage, and 
  how they can heal it back.
  TAKING DAMAGE
  Kindred encounter many of the same hazards that mortals do. They have less to fear, perhaps, 
  from ordinary combat involving ﬁ sts, broken bottles, guns and the like. On the other hand, 
  as supernatural creatures, vampires suffer from anathemas — conditions benign to mortals 
  but deadly to the undead, or that present special dangers and difﬁ culties in healing. Kindred 
  anathemas are ﬁ re and sunlight. In addition, sufﬁ cient damage of almost any kind can trap 
  a vampire in a deathlike trance called torpor, or it can destroy him.
  It is important to note that vampires are subject to the same wound penalties that mortals 
  are when injuries are marked in one of their last three remaining Health boxes. See “Health” 
  on p. 235 of the Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook for more information.
  the traditions • damage, wounds and healing
  
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  BASHING DAMAGE
  Fists, clubs and falls are all examples of bashing damage. Anything that inﬂ icts bashing 
  damage on mortals also inﬂ icts bashing damage on Kindred.
  Unlike mortals, vampires are never knocked unconscious by bashing damage. The vampiric 
  body just doesn’t have the same limitations that a living one does. A Kindred still feels the 
  trauma and still suffers test pool penalties, though. When your character’s rightmost Health 
  box is ﬁ lled with a slash for bashing damage, any further points of bashing damage inﬂ icted 
  on the character upgrade the least severe of his existing wounds, from left to right. Remem-
  ber: Draws for unconsciousness are not made for a vampire when his rightmost Health box 
  is ﬁ lled with a slash for bashing damage.
  LETHAL DAMAGE
  Knives, axes, chainsaws and other sorts of melee weapons that inﬂ ict lethal damage on 
  mortals also inﬂ ict lethal damage on vampires. Chopping and slicing is almost as bad for the 
  undead as for the living. Vampires can protect themselves from lethal damage by wearing 
  body armor, just like mortals can.
  Unlike mortals, however, the undead take bashing damage from ﬁ rearms. A vampire has 
  only two vital organs, the head and heart, and their importance is as much supernatural as 
  physical. The other organs in a vampire’s body don’t actually do anything, so it doesn’t matter 
  if a bullet drills a hole through them. This does not apply to archaic weapons, however. If 
  an arrow from a bow (even though Firearms is drawn to make the attack), a thrown knife or 
  anything of that sort impales a vampire, the weapon still inﬂ icts lethal damage.
  The exception for ﬁ rearms has its own exceptions, though. If someone puts a high-caliber 
  gun to a Kindred’s head and blows most of his brains out, that’s certainly lethal damage. 
  Storytellers should exercise their own judgment in cases like this. 
  The undead do not bleed to death like mortals do when their rightmost Health boxes are 
  ﬁ lled with lethal damage. If a Kindred’s last Health box has an “X” in it, he is in torpor. (See 
  the chart on p. 249 to ﬁ nd the duration of this death-like state.) Any further points of lethal 
  damage inﬂ icted on the character are converted to aggravated damage. 
  To mortals, of course, an incapacitated or newly torpid Kindred seems dead. This appearance 
  might save the vampire if the mortal did not mean to kill his foe. The mortal might run away, call 
  an ambulance or do something else that gives the Kindred time to recover. If the mortal meant to 
  kill the character but did not know he fought a vampire, he probably stops attacking, which can 
  also give the character time to regain consciousness. If the mortal knows about the undead, though, 
  the Kindred probably faces Final Death anyway, as an unconscious vampire is as easy to kill as an 
  unconscious mortal. Prudent Kindred do not take lethal or even bashing damage lightly.
  AGGRAVATED DAMAGE
  Certain weapons such as magically enhanced werewolf claws or those that Kindred can 
  grow using the Protean Discipline inﬂ ict aggravated damage to vampires. Various rare Dis-
  cipline powers, rituals and other magical effects might deal aggravated damage as well. Such 
  special cases are explained in the description of the relevant power or ritual. Attacks that deal 
  large quantities of lethal damage can also be “upgraded” to aggravated damage if they would 
  destroy large chunks of a character’s body. For example, if a vampire throws himself on a 
  hand grenade, the Storyteller has every right to declare that the character suffers aggravated 
  damage from the explosion. For the most part, though, Kindred suffer aggravated damage 
  because of the special anathemas to the undead: sunlight and ﬁ re.
  Remember that aggravated damage is also inﬂ icted when all other Health boxes are ﬁ lled 
  with lethal injuries, and more harm of any kind is incurred; lethal wounds are upgraded to 
  aggravated from left to right.
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
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  243
  If a Kindred’s rightmost Health box is marked with aggravated damage — having suffered the 
  harm either directly or by converting damage dealt to the torpid character — she suffers Final 
  Death. Her body rots, dries and withers in minutes, and crumbles to dust within an hour. 
  The longer a Kindred has spent undead, the more rapidly the ﬁ nal dissolution occurs.
  Countering damage from sunlight and ﬁ re works differently than other sources of aggra-
  vated damage, in that ﬁ re and sunlight inﬂ ict automatic points of damage. The Resilience 
  Discipline does offer some protection, allowing a character to downgrade this damage (see p. 
  196). Ultimately, though, even the oldest and toughest vampire has no chance to withstand 
  extensive exposure to ﬁ re or sunlight. The Kindred have abundant reason to fear these phe-
  nomena more than anything else.
  FIRE
  Fire presents an even greater danger to vampires than it does to mortals. Fire inﬂ icts ag-
  gravated damage on Kindred. Only Resilience can shield a vampire from the ﬂ ames, and 
  that to a limited degree.
  A ﬁ re’s size and heat determines how much damage a character endures per turn. A small, 
  very hot ﬁ re can deliver as much damage as a large but cooler ﬁ re. The Storyteller decides 
  how much damage a particular ﬁ re can inﬂ ict, based on the ﬁ re damage table:
  taking damage • ﬁ re • sunlight
  3.3 — FIRE DAMAGE FOR KINDRED
  Size of Fire 
  Damage
  Small ﬁ re (example: torch) 
  1 point
  Large ﬁ re (example: bonﬁ re) 
  2 points
  Inferno (example: burning house, blast furnace) 
  3 or more points
  Heat of Fire 
  Damage
  Feeble ﬁ re (example: red-hot coals, candle ﬂ ame) 
  No modiﬁ er
  Normal combustion (example: wood ﬁ re, red-hot stove) 
  +1 point
  Hot ﬁ re (example: gasoline ﬁ re, Bunsen burner) 
  +2 points
  Very hot ﬁ re (example: molten metal, welding torch) 
  +3 points
  Remember that normal armor can protect Kindred for a few turns, but only specialized 
  suits of heat-reﬂ ective fabric, such as those used by oil-well ﬁ reﬁ ghters, can shield a vampire 
  for longer. (See the rules for ﬁ re in the Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook, p. 246.) Meanwhile, 
  the character must also withstand the supernatural terror called Rötschreck (see p. 256).
  • Clinging Fire: Note that some burning substances stick to a character and continue 
  burning for quite some time. Napalm is the most notorious example, but burning plastic 
  is the most common source of clinging ﬂ ames. Burning plastic inﬂ icts damage at the same 
  rate as a wood ﬁ re.
  • Disﬁ gurement: Characters who are damaged by ﬁ re but who still manage to survive 
  (through ﬁ rst aid or mystical healing) might suffer a permanent impairment (reduced Physical 
  Attribute), nerve damage (reduced Mental Attribute) or severe and disﬁ guring scars (reduced 
  Presence), at the Storyteller’s discretion. Such impairment can be deﬁ ned as a Flaw (see p. 
  311 of the Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook) gained during play.
  SUNLIGHT
  The Kindred fear sunlight even more than ﬁ re. After all, ﬁ re doesn’t suffuse half the world, 
  making half of each diurnal cycle deadly for vampires. Even the weakest sunlight presents 
  
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  danger. Sunlight ﬁ ltered through a heavy curtain can still burn. Only the Resilience Discipline 
  can protect a vampire from the daystar’s rays, and then only against dim, faint exposure. Direct 
  sunlight can sear even the mightiest Kindred to ash.
  The amount of damage a Kindred suffers automatically from sunlight per turn depends on 
  the intensity of the light and how much of the vampire’s body is exposed. The brighter and 
  more direct the sunlight is, the more quickly a Kindred’s undead ﬂ esh burns. The more of a 
  vampire’s body that is exposed to sunlight, the more extensive the damage is. For characters, 
  little practical difference exists between an arm completely burned off in a second and losing 
  most of one’s skin from diffused exposure. Damage is damage.
  3.4 — DAMAGE FROM SUNLIGHT
  Intensity or Exposure 
  Health Points/Turn
  Faint, ﬁ ltered sunlight (Example: light through 
  1 point
  heavy, closed drapes; heavy cloud cover; twilight) 
  Filtered or weak sunlight (Example: light through  
  2 points
  thin drapes; outside on a cloudy day; daylight
  through a window; reﬂ ection of sun in a mirror) 
  Direct sunlight 
  3 points
  Exposure 
  Damage
  Small part of body exposed (Example: one hand;  
  +0 points
  part of the face; wearing heavy clothes, sunglasses,
  gloves and a broad-brimmed hat or balaklava) 
  Large part of body exposed (Example: a leg; 
  +1 point
  an arm; whole head) 
  Much of body exposed (Example: whole torso;  
  +2 points
  wearing thin clothing)
  Exposing speciﬁ c body parts to sunlight can cause special, additional harm to a character. A 
  Kindred who looks directly into sunlight is instantly blinded as the rays burn away her retinas 
  and boil her eyes. A narrow beam of sunlight burns a Kindred’s arm off, leaving him unable to 
  do anything that requires two hands. Storytellers must judge such situations for themselves.
  It is true that moonlight consists of reﬂ ected sunlight. Fortunately, however, moonlight is 
  faint enough that it cannot cause damage to the Kindred. At most, a few exceptionally sensi-
  tive Kindred might suffer a mild sunburn from exposure to the light of the full moon.
  RECOVERING FROM DAMAGE
  Mortals heal wounds through time, rest and medical treatment. The undead heal super-
  naturally, using their stolen blood to repair their bodies. Ordinary medical treatment offers 
  them no beneﬁ ts whatsoever.
  Kindred heal bashing damage quite easily. In one turn, a Kindred character can expend one 
  Vitae to heal two Health points lost to bashing damage. Kindred who are able to spend more 
  than one Vitae per turn may heal two points of bashing damage per Vitae spent per turn. For 
  example, a character with Blood Potency 4 can spend two Vitae per turn (see p. 128), so he 
  could spend two Vitae and heal up to four points of bashing damage in one turn.
  Lethal damage heals less easily, since it requires building new tissue to replace and rejoin 
  parts of the character’s body. In one turn, a vampire can expend one Vitae to heal one 
  Health point lost to lethal damage. As with bashing damage, vampires who are able to 
  spend more than one Vitae per turn may heal one point of lethal damage per Vitae spent 
  
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  per turn, up to their limit. Both bashing 
  and lethal damage could even be healed at 
  the same time if you can spend all the Vitae 
  required to do so.
  A character can perform other actions 
  while healing bashing or lethal damage, as 
  this recovery is a reﬂ exive action. An undead 
  character can therefore take as much dam-
  age in a ﬁ ght as a mortal does and heal the 
  damage back while the ﬁ ght continues. Of 
  course, a Kindred carries a limited supply of 
  blood, but she can replenish herself from a 
  defeated foe. (Although bloodless corpses 
  or the addictive taste of a fellow Kindred’s 
  Vitae pose their own problems.)
  Aggravated damage presents much greater 
  difﬁ culties. Each Health point lost to ag-
  gravated damage costs ﬁ ve Vitae to heal, 
  and the process takes two nights per Health 
  point. Those ﬁ ve Vitae must be spent over 
  the course of the two nights it takes for the 
  character to heal the wound, though they 
  need not be spent together. For example, 
  a player might spend three Vitae after the 
  character rises on the ﬁ rst night, and two 
  Vitae after she rises on the second night to 
  heal the wound.
  Note that characters can never heal more 
  Health points than their Health trait. For 
  example, a character with 8 Health who has 
  suffered ﬁ ve points of damage (of whatever 
  type) can not heal six points of damage and 
  raise her Health to 9.
  When vampires heal themselves, the 
  rightmost wound of the kind recovered is 
  erased from your character sheet. So, if two 
  bashing wounds are healed, the rightmost 
  ones on your character’s Health chart are 
  erased. If a lethal wound is healed, the right 
  most one is erased. The same applies for an 
  aggravated wound. In the case of lethal and 
  aggravated wounds, however, if any other 
  wounds remain to the right of the healed 
  one on your character’s Health chart, those 
  injuries shift left one square. No blanks are 
  left in your character’s chart.
  Say your character’s Health chart looks 
  like this:
  recovering from damage
  
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  A Vitae is spent to heal one lethal wound. The rightmost one is erased, and all injuries to its right 
  shift left one square to “close ranks.” Your character’s Health chart therefore looks like this:
  O O O O O O O O O O O O
  O O O O O O O O O O O O
  O O O O O O O O O O O O
  Now, let’s say you spend ﬁ ve Vitae over the course of two nights for your character to 
  recover from one aggravated wound. His rightmost aggravated injury is erased and all to the 
  right of it shift to the left, like so:
  OTHER SOURCES OF DAMAGE
  Now and then, characters encounter other things that can damage or debilitate them. The 
  developed world abounds in toxic and corrosive chemicals, from industrial acids to house-
  hold cleaners. Kindred might encounter electrical shock, either through lightning strikes, 
  carelessness with machinery or electric fences. Characters might even deliberately introduce 
  mind-altering drugs into their bodies. These hazards and others require special rules, chieﬂ y 
  to distinguish their effects on Kindred from their effects on mortals.
  CHEMICALS, DRUGS AND POISONS
  Most venoms and toxic chemicals do not harm the Kindred at all. Many snake venoms form a 
  notable exception. Snake venoms often dissolve blood cells and body tissues. They not only inﬂ ict 
  points of damage, they destroy Vitae, usually one Vitae per point of damage. Cobra venom also 
  causes heart spasms. Storytellers can treat snake venom as inﬂ icting lethal damage within several 
  minutes of a bite. The amount of damage depends on the snake, but many cobras and African 
  vipers routinely kill mortals with a single bite. Their blood-destroying venom should not inﬂ ict 
  quite as much damage to Kindred (mortals are more fragile, what with their need for a metabo-
  lism), but enough to make a snakebite a bad experience. Kindred, like kine, seldom encounter 
  deadly serpents in modern cities, but it might happen under various unusual circumstances. A 
  tyrannical Prince might keep a terrarium of vipers for their sheer intimidation value.
  Acids and other corrosive chemicals damage Kindred as easily as they damage kine. They typi-
  cally inﬂ ict points of lethal damage. The amount of damage depends on the corrosiveness of the 
  chemical and the quantity and length of exposure. Quicklime, for instance, burns away bodies 
  rather slowly, but thoroughly, and it’s available cheaply in large quantities. One lethal point 
  every few turns adequately represents a large exposure to most corrosive industrial chemicals.
  Drugs such as alcohol, marijuana and heroin affect Kindred just as they do mortals. A 
  Kindred who wants to use a drug can either feed on an intoxicated mortal, or expend a Vitae 
  to absorb the drug directly and suffuse it throughout his body. This capability puzzles some 
  scientiﬁ cally minded Kindred. How can a drug affect the undead when they don’t have a 
  metabolism? Especially when medications have no effect? The Lancea Sanctum and the Circle 
  of the Crone supply the simple, rather obvious answer: It’s magic.
  Lancea Sanctum theologians explain in more detail. They say that God wants the Childer 
  of Longinus to suffer the same temptations of gluttonous self-indulgence and addiction that 
  mortals feel. The Kindred may therefore damn themselves by choice, as well as by the curse 
  of undeath. Praise God for His terrible justice!
  
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  ELECTRICITY
  By itself, electricity does little harm to the undead. Electrocution doesn’t stop a Kindred’s 
  heart from beating, because it doesn’t beat in the ﬁ rst place. Electricity doesn’t interfere with 
  brain function or nerve impulses, because vampire bodies work mystically. The heat generated 
  by lightning or high-tension electric current can cause internal burns, however.
  If a Kindred suffers some electric shock that could wound or kill a mortal, ask the player to 
  draw the character’s Stamina + Resilience. If the draw succeeds, the character suffers no dam-
  age at all unless the electricity is supernatural in origin. If the draw fails or if the electricity is 
  supernatural, the electricity inﬂ icts bashing damage. Assess the damage based on the strength 
  of the current or at random. So many factors can inﬂ uence the lethality of an electric shock, 
  from the soles of a character’s shoes to the humidity in the air, that any attempt to provide a 
  “realistic” system is futile. Only in the rarest of circumstances, such as with certain magical at-
  tacks or overwhelming amounts of electricity, does a shock result in lethal or aggravated damage. 
  These circumstances, when not detailed by speciﬁ c rules, are determined by the Storyteller.
  Kindred remain subject to the muscle-locking effect of electrocution, though, just like 
  mortals. Use the system for pulling free from electrocution presented on p. 244 the Mind’s 
  Eye Theatre rulebook.
  EXTREME PRESSURES AND TEMPERATURES
  Since vampires do not actually live, they suffer only minor discomfort from temperature 
  and pressure extremes that would kill a mortal. For instance, Kindred cannot suffer from 
  hypothermia or heat prostration. Being dead, they do not need to maintain a steady body 
  temperature. Kindred can descend deep underwater and return to the surface quickly with-
  out worrying about decompression sickness (“the bends”). Gas bubbles in a Kindred’s blood 
  might cause a few aches and twinges, but they do not really harm his undead ﬂ esh. Altitude 
  sickness means nothing to creatures that don’t need to breathe.
  In some of the most extreme cases, Storytellers might impose penalties of some sort for the 
  most extreme conditions. Temperatures over 200°F might count as feeble ﬁ re (or at least set the 
  panic of Rötschreck crawling in a character’s mind). Then again, mortals routinely stick their 
  hands into 400°F ovens without the hot air burning their skin. Prolonged exposure to freezing 
  temperatures might force a character to expend a Vitae or two to avoid frostbite (-1 or more to 
  Dexterity-based draws). In the most extreme case, a Kindred could freeze solid and immobile 
  — not harmful in itself, but eventually the character starves into torpor if she doesn’t burn from 
  exposure to daylight. The pressure at the bottom of a deep-sea trench (what sort of chronicle are 
  you playing, anyway?) might crush an unfortunate vampire who lacks Resilience to endure it. 
  Some ﬁ sh live in those awful depths, but they have evolved to adapt to those conditions. Total 
  vacuum (good God, what sort of chronicle is this?) could inﬂ ict bashing or, at most, a few points 
  of lethal damage as blood vessels rupture. Since the undead don’t need to breathe, a character 
  could survive in a vacuum indeﬁ nitely once the pressure within his tissues drops.
  DISEASE AND THE KINDRED
  No mundane disease can affect the Kindred in any way. From cancer to the common 
  cold, undeath “cures” them all and renders a character immune forever after. Kindred 
  don’t get allergies, infections or ulcers.
  The Kindred do care about disease, though. A Kindred can still spread a disease from 
  one mortal to another. A vampire drinks from an infected mortal, and like a mosquito 
  carrying malaria or yellow fever, he injects the disease organism into anyone he feeds 
  upon afterward. Diseases that are normally carried by contact between body ﬂ uids, 
  such as HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, prove especially likely to take 
  other sources of damage • chemicals • electricity • pressure and temperature
  
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  permanent residence in a vampire’s body. A few Kindred read about African outbreaks 
  of ebola — a disease speciﬁ cally and only spread by contact with an infected person’s 
  blood — and wonder if some African vampires have become careless.
  In centuries past, the Kindred did not care much if one of their numbers became 
  a plague-dog. Mortals got sick and died so often that no one noticed a few more 
  victims every week. As more people went to doctors, however, the covenants all 
  encouraged their members to avoid the diseased. Cases of doctors who became 
  witch-hunters because of patients talking of strange people biting them convinced 
  the Invictus and Lancea Sanctum, in particular, to declare plague-spreading a breach 
  of the Masquerade. The rise of modern epidemiology and institutes such as the WHO 
  and CDC increase the danger even more.
  In a few cities, the Prince and Primogen execute Kindred found guilty of spreading 
  diseases from vessel to vessel. More often, Kindred leaders settle for locking up a 
  plague-dog until they can ﬁ nd a practitioner of Theban Sorcery who knows how 
  to cleanse Kindred of disease (one of the rare occasions when Kindred deliberately 
  seek to bring a foreign vampire to a city). Of course, they don’t bother feeding the 
  imprisoned Kindred. Let the pain of starvation be his punishment, they ﬁ gure, and 
  then let him wait in torpor until the sorcerer comes to set things right.
  If one ever comes.
  REVERSION AND SCARRING
  Normally, vampires revert to the state in which they were Embraced while they sleep during 
  daylight hours. Hair cut during the course of the night grows back, a shaved ﬁ ve o’clock shadow 
  returns if the Kindred was Embraced while scruffy, and minor wounds correct themselves. In 
  some cases, however, this reversion is prevented. If a vampire suffers damage, those wounds 
  persist until the vampire heals them.
  In a few instances, a vampire might actively wish to change his appearance in a lasting fashion. 
  Such is the case with hair dye, tattoos or piercings that would normally expel the ink or push 
  themselves out of the skin while the vampire slumbers. A few vampires even like to force their 
  bodies to permanently exhibit a scar after a particularly signiﬁ cant battle or physical ordeal.
  If a vampire wishes to keep a scar or other change to his body, the player must spend a 
  Willpower point to do so.
  Truly severe modiﬁ cations, such as permanently losing a limb or other extensive modiﬁ cations 
  cost a Willpower dot, and the Storyteller is the ﬁ nal arbiter of what constitutes the distinction.
  TORPOR
  The ancients called sleep the brother of death. This is even more true for vampires than for 
  mortals. Every day, the Kindred enter a sleep that mortal senses and science cannot distinguish 
  from death. The Kindred experience it much as mortals experience sleep. The Kindred can also 
  enter a deeper sleep, however, in which their souls come even closer to death. The Kindred call 
  this state torpor. A vampire’s daily sleep lasts a few hours, but torpor can last for centuries.
  WOUNDING
  Wounds sufﬁ cient to kill mortals send the Kindred into torpor, instead. If a vampire’s 
  rightmost Health box is occupied by a lethal wound, she enters torpor instead of dying. 
  (Recall that sufﬁ cient bashing damage can convert to lethal damage, so a good beating with, 
  say, baseball bats can still send a Kindred into torpor.)
  The duration of this torpor depends on the character’s Humanity and her Blood Potency. 
  A high Blood Potency extends the torpor’s duration; so does having a low Humanity. High-
  Humanity vampires spend much less time in torpor than Kindred who have given most of 
  themselves to the Beast.
  
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  To calculate the length of time a wounded Kindred spends in torpor, consult the follow-
  ing table. The character’s Humanity score determines a base time spent in torpor. Multiply 
  that span by the character’s Blood Potency to ﬁ nd the total duration of the slumber. (Note 
  that should it become a necessary distinction, the times on the torpor chart refer to in-game 
  time, not always literal real time.)
  During the time their characters are torpid, players are encouraged to play alternate char-
  acters, perhaps ghouls or retainers, or even assist the Storytelling staff by taking on the role 
  of a Narrator character for a time. Of course, Storytellers should take care that players do 
  not use such an opportunity to try to get vengeance for fallen characters or otherwise carry 
  on old agendas without good cause.
  Example: Fever has a Blood Potency of 2 and a Humanity of 6. (He became one of the Damned 
  relatively recently, and since he has only begun to increase the potency of his blood, he hasn’t lost much 
  of himself to the Beast either.) A rival Shadow, jealous of his rising status, ambushes him and viciously 
  beats Fever into torpor, but Fever’s loyal retainer arrives and drives the attacker off before he can ﬁ nish 
  the job. Humanity 6 gives a base duration of two weeks; multiplying this by Fever’s Blood Potency dots 
  gives a total duration of four weeks. At the end of that time, Fever wakes up hungry and wondering 
  what the hell just happened.
  For contrast, the Unholy has a Blood Potency of 7 and has certainly earned her moniker with a 
  Humanity of 2. For all her power, though, a pack of bold Lupines gives her a good thrashing. The 
  Lupines think they kill her, but they actually leave her in torpor. Her Humanity of 2 gives a base time 
  of 50 years. Multiplying this by her Blood Potency of 7 gives a total duration of 350 years, give or take 
  a few. Given such long spans of time, we don’t need to set an exact date for when she wakes. The point 
  is, the Unholy stays out of circulation for a long, long time.
  Zero-Humanity vampires form an important exception to this system. When they enter tor-
  por from wounding, they sleep for an even millennium, regardless of their Blood Potency.
  reversion and scarring • torpor
  3.5 — TORPOR DURATION
  Humanity 
  Base time*
  10 
  One day
  9 
  Two days
  8 
  Three days
  7 
  One week
  6 
  Two weeks
  5 
  One month
  4 
  One year
  3 
  One decade
  2 
  Five decades
  1 
  One century
  0 
  One millennium†
  * Total time = Base Time x Blood Potency
  While in torpor, a wounded vampire can expend Vitae but can take no other action. His 
  undead body still expends one Vitae per night as it tries to restore itself to its post-Embrace 
  condition. The character can also expend Vitae to heal himself — a good idea, since otherwise 
  the Vitae just trickles away without doing anything useful. Any damage that the vampire can-
  not heal remains on the character’s withered body until he can rise and feed again.
  If the vampire lacks sufﬁ cient reserves of Vitae to heal at least three points of the damage 
  (whether lethal or aggravated) that sent her to torpor, that torpor lasts longer than usual. Calculate 
  the torpor’s duration as if the character’s Blood Potency were one higher than it actually is. 
  
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  If the character succumbs to torpor with no Vitae left and has lost all of her Health points 
  to lethal damage, she awakens having recovered one Health point as a result of the torpor, 
  which she doesn’t have to pay for with Vitae. In effect, the character recovers this Health 
  point for free, as a result of the stabilizing sleep of torpor.
  Example: Alexis is beaten into torpor by a pack of Kindred enforcers under Ian’s command. When 
  Alexis sinks into torpor, she does so with only two Vitae in her system. Her Humanity is 6 and her Blood 
  Potency is 3. Normally, this would result in a six-week torpor. Because she lacks the Vitae to properly heal 
  herself, however, Alexis’s Blood Potency is treated as if it were one higher. This results in an eight-week 
  torpor for Alexis, and when she rises, the wounds from her right two Health boxes are erased — wounds 
  recovered from the Vitae she had in her system and spent reﬂ exively.
  STARVATION
  A Kindred who sleeps during the day and who has no Vitae — but who is not truly in 
  torpor — fails to rise. All Vitae in him has been exhausted, so he has none to spend to rise 
  the next night. For every night that passes under these circumstances, the character suffers 
  a point of lethal damage in lieu of spending Vitae. In this state, the character is incapable 
  of functioning at all, yet is not in torpor. This is important because this vampire does not 
  need exceptionally potent Vitae to be roused yet — see p. 252. At this point, any Vitae given 
  to him allows him to rise as normal (fed only a few Vitae, the character probably rises in a 
  hunger frenzy). Denied any Vitae from an outside source, a starving character continues to 
  suffer one lethal wound a night until he slips into torpor.
  The character sleeps in torpor for a duration determined by the preceding chart: the 
  base duration set by the character’s Humanity, multiplied by a number one higher than the 
  character’s Blood Potency. At the torpor’s end, the character awakens with only one Health 
  point restored, as discussed previously.
  VOLUNTARY TORPOR
  Kindred can also enter torpor deliberately. Sometimes unlife just gets to be too much and 
  a Kindred decides to sleep in hopes that some of her problems will be solved by the time she 
  wakes again. Elder vampires also sometimes use torpor to reduce their Blood Potency when 
  feeding becomes too inconvenient.
  Vampires seldom enter voluntary torpor lightly. An extended torpor usually requires abandon-
  ing all responsibilities in the Kindred world and all the inﬂ uence so painstakingly built in the 
  mortal world. A Kindred might hope that his childer remain reasonably loyal and greet him 
  with respect when he rises again. He might also hope that his centuries of experience bring him 
  honor among other Kindred and win him at least a minor title in his covenant and city’s undead 
  community, but he cannot realistically hope to resume his old ofﬁ ces as if he’d never left.
  Voluntary torpor lasts at least as long as the base duration set by the character’s Human-
  ity. At the end of that time, the character wakes if his player makes a successful Resolve + 
  Composure draw. If the draw fails, the character remains in torpor for another increment of 
  time, and so on. The player may choose not to make the draw to rise after each increment 
  if he wishes his character to remain in torpor for another increment.
  Example: Lucius ﬁ nds himself stymied by the presence of too many enemies and decides to lay low 
  for a while, seeking refuge in voluntary torpor. His Humanity is 4, so he spends at least one year in 
  torpor. After that year, Lucius’s player decides Lucius wishes to stay out of sight and chooses not to 
  draw Resolve + Composure. Lucius remains torpid for another year, at which point the player chooses 
  to draw and succeed; Lucius is free to rise.
  After the ﬁ rst increment passes, the character can also try to wake up if something disturbs 
  his body. The character can recognize a disturbance if the player succeeds at a Wits + Auspex 
  
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  draw (if he has that Discipline) at a -2 penalty. If he recognizes trouble, a Humanity draw 
  is made for the vampire to rouse himself. If the disturbance is at night, a successful draw 
  means the character wakes completely. During the day, the character can stay awake for one 
  turn per success drawn.  
  The player can also make extended Humanity draws to prolong the character’s period of 
  activity (see p. 265). The character achieves full wakefulness if the player accumulates ﬁ ve 
  successes in the extended action, but the character falls asleep again if the player fails any of 
  these draws. (This is the same as the normal system for a character to wake up during the 
  day, but under more challenging circumstances for rousing from voluntary torpor rather 
  than from normal sleep.)
  Note that no Vitae is spent upon waking from torpor, as it is upon waking from a day’s sleep.
  STAKING
  Finally, a vampire enters torpor when a wooden stake penetrates his heart. Only wood has 
  this effect. Rods of metal, plastic or other substances can damage the vampire by piercing the 
  heart, but only wood induces torpor. Kindred mystics offer a number of religious and occult 
  theories for why wood has this power. Most Kindred simply accept it as a fact of unlife.
  Driving a stake through a vampire’s heart is extraordinarily difﬁ cult. The feat requires a 
  melee or ranged attack with the stake. In combat, the attacker suffers a -3 penalty to strike so 
  precisely. Then the attacker must inﬂ ict at least three points of lethal damage for the stake to 
  actually thrust through the vampire’s body and into the heart. The staked vampire immediately 
  collapses into torpor, appearing stone dead for all that a mortal could tell.
  A staked vampire remains in torpor indeﬁ nitely. The Kindred awakens only when someone 
  or something removes the stake from his heart. An unwary mortal might remove the stake 
  from what looks like a mummiﬁ ed corpse. A rat might gnaw at the stake enough to dislodge 
  it, or termites might eat the stake away completely. Until something like this occurs, however, 
  the vampire sleeps.Characters that seek to avoid Humanity loss by simply torporing or stak-
  ing characters indeﬁ nitely are effectively committing murder, since they are destroying the 
  consciousness of another sentient being without any chance for recourse. The same Human-
  ity tests should take place if a character tries to dispose of another vampire in this fashion, 
  a murder by any other name.
  EFFECTS OF TORPOR
  During torpor, a vampire’s body seems utterly inert. Over the decades, it slowly shrivels in 
  on itself until it seems like a mummiﬁ ed corpse. This happens more quickly if the character 
  lacks the Vitae to heal all the damage he suffered when forced into torpor. A vampire starved 
  into torpor looks withered already.
  The vampire dreams slowly during torpor. These dreams tend to reﬂ ect the Kindred’s state of 
  mind when he entered torpor. If he slumbered willingly, his dreams remain largely peaceful, if 
  not particularly sensible. If the Kindred entered torpor during a struggle (as is often the case), 
  his dreams are full of wrath and terror. His mind can stay frozen on one thought or emotion for 
  centuries. Kindred might awaken obsessed with Kindred or kine who became dust long ago.
  Then there’s the culture shock. Most of the world has changed more in the last century 
  than it did in the previous thousand. Kindred who awaken from centuries of torpor often 
  seem out of their minds, just because they are so out of touch with the modern world.
  Decades or centuries of torpid dreaming scramble a Kindred’s memory. Events from his 
  past lose order. Fantasies and nightmares from dreams mix into real memories, so a vampire 
  cannot tell which is which. Did he really hear two Primogen plotting against him — or was 
  that just what he feared was happening? Did unbound Kindred really destroy his hated sire, 
  torpor • staking
  
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  or did he merely wish they had? Some Kindred write diaries and memoirs to refresh their 
  memories in case they must endure a long torpor, but no memoir can capture everything. 
  Some Kindred also wonder if open or hidden rivals might have found their diaries and re-
  written them as part of subtle schemes to manipulate them. Other Kindred rise from torpor 
  to ﬁ nd their memoirs gone, looted by savvy witch-hunters who used the notes to hunt down 
  other Kindred — a Pyrrhic victory at best over one’s enemies, and a considerable risk to one’s 
  progeny and allies. Such is the paranoia bred by the Danse Macabre.
  No matter what causes torpor, a vampire still loses one Vitae per day. Any Vitae the Kin-
  dred uses to heal wounds does so in the normal order. After torpor of any length, therefore, 
  a Kindred wakes up with no Vitae at all. Hunger frenzies are extremely likely after a vampire 
  rises from torpor. The Storyteller may call for a Composure + Resolve draw to resist frenzy 
  the ﬁ rst time the character encounters any creature upon whom she can feed.
  Example: When Ian’s brute squad sent Alexis to torpor, Alexis had two Vitae left. Upon reaching 
  torpor, she spent those two Vitae, thereby healing two of the lethal damage points she had suffered. 
  That left her with no Vitae remaining in her system, so she begins shriveling at the end of the next day, 
  when Alexis would normally have spent the Vitae to sustain herself. She is starving when she rises, but 
  at least she has those two Health points back.
  Example: Lucius voluntarily went into torpor to evade the wrath of his many enemies. As he had 
  no wounds to heal when he did so, he had no need to immediately heal Health points, so all of his 
  remaining Vitae went toward sustaining his body (at the normal expenditure of one point per day). 
  Since Lucius’s torpor was going to last at least a year (see the example on p. 250), he wouldn’t have 
  enough Vitae to tide him over for that complete length of time. If someone with more potent blood (see 
  the “Forced Revival” sidebar) found him after only a few days of cold sleep and revived him, he might 
  still have unused Vitae in his system.
  For every 25 years in torpor, a Kindred’s Blood Potency drops by one dot, though never to 
  less than 1. This decrease does not affect the length of torpor, though. The total duration of 
  the slumber depends on the character’s Blood Potency when torpor begins, no matter how 
  the trait changes during the long sleep.
  FORCED REVIVAL
  Kindred can awaken early from torpor if someone feeds them sufﬁ ciently potent 
  blood. One must force at least two Vitae into the torpid vampire’s mouth. If the blood 
  comes from a Kindred with a Blood Potency at least two dots higher than the torpid 
  vampire’s current Blood Potency (taking into account time already spent in torpor), 
  the sleeping character awakens, no matter how much longer her torpor would have 
  lasted on its own. If the vampire is fed Vitae that isn’t potent enough, she remains in 
  torpor, and the taste of blood likely permeates her dreams. In either case, blood fed 
  to a vampire to revive her counts toward a Vinculum over her as well as potentially 
  creating blood addiction.
  Blood fed to a torpid vampire that’s not potent enough to rouse her can still be 
  useful to the slumbering Kindred. The Vitae can be spent reﬂ exively to heal wounds. 
  Any Vitae that isn’t spent to heal is exhausted at the normal rate of one for each 
  night that follows. 
  Some Kindred believe that certain Theban Sorcery rituals can rouse a Kindred 
  from torpor… or force one into the long sleep. Rumor has it that the potent blood 
  of Lupines can also bring a vampire out of torpor early. As always, Storytellers must 
  decide on the truth or falsehood of such legends.
  
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  Frenzy, Wassail and Rötschreck
  Vampires work hard to hide the Beast Within. The politics of the Invictus and Carthians, 
  the mysticism of the Ordo Dracul, Lancea Sanctum and the Circle of the Crone, even the 
  bravado of the unbound — all are masks that vampires wear to hide the rage and bloodlust of 
  the Beast, most of all from themselves. Hunger, wrath or fear, however, can weaken the Man 
  enough that the Beast escapes restraint. Then a vampire becomes a monster and menace to 
  every creature that crosses its path. The Kindred call this awful state frenzy.
  THE NATURE OF FRENZY
  During frenzy, a vampire no longer acts according to any rational plan. The Beast doesn’t 
  think. It acts based on raw instinct, with no thought for the future or memory of the past. 
  The Kindred no longer recognizes friends, foes or family. Any creature with blood in its veins 
  is reduced to obstacle or prey. While in frenzy, hungry vampires try to feed without restraint 
  from whoever is nearest. Angry vampires do anything possible to destroy the cause of their 
  anger. Frightened vampires ﬂ ee the source of their fear and kill anyone who gets in the way. 
  They care nothing for the consequences of their actions, only for the immediate satisfaction 
  of a primal drive.
  When the Kindred refer to “frenzy,” without any qualiﬁ er, they usually mean an outburst 
  caused by anger. Kindred give special names to frenzies caused by hunger and fear. The former, 
  they call Wassail; the latter, Rötschreck. Young Kindred who think it’s pretentious to assign 
  fancy names to ugly rampages simply speak of “hunger frenzy” and “fear frenzy.”
  All these forms of frenzy have certain aspects in common. A vampire who succumbs to the 
  Beast no longer pays attention to wound penalties, except perhaps to rage even more ﬁ ercely. 
  Injuries that would leave a sane vampire crawling on the ground don’t bother a frenzying 
  vampire a bit — the Kindred keeps ﬁ ghting until he is forced into torpor or is destroyed. 
  The vampire also becomes resistant to mental inﬂ uences such as Dominate and Majesty. A 
  frenzying Kindred routinely pushes his physical abilities to the limit, performing extraordi-
  nary feats of strength, agility and toughness. Kindred can employ their Disciplines while in 
  frenzy, but only for the most rudimentary ends. For instance, a vampire can grow Claws of 
  the Wild to attack prey, or use Nightmare to drive people away who interfere with her ﬂ ight, 
  but she cannot command anyone using Dominate because that Discipline requires speech 
  and a focused mind.
  A vampire can slide from some kinds of frenzy to others. Yet, some forms of frenzy pro-
  tect the vampire from others. Hunger frenzy is the weakest. A Wassailing vampire can be 
  driven into a rage frenzy if he is kept from his prey, or a sufﬁ cient threat can drive him into 
  Rötschreck. Self-preservation takes precedence over hunger, but sheer rage can overpower 
  self-preservation if someone ﬁ ghts too hard to stop a ﬂ eeing vampire. While in a rage frenzy, 
  a Kindred becomes immune to Rötschreck, but she can slide into a hunger frenzy as she 
  guzzles the blood of a victim.
  SYSTEMS FOR FRENZY
  The Storyteller decides when a character runs the risk of frenzy. Anger can cause frenzy, but 
  not every moment of irritation stirs the Beast. Hunger provokes the Beast, but most of the 
  time characters can feed without going berserk and killing their vessels. Rötschreck — the “Red 
  Fear” — usually occurs only when Kindred face the two forces most able to destroy them, ﬁ re 
  torpor • frenzy, wassail and rötschreck
  
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  and sunlight. Other sources of fear seldom 
  provoke frenzy, though it can happen, as 
  with meeting a new vampire of higher Blood 
  Potency for the ﬁ rst time. These guidelines 
  are vague because the relative strength 
  of Man and Beast can ﬂ uctuate for many 
  reasons. One time, a character might shrug 
  off an extreme provocation. Another time, 
  the Kindred might feel a weight of accumu-
  lated frustration or anxiety and lose control 
  over a small matter. We offer examples of 
  circumstances that can trigger frenzies, and 
  how hard they might be to resist, but the 
  Storyteller has ﬁ nal say.
  In rules terms, frenzy has the following 
  effects on a character:
  • A frenzying vampire ignores wound 
  penalties to test pools, until wounds become 
  severe enough to render the character torpid 
  or destroyed outright.
  • All attempts to inﬂ uence the frenzying 
  character’s mind, by Dominate, Majesty or 
  other means, take place at a -2 penalty, while 
  draws for the character to resist or throw off 
  mental inﬂ uence receive a +2 bonus.
  • Of course, a frenzying character can-
  not perform any action that requires much 
  thought.
  • The character receives a +1 bonus for 
  any Physical Attribute draw. The Beast goes 
  all-out, all the time, and its blinding rage 
  shuts out all distractions and doubts.
  RESISTING FRENZY
  Resisting frenzy is an extended action. 
  Whatever the cause of frenzy, Kindred may 
  try to resist the Beast and maintain control. 
  When a character is on the verge of frenzy, 
  the player draws Resolve + Composure. If 
  any successes are achieved, the character 
  resists the frenzy for one turn per success. 
  At the end of those turns, the player draws 
  again in hopes of winning a few turns more 
  of self-control for the character. If the player 
  can accumulate a certain number of suc-
  cesses, the Beast subsides and the character 
  completely avoids the frenzy. If any of the 
  draws fail, however, the character goes ber-
  
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  255
  serk and spends the rest of the scene in frenzy. If the player suffers a  failure on a chance draw, 
  the character stays in frenzy for as long as the Storyteller thinks is appropriate. The character 
  also gains a derangement related to whatever caused the frenzy (see p. 268).
  The greater the provocation to the character, the more successes the player must accumulate. 
  Five successes sufﬁ ce for most frenzies. Higher numbers represent the most extreme humilia-
  tion or peril to the vampire’s unlife. The Storyteller may also impose bonuses or penalties to 
  Resolve + Composure test pools to reﬂ ect a trigger that’s especially easy or hard to resist.
  The rule doesn’t change any, but it bears repeating: A Willpower point earns a character a 
  +3 bonus on the draw to resist frenzy, as it does with most other draws.
  ANGER FRENZIES
  Here are some typical events that can spark an anger frenzy, with sample numbers of suc-
  cesses needed to resist them, or modiﬁ ers to the Resolve + Composure test pool.
  resisting frenzy • anger frenzies • hunger frenzies
  3.6 — ANGER FRENZY TRIGGERS
  Trigger Event 
  Successes to Resist
  Harassed by a panhandler 
  2 successes
  Idiot scrapes your new car 
  2 successes
  Insulted in public 
  3 successes
  Hours of frustration and delay 
  3 successes
  Reviled by someone you dislike 
  5 successes
  Betrayed by a partner in a deal 
  5 successes
  Shot by a mugger 
  5 successes
  Loved one in danger 
  5 successes
  Betrayed by someone you love 
  7 successes
  Lose everything you own 
  7 successes
  Loved one slain 
  10 successes
  Reviled and humiliated by someone you love 
  10 successes
  Situation 
  Modiﬁ er to Draw
  Provocation aligns with your Virtue or Vice 
  ±2 
  Provocation attacks your Virtue or Vice 
  ±2 
  Hungry 
  -1 
  Starving 
  -2 
  Virtues and Vices can work either way. Someone who gains strength and purpose from 
  Justice, for instance, might feel extra anger at some crime that she cannot correct, but she could 
  resist the Beast more effectively when someone takes her to task and she knows that person is 
  in the right. Someone beset by Pride might have extra trouble dealing with humiliation, but 
  he could make an extra effort not to embarrass himself in other cases. The Storyteller decides 
  when a Virtue or Vice can inﬂ uence the difﬁ culty of the Resolve + Composure draw.
  Kindred also ﬁ nd it harder to resist the Beast when hunger adds to rage. A hungry character, 
  deﬁ ned as one who has no more than four Vitae in her system, suffers a -1 penalty to Resolve 
  + Composure draws. A starving character, deﬁ ned as having only one or no Vitae left, suffers 
  a -2 penalty. These penalties are not cumulative with each other. You do not suffer a -3 penalty 
  for being both starving and hungry.
  HUNGER FRENZIES
  Wassail can occur whenever a character feels hungry and encounters blood. Hunger 
  frenzies are most dangerous when a character actually feeds. Kindred who care about their 
  vessels adopt various strategies to reduce the danger to their loved ones, such as never letting 
  themselves become too hungry, or having a favored vessel drain blood into a bowl instead 
  
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  of submitting to the Kiss. Few modiﬁ ers apply to hunger frenzies, and loss of control is less 
  likely once a character has imbibed blood. See the foregoing for the deﬁ nition of “hungry” 
  and “starving” for vampires.
  3.7 — WASSAIL  TRIGGERS
  Trigger Event 
  Successes to Resist
  Sight or smell of blood (when hungry) 
  2 successes
  First taste of blood (when hungry) 
  3 successes
  Sight or smell of blood (when starving) 
  4 successes
  First taste of blood (when starving) 
  5 successes
  Situation 
  Modiﬁ er to Draw
  Has tasted vampire blood before 
  -1 
  Hungry 
  -1 
  Starving 
  -2 
  Addicted to vampire blood 
  -2 
  3.8 — FEAR FRENZY TRIGGERS
  Trigger Event 
  Successes to Resist
  Lighting a cigarette 
  1 success
  Sight of a torch 
  2 successes
  Flashbulb in the face 
  3 successes
  Bonﬁ re 
  4 successes
  Burning building 
  5 successes
  Obscured sunlight 
  7 successes
  Direct sunlight 
  10 successes
  Situation 
  Modiﬁ er to Draw
  Fire/sunlight at a safe distance 
  +2 
  Surprised by ﬁ re/light 
  -1 
  Surrounded by ﬁ re/light, but not immediately harmed -1 
  Burned by ﬁ re/sunlight 
  -3 
  FEAR FRENZIES
  In some ways, the undead have less to fear than mortals do. Vampires are hard to kill, and 
  they can hope to make up for any minor loss, given time. Injuries are also more likely to anger 
  a Kindred than frighten him.
  Sunlight and ﬁ re, however, provoke a soul-deep terror among the Kindred. The Beast knows 
  that these forces can cause its destruction. It instinctively ﬂ ees sunlight and ﬁ re in a blind 
  panic. While in Rötschreck, a vampire wants to do nothing but run away and hide, and she 
  lashes out at anyone in her way. If a character cannot escape the cause of her fear frenzy, she 
  might gain a derangement from such sublime terror.
  Exposure to small amounts of sunlight or ﬁ re, at a safe distance or under the character’s 
  control, hardly ever provokes Rötschreck. Nor does a TV or movie image of a sunny day rouse 
  her Beast… much. If someone jabs a lit cigarette at the character or a ﬂ ashbulb goes off in her 
  face, however, it might be a different matter.
  Nothing about a character’s personality has much effect on resisting Rötschreck. It’s the 
  quantity of ﬁ re or sunlight, or the degree of control, that makes resisting a fear frenzy more 
  or less difﬁ cult.
  
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  ROLEPLAYING FRENZY
  It’s important to remember that a frenzied character ignores all morals or loyalties in her blind 
  compulsion to destroy her enemy, slake her thirst or escape sunlight or ﬁ re. She attacks friends, 
  family members, lovers and even — most to the point — other players’ characters if they get in 
  her way. For instance, a vampire raging in anger frenzy prefers to attack the person who rouses 
  her ire, but she just as readily tries to kill any friends if the enemy is not available as a target for 
  some reason. The character probably feels utter horror when she emerges from her frenzy to ﬁ nd 
  that she slaughtered her own mother, but the Beast does not know or care about such things. 
  Atrocities committed during frenzy often lead to degeneration draws (p. 260) as a character tries 
  to deal with remorse. Repeated frenzies can certainly grind down a vampire’s Humanity.
  Some players might not want to roleplay frenzy, but the Beast is part of being a vampire. 
  Storytellers should encourage players to portray the frenzy in its full, brutal horror. If a player 
  cannot do this, the Storyteller is fully within her rights to have him transfer control of his 
  character to the Storytelling staff, who dictates his actions until the frenzy ends.
  If a player wants, he can spend a Willpower point for a character in the throes of frenzy. 
  Doing so permits the player to control one of the character’s actions for one turn. In this 
  way, a frenzying vampire might manage to give her soon-to-be victim a chance to run away, or 
  a person who gave offense a chance to make a hasty apology. This moment of control does 
  not actually avert the frenzy, but the changing circumstances might redirect the focus of the 
  character’s rage. For instance, the frenzying character might throw the furniture around in-
  stead of ripping apart the mortal whose injudicious word uncorked several nights of building 
  frustration. In addition, if a player ever has a character perform an action that the Storyteller 
  thinks just isn’t possible or appropriate for a frenzying character, the Storyteller can rule that 
  the character expended a Willpower point to take that action.
  The Storyteller decides how long a frenzy lasts. One scene is usually long enough, but keep 
  in mind that a scene is a very ﬂ exible unit of time. A character trapped alone, or running 
  wildly through empty streets, might not calm down for hours. A character who meant to take 
  “just a sip” from her boyfriend and drank him dry instead might recover just in time to hear 
  his death-rattle… and have a chance to Embrace him instead of letting him die a true death. 
  Reducing a Kindred to torpor always ends frenzy.
  A FINAL WORD ON FRENZY
  Players must remember that all of the Only Rules That Matter still apply while a 
  character is in frenzy, perhaps more so than many other times. Just because a character 
  has lost control is no excuse for the player to forget the basic rules of safety and 
  conduct. While players in private venues or among close friends might be allowed to 
  get away with a bit more in terms of frenzy behavior, players are never allowed to 
  destroy scenery or props, touch other players or actually run around the play area in 
  an unsafe fashion. Any potentially dangerous or suspect actions should be handled 
  with tests, pantomimed or just simply narrated. Also, even if other players don’t mind 
  having the frenzied character scream in their face or make threatening gestures, bear 
  in mind that bystanders might not be aware that a game is going on. This warning 
  is not meant to limit roleplaying, but to avoid potential hurt feelings within troupes 
  or trouble with outsiders due to frenzy actions.
  RIDING THE WAVE
  Under some circumstances, characters might want to frenzy on purpose. For all the hor-
  ror of what a character might do in frenzy, succumbing to the Beast carries power. The great 
  difﬁ culty lies in controlling one’s actions so that the Beast achieves something useful. Young 
  hunger frenzies • fear frenzies • riding the wave
  
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  Kindred call such a temporary, negotiated surrender to the Beast riding the wave. Older 
  Kindred call it damnable foolishness.
  If a character wants to ride the wave, the player makes Resolve + Composure draws and 
  tries to accumulate successes as an extended action, just like ﬁ ghting back frenzy. In this case, 
  however, the vampire tries to goad the Beast while supplying it with a target of the Man’s 
  choice. The player also expends a Willpower point for trying to direct the frenzy in advance. 
  Riding the wave always requires accumulating at least ﬁ ve successes. The Storyteller may ask 
  for more, or modify the Resolve + Composure draws depending on how well the desired 
  task accords with the character’s personality or existing emotions. For instance, a character 
  probably has little trouble deliberately frenzying when he faces the Lupine that murdered 
  two of his Kindred allies, his Virtue is Justice, and his Vice is Wrath. On the other hand, 
  frenzying so he might have a better chance to climb up a building almost certainly doesn’t 
  work. If the player fails any one of the Resolve + Composure draws before enough successes 
  are accumulated, the character falls into an undirected frenzy.
  Riding the wave allows a character to end the frenzy at the point of his choice, rather than 
  suffering its passions until the Beast rages itself to exhaustion. Note that if a character riding 
  the wave faces other stimuli that might cause a frenzy, he must still deal with those stimuli as 
  normal after ending the intended frenzy, quite possibly frenzying again.
  A character who tries to ride the wave multiple times in a single night suffers a cumulative 
  -1 penalty to Resolve + Composure test pools for each time after the ﬁ rst time that he attempts 
  to direct frenzy (regardless of whether or not he was successful at those attempts).
  Example: Favian faces two unbound Kindred who taunt him for being a slave to the rules of Invic-
  tus high society. He feels the turmoil of frenzy deep inside him, but he knows that he can’t lose himself 
  completely to the Beast. Desiring to teach these punks a lesson but not wanting to relinquish control 
  utterly, Favian decides to ride the wave. His player spends a Willpower point and makes a Resolve + 
  Composure draw, gaining two successes. The next turn, Favian’s player draws again as the jeers of the 
  unbound continue, this time accumulating three successes for a total of ﬁ ve. Favian directs his rage 
  toward the unaligned Kindred, suffering no wound penalties for the damage they inﬂ ict on him and 
  gaining an extra +1 to his attacks. After he sends them ﬂ eeing in bloody fear, he coaxes the Beast into 
  calmness, rather than allowing it to continue unabated until it exhausts itself.
  Humanity
  The change from life to undeath affects more than a person’s body. It changes the soul. A 
  Kindred shares his human consciousness with a force completely opposite to humanity — a 
  thing devoid of reason, conscience or any emotions except hunger and rage. Kindred call it 
  the Beast.
  The presence of the Beast changes the very nature of morality for vampires. The Kindred 
  can pretend to be human, but they are not. Even the most evil and monstrous mortal does 
  not have a Beast. A vampire’s existence is a constant struggle between the Man, the aspect of 
  a Kindred that can make moral choices, and the Beast, which cannot.
  The Beast follows a simple plan: Hunt. Kill. Feed. Sleep. Repeat. It feels no pity, only thirst 
  for blood. It cannot even speak.
  The Man consists of everything that resists the Beast: rational thought, a conscience, and 
  most of all the ability to relate to other people. The Beast does not understand what other 
  people think or feel, and it doesn’t care. They are just food.
  
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  259
  When a Kindred treats other people as prey or tools or inconvenient obstacles, the Man 
  weakens. When Kindred make an effort to interact with mortals as fellow people, to care 
  about their lives and happiness, the Beast… waits. The slide toward the Beast is easy. It comes 
  naturally for creatures that must take blood from the living to survive. Strengthening the 
  Man is very difﬁ cult. Most vampires slowly degenerate. Mentally, they become less and less 
  human, more callous and brutal.
  Most Kindred “stabilize” as monsters with some degree of self-control. They give the Beast 
  some of what it wants and ﬁ ght it just enough to preserve their existence. The Beast doesn’t 
  know how to hide the bodies; the Man does. These vampires hunt and feed and sometimes 
  kill, but they try not to get caught.
  Some Kindred cannot strike that balance. Each crime makes the next one easier. They no 
  longer care if they kill their vessels. They show less discretion in who they feed upon, where 
  or how. They might start… playing with their food. When the Beast nears total ascendance, 
  the Man becomes little more than a psychological appendage, adding human perversity and 
  cruelty to the Beast’s predation. Even that remnant of mortality ﬁ nally goes in time, and the 
  vampire becomes a killing machine as mindless and ruthless as a shark that scents blood in 
  the water. The vampire retains just enough self-preservation to hide from the sun, ﬂ ee ﬁ re 
  and ﬁ ght back when attacked.
  The Kindred call such creatures draugr, from an old Norse word for a reanimated corpse 
  that viciously stalks and kills its living relations. A draugr leaves a trail of corpses and public 
  attacks that attract mortal attention. Even bitter enemies put aside their struggles and cooper-
  ate to stop a draugr before it breaks the Masquerade beyond repair.
  ISOLATION AND HUMANITY
  The rules for degeneration checks take into account Kindred who actively encounter 
  other individuals, and therefore have opportunities to transgress against them. 
  Storytellers are certainly within their rights, however, to call for degeneration draws for 
  riding the wave • humanity
  
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  Kindred who spend too much time in solitude, for their connection to humanity (and 
  Humanity) can easily atrophy. No hard-and-fast system exists, but a good guideline can 
  be obtained by subtracting the Kindred’s Humanity from 11. Every time the resulting 
  number of years passes in a game without the character making any signiﬁ cant human 
  or Kindred contact, the player must make a degeneration draw.
  HUMANITY AS MORALITY
  In rules terms, a trait called Humanity represents the balance of power between the Man 
  and the Beast. Humanity is the speciﬁ c form that the general Morality trait takes for vampires. 
  The trait measures the connection a Kindred feels to her leftover mortal feelings and to her 
  capacity to empathize with other beings. The lower a character’s Humanity goes, the less she 
  cares and the more brutally she tends to act.
  Humanity uses the same order of sins presented in the Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook (which is 
  reproduced here for your convenience). Just as with mortals, when an undead character performs 
  an act that carries an equal or lower rating than his Humanity, the player draws a certain number 
  of times equal to the level of the sin as indicated to ﬁ nd out whether the character suffers moral 
  degeneration. If the draw series succeeds, the character manages to feel shame, regret or at least 
  some human response. If the draw series fails, the character feels nothing except satisfaction 
  at getting what he wanted… and a little more of the Man slips away and the character has less 
  with which to ﬁ ght the Beast in the future. His Humanity drops by one. For what it’s worth, the 
  threshold for further moral crises drops too, so the player might not need to draw for degenera-
  tion as often — if the character can resist committing more heinous acts in the future.
  As a character’s Humanity degrades, he grows less concerned with the world, yielding ever more 
  to the Beast. He becomes capable of virtually any depraved act against another person. When 
  Humanity is lost because of a sin the character committed, draw the character’s new Humanity 
  as a test pool. If the draw succeeds, the Kindred ﬁ nds some kind of bulwark of sanity at his new 
  level of Humanity. If the draw fails, a derangement manifests in the character’s mind. Derange-
  ments are mental and emotional “scars,” in this case brought on by the character’s stress, grief 
  or even remorselessness over acts performed. Derangements are detailed at length on p. 268.
  3.9 — HUMANITY AND SINS
  Humanity 
  Threshold Sin 
  Draws made
  10 
  Selﬁ sh thoughts (e.g.,  
  Draw 5 times 
   
  hurting someone’s feelings) 
  9 
  Minor selﬁ sh acts (e.g.,  
  Draw 5 times 
   
  cheating on taxes)
  8 
  Injury to another, accidental or  
  Draw 4 times 
   
  otherwise (e.g., physical conﬂ ict)
  7 
  Petty theft (e.g., shoplifting) 
  Draw 4 times
  6 
  Grand theft (e.g., burglary) 
  Draw 3 times
  5 
  Intentional mass-property damage  
  Draw 3 times 
   
  (e.g., arson)
  4 
  Impassioned crime  
  Draw 3 times 
   
  (e.g., manslaughter)
  3 
  Planned crime (e.g., murder)  
  Draw 2 times
  2 
  Casual/callous crime  
  Draw 2 times 
   
  (e.g., torture, serial murder)
  1 
  Utter perversion, heinous acts  
  Draw 2 times 
   
  (e.g., combined rape, torture  
   
  and murder; mass murder)
  
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  DRAW RESULTS
  Degeneration draws are handled slightly differently than normal draws. Instead of mak-
  ing a single draw and adding it to a test pool, a number of straight draws are made equal to 
  the value indicated on the chart above. So a character that commits a callous crime makes 
  two such draws, while a character who commits a minor selﬁ sh act makes ﬁ ve draws. This 
  sequence of draws is known as the degeneration series. 
  A draw of an 8, 9 or 10 counts as a success, while a draw of an ace removes one success 
  from the total. If even one success remains at the end of the series, degeneration is avoided. 
  If no successes remain, the character loses a dot of Humanity and may even have to check 
  for derangement. 
  Example: In the midst of a heated stand-off, Justin’s character Shane lashed out in anger and ac-
  cidentally killed a ghoul, which the Storyteller counts as an impassioned crime. Since this sort of sin is 
  lower than Shane’s Humanity rating 6, he must test to check for degeneration. Consulting the chart, 
  he sees that this crime allows for three draws. His ﬁ rst draw is a 9 — success! His second draw, though, 
  is an ace, which removes that one success. He has only one draw left, but manages to draw an 8, for 
  another success. Shane manages to feel enough remorse for the crime that his Humanity rating doesn’t 
  drop… this time. 
  It is possible for a player to gain bonus draws to a degeneration series if his character is 
  truly contrite or takes action to try to rectify his sins. Conversely, a player can be penalized 
  by having draws removed from the series if his character clearly enjoyed what he did and/or 
  made no effort to make amends. Bonus draws are optional and need only be used if the player 
  desires, however. For example, if a player has already accumulated successes in the regular 
  series, she may waive any bonus draws earned to avoid possibly drawing aces that cancel out 
  existing successes. It is intended to be a beneﬁ t, after all. 
  In no instance can a character be penalized below one draw, however. There’s always some 
  chance to retain a vestige of Humanity, however slim. Of course, if the player voluntarily 
  chooses to automatically fail the degeneration series and lose a dot of Humanity, the Story-
  teller may certainly permit her to do so.
  Lastly, when drawing Humanity to check for a derangement, do not add other Attributes 
  or traits. You may not spend Willpower to gain a +3 modiﬁ er on either kind of draw, though 
  other situational bonuses or penalties may apply.
  Degeneration draws can be made with a Narrator immediately following the sin, to help 
  guide a player’s roleplaying from that point. If this proves too disruptive to the ﬂ ow of play, 
  however, the Storyteller may instead request that any players whose characters committed 
  sufﬁ cient crimes to warrant degeneration tests come see her at the end of the night. Degenera-
  tion tests are performed at that time, with results recorded by the Narrator.
  Failure: For a degeneration series, failure to retain even one success by the end of the series 
  means your character loses the struggle to maintain his standards of morality when faced 
  with the reality of his sin. He loses one dot of Humanity. On a Humanity draw, he gains a 
  derangement.
  Success: Your character emerges from his crisis of conscience with his sense of right and 
  wrong intact. His Humanity is unchanged, and he remains as sane as before.
  Roleplaying Degeneration Draws
  Success on a degeneration draw means that a character feels guilt and remorse for what she 
  has done, but ultimately manages to keep her personal sense of morality intact. She may have 
  sinned, perhaps even rather grievously, but it’s not normal or desired by her own standards, 
  and she can put the crime into proper perspective with her overall sense of self. She need not 
  be weepy or dramatic upon succeeding at a degeneration draw, and may even make a public 
  humanity as morality
  
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  show of bravado as a show of strength to other Kindred, but she feels some genuine remorse 
  and regret for her actions, no matter how far down she tries to bury it. Many vampires also 
  make some active effort at atonement after a successful degeneration draw, whether as grand 
  as public recompense or as small as an anonymous donation to a victim’s family.
  Likewise, a failure on a degeneration draw can mean many different things, depending on 
  the vampire and the circumstances in question. Some vampires still feel genuine guilt for their 
  actions (particularly if they still have a high Humanity rating), but all of their remorse just 
  isn’t sufﬁ cient to prevent them from suffering a fundamental sense of loss or horror at the 
  crime they committed. They’ve shaken their own moral foundations with their actions and 
  lost part of themselves because of it. Of course, some vampires’ reactions are much more cold 
  and callous. They may realize distantly that they’re supposed to feel something like guilt, but 
  the feeling never really materializes. Others ﬁ nd themselves rationalizing the act to a degree 
  that they no longer care anyone got hurt, because it served their goals to do so. And a small 
  minority (usually those on a rapid trip down) might actively enjoy the experience.
  RESISTING DEGENERATION
  Storytellers do not have to leave resisting degeneration as nothing but a straight draw series. 
  Aside from any relevant roleplaying the player might have already performed, ask the player 
  to describe how the character feels about her sin, and what she intends to do about of it.
  Short answers that don’t suggest much thought, like, “My character feels real bad about do-
  ing that,” receive an unmodiﬁ ed draw series. So do defensive answers, such as, “Well, he was 
  asking for me to beat him up, mouthing off like that.” At least the character tries to rationalize 
  her actions. It isn’t a great example of humanity at its best, but it’s still very human.
  Answers that show the character engages in extravagant but cost-free contrition, such as, “I 
  return to my haven and scourge myself until dawn,” also don’t quite pass muster. There’s no 
  real loss or suffering involved. If you really want to encourage that sort of melodrama, give 
  the player a bonus draw for the degeneration series (but not the Humanity draw if they fail). 
  If you think the character is lying to herself, don’t give the bonus at all.
  Serious answers that show the character engages in some soul-searching or an attempt to 
  do better in the future could receive a bonus draw to the degeneration series. For instance, 
  one character might go to her sire and ask how she can better resist the Beast when she’s 
  angry, because she hates the results when she loses control. Another might pray for forgive-
  ness. Don’t automatically reward that, though, unless the player has previously established 
  the character’s religious feeling, or she does a good job of roleplaying the crisis that leads the 
  character to a faith previously neglected or scorned.
  Attempts to ﬁ nd some good or at least necessity in the character’s actions might be worth 
  a bonus draw to the degeneration series. “Sure, killing that guy was wrong… but the way he 
  beat his girlfriend? Eventually, he probably would have killed her, and she didn’t deserve that. 
  Better that he died than she did.” Or: “I tried every other way to stop that journalist from 
  running the story, but the bribes, threats, Dominate attempts and schemes to discredit him 
  all failed. He had to die to protect the Masquerade. I feel horrible about it, but how many 
  people would die if mortals found out about the Kindred? He would have started a war.”
  At most, a player should receive up to two extra draws when checking for degeneration, 
  when his character shows deep regret and — more importantly — acts on it. Does the character 
  try to make up for his sin? The character could apologize to someone he injured or secretly 
  try to help the family of someone he killed in a Beast-driven rage. Anyone can “feel sorry,” 
  but really acting on that regret is something special. Of course, the very acts that bring him 
  into contact with people he tries to help may endanger the Masquerade… or enemies might 
  
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  threaten those people to extort concessions from your character… or he might unintentionally 
  hurt them himself. The Damned seldom ﬁ nd it easy to atone for what they’ve done.
  At the other extreme, a player might say his character feels no remorse at all. She intended 
  to commit the sin, enjoyed it and would do it again. In that case, you might remove one draw 
  as a penalty. Such a Kindred doesn’t even try to resist the selﬁ shness that’s so characteristic of 
  the Beast. Don’t assess this penalty to a player already drawing only once for a degeneration 
  check. The fact that the character’s Humanity is so low that she has only one draw for the 
  check already signiﬁ es that she’s beyond caring and remorse.
  Note that modiﬁ ers here apply to the degeneration series alone, not to Humanity draws 
  to determine if derangements are gained.
  DEGENERATION AND VICES
  The transformation from mortal to undead does not excuse a character from suffering his 
  Vice as his Humanity drops. Characters who want to retain their Humanity need to resist 
  their Vices as well as the Beast. Giving in to Vices can speed degeneration by eroding the 
  self-control that a Kindred needs to ﬁ ght the Beast. The lower a character’s Humanity drops, 
  the more often he feels tempted by his Vice.
  At ﬁ rst glance, this would seem to put all Kindred on an accelerating death-spiral. Less 
  Humanity means a more prominent Beast, which means more sins, which eventually means 
  still less Humanity and an even more recalcitrant Beast.
  That’s not actually true, because a character can sink below the level of his Vice. A Vice 
  drives a character to do something bad, but not the worst thing possible. A lecher might feel 
  driven by lust to seduce, but he doesn’t have to commit rape. An avaricious money-grubber 
  might have trouble passing up a shady business deal, but she doesn’t have to rob banks. At 
  low Humanity, the Kindred can ﬁ nd many ways to indulge his Vice without committing the 
  most heinous acts. For instance, a Kindred who feels his pride insulted doesn’t have to murder 
  the offender. He might satisfy his pride by Dominating the offender into making a fool of 
  himself, use Majesty to turn other people against him or simply spy on him under cover of 
  Obfuscate to learn damaging secrets for blackmail or humiliation. These are all sleazy, selﬁ sh 
  acts — but not as bad as murder (probably). Make no mistake, though: Kindred who stabilize 
  at a low Humanity become deeply unpleasant characters.
  DEGENERATION AND DERANGEMENTS
  Derangements usually make it harder for characters to retain Humanity. Some derange-
  ments can cause characters to lash out in wild fury under certain circumstances, or make 
  them believe they face deadly danger when they do not. Such outbursts can lead a Kindred 
  to commit acts he later regrets — or not, resulting in Humanity loss.
  Some derangements can help preserve Humanity, however, if a character genuinely cannot 
  understand the signiﬁ cance of his acts. He might not realize what he actually did. For instance, 
  the player of a paranoid vampire who believes that all banks are part of a Ventrue conspiracy 
  might receive a bonus to any degeneration draws that happen because of assaults on banks 
  or bankers. In his cracked mind, the vampire thinks a greater good justiﬁ es his acts.
  Players and Storytellers should remember, however, that derangements are expressly disad-
  vantages that always cause more harm than good. Storytellers should allow a derangement-
  based bonus to Humanity checks only if a player has steadfastly roleplayed the disadvantages 
  of madness, and then only in very speciﬁ c cases where the character’s delusions apply.
  At best, madness helps a character stabilize at a low Humanity, as a last-ditch attempt by 
  the Man to protect itself from the Beast. Indeed, a character doesn’t get “better,” he simply 
  mires himself ever deeper in insanity.
  resisting degeneration
  
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  REGAINING HUMANITY
  Kindred who make a deep and prolonged effort can regain lost Humanity or even become 
  more ethical creatures than they were in life. It isn’t easy, though.
  In rules terms, a player can spend experience points to buy dots of Humanity for her char-
  acter. In story terms, the character must do something to show that he really tries to become 
  a better person and more able to resist the Beast (see p. 101 of the Mind’s Eye Theatre rule-
  book). If the player announces her intent to buy Humanity for her character, the Storyteller 
  can examine the character’s recent actions. Has he tried to atone for past crimes? Has he tried 
  to avoid committing more sins? Has he resisted his Vice and upheld his Virtue, even when he 
  cannot harvest Willpower from it? Has the character associated with mortals and cultivated 
  relationships with them? If the character genuinely tries to act more human, the Storyteller 
  should certainly permit the purchase.
  Why demand an experience-point cost for an increased Humanity when characters lose the 
  trait so easily? Shouldn’t highly moral acts receive an immediate reward of restored Humanity?
  Sorry, no. One moment of grace does not reverse the habits built through years, perhaps 
  centuries, of abuse. Enduring gains against the Beast require a heroic struggle that never fully 
  ends. Note that this contradicts statements made about regaining lost Morality for free in the 
  Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook. This contradiction is intentional. Humanity is so central to 
  the themes of The Requiem that we want to reinforce characters’ dangerous footing on the 
  path of Humanity by being that much more stringent with the rules.
  Example: Maggie feeds from a vessel and is unable to stop herself, accidentally taking too much Vitae 
  and killing her victim. Her Humanity is 7, so this bloody transgression causes her to test for degenera-
  tion. This amounts to “manslaughter,” so Maggie’s player draws three times, achieving no successes. 
  Her Humanity drops to 6.
  Maggie’s player then draws has a test pool of 6 (because her new Humanity is 6) for her Human-
  ity draw, to see if she gains a derangement. Again, the player draws no successes. The player and the 
  Storyteller confer for a bit, deciding that the mild derangement sanguinary animism (see later in this 
  section) is appropriate here. They come up with the rationale that Maggie has been thinking too deeply 
  about the arcane properties of blood in her studies of the Crúac Discipline. Add to that her guilt over 
  the killings, and the two factors combine to “convince” her that part of his soul and indeed the souls of 
  others she feeds on will mystically linger with her after the feeding has stopped. Remember, this is what 
  Maggie thinks, not the objective truth. That’s why it’s a derangement!
  The player writes “sanguinary animism” on the character sheet next to Maggie’s Humanity of 6. 
  When and if the player buys Humanity back up to 7 with experience points, Maggie overcomes her 
  sanguinary animism derangement. Yet if her Humanity continues to drop, she might develop a more 
  severe ailment, or even manifest some other type of derangement.
  GAME EFFECTS OF HUMANITY
  Why struggle against the Beast? Why not compromise with the Beast and one’s own desires 
  and stabilize as a callous but self-controlled monster?
  Many Kindred accept that logic. They sacriﬁ ce more than abstract ethics when they compromise 
  with the Beast, though. Preserving Humanity offers tangible beneﬁ ts. The more a vampire cultivates 
  mortal feelings and ethics, the less tightly the curse of undeath binds him, at least in some ways.
  DAYTIME ACTIVITY
  The Kindred have trouble staying awake during the day. The lower a character’s Humanity 
  score is, the harder it is to be active.
  If a character wants to stay awake when the sun rises, the player draws a test pool of the 
  character’s Humanity. The character resists sleep for one turn or minute per success drawn.  
  
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  If a character tries to remain active for an entire scene , the Storyteller can make the effort an 
  extended action and require the player to accumulate ﬁ ve successes, though a failure at any 
  point means the character immediately falls asleep despite his intentions. If the vampire is still 
  awake at the end of the ﬁ rst hour of daytime, he can attempt another extended action to stay 
  awake for another scene, repeating that extended action again and again. Any failure results 
  in immediate sleep, however. A vampire might remain active during the day to undertake 
  extensive research, to perform a lengthy ritual or to keep a vigil or to stand guard. Attempts 
  to go out possessing an animal or mortal with Animalism or Dominate almost always fail as 
  the vampiric curse overwhelms a character’s mind. Remaining active for a whole day doesn’t 
  preclude the normal Vitae cost for “waking” that night. In this case, the Vitae is spent for 
  the vampire to continue functioning for the remainder of the night.
  A Kindred can also try to wake up during the day if something disturbs her sleep. The 
  player draws Wits (+ Auspex, if the character has that Discipline) to determine if the sleeping 
  vampire notices the disturbance. If the draw succeeds, the player makes the above Humanity 
  draw to ﬁ nd out if the character can force herself awake. Rousing from sleep during the day 
  also costs a Vitae, regardless of how long the character remains active thereafter. (Staying 
  active during the day without ever having slept costs no Vitae.) If a vampire is roused from 
  sleep during the day, a Vitae is spent for her to be active, and if she resumes sleep thereafter, 
  another Vitae is spent that evening for her to rise for the whole night.
  A Kindred has trouble putting forth her full effort when the Beast’s instincts tell her to sleep. 
  While a Kindred acts during the day — whether having remained active since the night before 
  or having been awoken from slumber — test pools for any task cannot exceed the character’s 
  Humanity dots. For example, Thomas stays up well into the day to puzzle out a few clues to a 
  threat against his Requiem. Normally, Thomas’s Intelligence + Investigation test pool is seven, 
  but since his Humanity is only 4, only four of that 7 can be used in the Investigation draw.
  RELATING TO MORTALS
  The more human a vampire feels, the more human he can act. Every second, mortals 
  send and receive tiny cues that they pay attention to each other, that they care and respond 
  — that they’re alive. They look at each other’s faces, mimic each other’s ﬂ ickers of expression, 
  shift their weight when another person does so, nod slightly as another person talks. The 
  Man does all that, the Beast doesn’t. A Kindred with low Humanity can put great effort 
  into acting like a living person. He can force himself to breathe and remind himself to blink 
  now and then… but he can’t fake that subtle, unconscious dance of nonverbal interaction. 
  Mortals soon pick up on this. They cannot consciously spot the problem, but their instincts 
  tell them that something is very wrong and they should get away. They sense the predator 
  behind the human mask.
  Kindred can suffuse their ﬂ esh with Vitae to look more alive. Vampires with high Humanity 
  do so almost reﬂ exively to preserve the illusion for themselves that they are still people, not 
  monsters. Low-Humanity vampires do so less often and achieve less lifelike results. As the 
  Man weakens, the Kindred tend to look paler and more corpselike.
  When a Kindred interacts with people other than vampires, that character’s test pool in 
  Empathy, Persuasion or Socialize can rise no higher than his Humanity dots. For instance, 
  if a character has a Humanity of 5, his player cannot have a test pool of more than ﬁ ve when 
  attempting to use Wits + Empathy on a mortal, no matter how high the character’s Wits and 
  Empathy scores might be. This limitation does not apply to Discipline powers that call for 
  Empathy, Persuasion or Socialize in their test pools, as these powers are supernatural in effect 
  and therefore outside the normal realm of experience governed by Humanity.
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  If a situation imposes penalties on a test pool, assess the penalties after the Humanity limit is ap-
  plied. Continuing the previous example, if the character suffers a -2 penalty on his Wits + Empathy 
  pool, the player draws with a test pool of three. Bonuses cannot raise a player’s test pool over his 
  character’s Humanity limit, so add them before comparing a pool to a character’s Humanity.
  The subtle repulsion that mortals feel toward low-Humanity Kindred does not inﬂ uence a 
  character’s actual Presence score. Kindred look different than they did when their Humanity 
  was higher, but that change can be subtle. Mortals might perceive a low-Presence Kindred as 
  bestial, while a high-Presence Kindred could have a deadly, frightening taint. The warmth 
  that once attracted the eye chills to a reptilian fascination. Mortals who try to recount the 
  look of a low-Humanity Kindred might describe an image quite different from the vampire’s 
  actual appearance, as unconscious fear shades their memory. Even someone captivated by a 
  good-looking, low-Humanity Kindred might use phrases like “deadly beauty.”
  SUMMARY: THE DESCENT
  Humanity tends to drop. All Kindred must face this stark, unavoidable truth. Their existence as 
  predators forces them to commit abhorrent acts, if not deliberately, then when the Beast overpow-
  ers them. A Kindred might begin his unlife vowing that he’ll never succumb to the Beast. Well, 
  he’ll never succumb to the Beast and not feel bad about it afterward. Well, he’ll never succumb to 
  the Beast in a really terrible way… and so on. As the years and decades pass, Kindred ﬁ nd it hard 
  to muster the same revulsion to a crime they have committed many times before. Humanity wears 
  away from sheer weariness. High moral codes bend, then break, and are forgotten in time.
  Kindred tend to live down to their Humanity. As the trait drops, less and less seems objec-
  tionable. What once caused horriﬁ ed repentance seems expedient — maybe even thrilling. 
  That way, however, leads to destruction.
  So how can a Kindred survive the Requiem? How can he preserve some shred of human 
  conscience when the Beast never tires? What limit can he set to his own monstrosity?
  The characters must answer that question for themselves. That’s what The Requiem is 
  all about.
  HUMANITY 10-8
  Kindred with Humanity scores this high can seem “more human than human.” Neonates 
  might recoil from their own monstrosity and take up ethical codes stricter than any they 
  followed in life. They usually try to feed only from animals or seek other alternatives to vic-
  timizing mortals, and feed as little as possible in any case. They don’t have to act preachy or 
  passively accept everything that unlife and their fellow Kindred throw at them, but they must 
  work hard to avoid harming anyone else and to atone for any sin they commit. Interaction 
  with mortals often matters a great deal to such Kindred, as interacting with the living helps 
  them remember what life was like. They can also pass for mortal almost without effort.
  Few mortals can maintain such high ethical standards, and even fewer Kindred succeed 
  for long. A vampire eventually loses control and kills someone, and then kills again. Kindred 
  harden themselves to this awful truth or destroy themselves to prevent further harm to others. 
  Few Kindred ﬁ nd reason to both continue their existence and remain this moral.
  Older, more jaded (or realistic) Kindred often ﬁ nd highly humane vampires insufferably 
  naïve. They take dour satisfaction in the thought that the whelps will learn better, just as 
  they did. Some elders are not above foisting “lessons” in callousness, selﬁ shness or deceit on 
  a neonate who thinks he can be a “good vampire.”
  HUMANITY 7-6
  At this Humanity, Kindred have ethical standards like those of most mortals. They feel 
  that killing, theft and cruelty are wrong, but they don’t go all weepy if they shade the truth a 
  
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  little, hit someone who tried to hit them ﬁ rst, or take opportunities for a little fun that don’t 
  really hurt anyone else. Such a character has a Vice that she probably indulges in small ways 
  with only minimal regrets. These Kindred can still easily pass for mortal, and they probably 
  have mortal acquaintances.
  HUMANITY 5
  It’s a tough world, and Kindred with this Humanity score accept that they need some 
  toughness as well. Such characters can recognize and reject deliberate atrocities… but shit 
  happens. If some happens to them, they throw it right back. Why should they act better 
  than anyone else?
  At this Humanity, a Kindred starts to show the eerie unpleasantness that puts mortals on 
  their guard. A skilled dissembler can still persuade mortals to ignore their instincts, though.
  HUMANITY 4
  Most Kindred eventually stabilize at or around this Humanity. Characters with Human-
  ity 4 become genuinely callous and selﬁ sh. Murder no longer shocks them. Violence, theft, 
  treachery, lies — these are all just tools to help a Kindred get what he wants, to gain power 
  and to protect his all-important self. Expedience becomes sufﬁ cient justiﬁ cation for nearly 
  anything. A character suffers from his Vice and indulges it with little restraint. He can still 
  recognize the practical, legal consequences if the mortal world discovers his crimes, however, 
  so he takes care to hide his offenses.
  Such a low-Humanity Kindred has a distinctly corpselike appearance, though makeup can 
  compensate. Beauty carries a predatory taint or shows the bland, sterile attractiveness of a 
  manikin. Only the inability to conceive of such a thing keeps mortals from recognizing the 
  character as a walking, talking cadaver.
  HUMANITY 3-2
  A vampire does whatever he can get away with. Only the most remarkable sadism or 
  perversion can bother Kindred with such a low Humanity… or at least seem too dangerous 
  to justify the pleasure they would bring. All other creatures are tools, toys or food. Anyone 
  who says otherwise has proved he is too stupid to deserve consideration. A character this 
  inhumane feels the pull of such a potent Vice, on top of the Beast and his own ruthlessness, 
  that he barely qualiﬁ es as sane.
  No amount of dissembling can help such a character pass for human for long. Mortals 
  know within minutes that they are in the presence of a monster, even if they don’t realize 
  what kind.
  HUMANITY 1
  Forget sanity — at this Humanity, a Kindred can barely function as a sentient being. Little 
  except a deranged obsession or direct threat to existence can focus the vampire’s mind against 
  the hungers of the Beast and the drive of an overwhelming Vice. The character even has trouble 
  mustering the cunning needed to hide her crimes and debauches from mortal authorities 
  or other Kindred. Rotting corpses strewn about a gore-spattered haven is a perfectly typical 
  setting for such degenerate vampire. Mortals instantly recognize the Kindred as a monster 
  whom they should ﬂ ee, or at least a psychopath in the last stages of mental disintegration.
  HUMANITY 0
  Hunt. Kill. Feed. Sleep. Repeat.
  At Humanity 0, a character possesses no shred of free will and cannot be played any longer. 
  From this ﬁ nal degeneration, there is no return. The character must be turned over to the 
  Storytelling staff, perhaps to be used as a recurring villain.
  summary: the descent
  
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  Derangements
  The human mind has its limits. People retreat into madness when they can no longer cope with 
  extreme guilt, grief, terror or conﬂ icting demands. A person might seek an illusion of self-control 
  through elaborate private rituals, fantasies of power or emotional ﬁ xations. In more severe cases, 
  the mind succumbs to stress, crumbling and losing nearly all contact with reality.
  Kindred suffer from derangements even more often than mortals do in the World of Dark-
  ness, and no wonder. Their entire existence is one long battle between a human conscience and 
  the drives of the Beast. Many neonates still think of themselves as mostly human, but they must 
  feed upon mortal blood to survive. How can they commit assault — potentially murderous as-
  sault — night after night and still think of themselves as reasonably good people? As the decades 
  pass, Kindred face other grief and traumas. Either they abandon all the people they love, or they 
  watch them age and die. Society itself changes. What mortals once found unthinkable becomes 
  accepted without question, and the old standards become quaint, rustic or crude. Kindred can 
  also suffer more speciﬁ c horrors. They include the stark terror of Rötschreck or killing loved 
  ones during frenzy. Most insidious of all, the Danse Macabre takes its own slow toll. As Kindred 
  enmesh themselves in the endless struggle for power, they can trust fewer and fewer of their 
  fellows. Other people are the greatest of all reality checks. Denied any sort of healthy emotional 
  connection to other people, Kindred lose themselves in their own thoughts and fears.
  Ghouls are also prone to derangements. They love masters who regard them as slaves. They 
  must move between a secret, supernatural world and mundane society. They are tainted with 
  undeath while they yet live. Of course their situation can drive them crazy.
  GAINING DERANGEMENTS
  Undead characters can fall into madness through several methods. Some are automatic. 
  Others are largely a matter of the Storyteller’s discretion. We have mentioned some triggers 
  for madness elsewhere, but include them here for your convenience.
  • Failures : The character gains a derangement if the player fails the degeneration series 
  and the subsequent Humanity draw; or if he suffers a  failure on a Resolve + Composure 
  chance draw to resist frenzy, Rötschreck or Wassail. The Storyteller chooses a derangement 
  that has some connection to the situation that leads to the draw.
  Example: A Kindred who suffers an extreme Rötschreck (the player gets a  failure on the Resolve + 
  Composure chance draw as he had suffered a number of penalties to his test pool) incurs a permanent 
  phobia about ﬁ re. He tries to prevent the slightest chance of any ﬂ ame coming near. He checks power 
  cords every half-hour to make sure they aren’t overheating, and searches through his haven to make sure no 
  one left an oily rag anywhere. He demands that known smokers turn out their pockets to prove that they 
  aren’t carrying matches or lighters. He might not even ride in a car with a working cigarette lighter.
  • Extreme Pain, Frustration or Horror: Truly shocking events can topple a character’s 
  reason. Examples include killing loved ones in frenzy, a long period of torture by a witch-
  hunter, or (for elders) perhaps seeing centuries of work and scheming suddenly crash into 
  ruin. Under such circumstances, the Storyteller may ask the player to draw the character’s 
  Resolve + Composure (at whatever penalty seems appropriate) to avoid a derangement.
  • Very Long Torpor: Kindred who spend decades or centuries asleep wake up with con-
  fused minds. Sometimes a Kindred’s mind clears, sometimes it doesn’t. Very long torpor is 
  not common among players’ characters in most chronicles, so the Storyteller can use such a 
  penalty to justify a crazed elder without worrying about draws.
  
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  • Impossible Conﬂ icts: Some Kindred ﬁ nd themselves under Vinculums to extremely cruel 
  regnants. This condition can create a tug-of-war between love and hate that tears a subject’s 
  mind apart. Ghouls with loathsome or abusive domitors might also suffer derangements.
  ROLEPLAYING DERANGEMENTS
  Derangements present a great challenge to players. Most sane people have difﬁ culty portray-
  ing crazy people. More often, the result is a giggle-producing caricature. Real mental illness isn’t 
  funny, marginal or cute. The mildest forms can annoy other people. More severe cases can rip 
  one’s heart out with pity. Full-blown psychosis, however, is seldom less than scary as hell. 
  Nor are crazy people happy in their madness. Derangements are an attempt to deal with 
  pain, but they often cause as much suffering as their root cause ever did. More often than 
  not, insane people are desperately unhappy and would like to end their madness but don’t 
  know how.
  The actions of the deranged often make no sense to other people, but they always make 
  sense to the subject himself. Other people don’t see the reasons for the madman’s behav-
  ior. Sometimes you can tell what “missing information” explains erratic behavior. When a 
  schizophrenic rages against unseen presences, well, the hallucinations are plenty visible to 
  him. Other times, the reason lies in a system of associations that the deranged person might 
  not understand himself. For instance, an obsessive-compulsive might refuse to carry $20 bills. 
  How does this refusal help the person? Perhaps he went to the bank just before he learned of 
  his wife’s death, and had received a stack of $20 bills. Therefore, he associates $20 bills with 
  the death of loved ones. Or the chain of associations might be far more obscure than that. 
  When playing deranged characters, players should come up with such hidden associations 
  as a guide to portraying madness.
  Regardless of the type of madness being portrayed, players must remember the Only Rules 
  That Matter and never attack others, topple furniture, break props or frighten non-players 
  with their behavior.
  CURING DERANGEMENTS
  Removing a derangement is even more difﬁ cult for Kindred than it is for mortals. Modern 
  psychiatry chieﬂ y relies on drugs and “talk therapy.” Some forms of mental illness, such as 
  schizophrenia and manic-depression, seem to happen because of some defect in a person’s 
  brain chemistry. Various drugs can ameliorate the effects, and maybe a therapist can then teach 
  the patient to think in healthier ways. Other illnesses, such as phobias and hysteria, seem to 
  be created entirely by thought and stress. Finding and relieving the base anxiety can cure the 
  disorder, though modern psychiatry generally prescribes antidepressants and other drugs.
  Kindred cannot turn to drugs to relieve derangements. Talk therapy becomes feasible only 
  if the city has a Kindred psychiatrist, as talking to a mortal would break the Masquerade. 
  Anyway, most of the causes of stress in Kindred existence cannot be relieved.
  For derangements acquired through degeneration, Kindred are much like mortals. A 
  derangement is considered overcome once the character regains one more dot of Humanity 
  than the one at which he gained the derangement. So, if a character gains an addiction at 
  Humanity 6, she needs to rise back to Humanity 7 to overcome that addiction.
  After a character successfully resists a derangement 10 consecutive times, the Storyteller 
  can declare the derangement cured. This method does not work on severe derangements. 
  A true psychotic cannot control his own mind. Storytellers must decide for themselves 
  whether extended use of Dominate or other mind-inﬂ uencing supernatural powers can cure 
  derangements. No method of treatment can ameliorate derangements acquired through 
  moral degeneration. Those must be overcome by regaining Humanity. At the Storyteller’s 
  derangements • gaining derangements
  
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  discretion, a character may resist such derangements for a scene, but he can never overcome 
  them through sheer quantitative endurance.
  SAMPLE DERANGEMENTS
  Some of these derangements have already been described in the Mind’s Eye Theatre rule-
  book. These descriptions focus on how Kindred (or, in some cases, ghouls) experience the 
  ailments. We also add a few new ones.
  Some derangements are severe forms of other conditions, but different from those discussed 
  in the Mind’s Eye Theatre book. In such cases, after a character acquires the mild derange-
  ment, he and the Storyteller may choose what severe ailment might set in. For example, a 
  character who already has the irrationality derangement gains another. According to the 
  Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook, multiple personality is the severe form of that derangement. 
  The character and Storyteller may decide, however, that the character is better suited to 
  delusional obsession. Of course, as the Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook also states, sometimes 
  a single act or scene is so mind numbing that only full-blown insanity and dysfunction can 
  result. In these cases, Storytellers may decide that a character acquires a severe derangement 
  whether or not she already has the mild form.
  Some of the following derangements are mild in and of themselves, and have no progres-
  sion to the severe form. These are marked as “mild only.”
  Bulimia (severe; follows Fixation): People with this neurosis try to drown their anxiety 
  through activities that comfort them, especially food. Doing so leads to a binge-and-purge 
  cycle. The bulimic stuffs himself to relieve stress, then self-disgust at his own gluttony drives 
  him to vomit out what he’s eaten. The bulimic soon seeks to feed again, though, and the 
  cycle repeats.
  Vampires face a special temptation toward bulimia because feeding is the strongest physical 
  pleasure left to them. A bulimic vampire relieves his fear and guilt by gorging himself on blood, 
  perhaps feeding several times a night and burning the Vitae as fast as he can. The character 
  can augment his traits for frenetic activity or wound himself as a form of punishment, then 
  heal the wounds so that other Kindred won’t see his weakness and self-loathing. At severe 
  levels, the vampire might even will himself to expunge Vitae by vomiting — no small feat and 
  a noteworthy act of will, since vampires don’t store blood in their stomachs.
  Effect: A bulimic vampire becomes hungry more easily than other Kindred and has a harder 
  time resisting the urge to feed. Whenever the character feeds, the player must succeed at a 
  Resolve + Composure draw or the vampire feeds until full, whether or not he really needs the 
  extra Vitae. Additionally, the character must use that Vitae frequently. The player must spend 
  at least one Vitae per scene for the character until the character rests for the day, even if cir-
  cumstances wouldn’t otherwise warrant it. A player may, for example, devote Vitae to Strength 
  for a turn in which no Strength draw is necessary, or spend a Vitae to heal a single point of 
  bashing damage even though Vitae normally heals two points of bashing damage. A bulimic 
  character also suffers an automatic -2 penalty to resist hunger frenzies. Forcibly preventing the 
  character from drinking his ﬁ ll might provoke a rage frenzy (no modiﬁ er to difﬁ culty).
  Delusional Obsession (severe; follows Irrationality): This derangement can emerge be-
  cause of centuries of torpid dreams, or simply a strong desire for the world to be the way a 
  character wants. Delusional obsession consists of a fanatical belief in something that just isn’t 
  true. Lots of people hold beliefs that other people ﬁ nd absurd, of course, but a delusional 
  obsessive structures his life or unlife on them. Classic examples include the survivalist holed 
  up in a cabin with canned beans and a shotgun, the street-corner preacher ranting that “The 
  end is near,” and the dotty old lady with a hundred cats. Nearly any hobby, belief or interest 
  
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  can seem dangerously crazed when it takes over a character’s existence. Delusional obsession 
  might be dismissed as fanaticism, but it is even more extreme.
  Effect: A Willpower point must be spent to resist whenever an opportunity arises to act in 
  accordance with the character’s obsession, or whenever he must act in direct opposition to 
  his obsession. For instance, a gardening fanatic might have to expend Willpower to stay out 
  of a ﬂ orist’s shop. A Kindred who believes that every instance of a crescent or lunar reference 
  indicates Lupine activity might need to expend a Willpower point to step into an Islamic 
  cultural center or to stay in the same room as someone named Moon.
  Dependent-Personality Disorder (severe; follows Irrationality): This emotional derange-
  ment most often afﬂ icts ghouls or blood-bound Kindred. The character becomes utterly 
  dependent on his regnant or domitor. He resists making even the most trivial decision for 
  himself. This disorder might arise from fear of abandonment (especially strong in the case of 
  ghouls who know that sudden aging or death awaits them if they lose their supply of Vitae). 
  It might also grow from an exaggerated fear of displeasing a harsh or demanding master.
  Effect: If a character has this derangement, the player does not include Resolve in contested 
  test pools when the domitor attempts to Dominate him (although Blood Potency still applies). 
  Indeed, the character often follows up on any statement that might be construed as a request 
  for the character to do something.
  Phobia (mild): A person who suffers from a phobia has an unreasoning fear of something. 
  A phobia can result from a traumatic experience associated with an object or condition, or 
  might be a purely neurotic way of hiding from a real source of anxiety. Common phobias 
  include a fear of open spaces, leaving one’s home, of enclosed spaces or germs, but nearly 
  anything can become the focus of a phobia. Kindred are especially prone to phobias of ﬁ re, 
  sunlight or hunger. A phobic vampire might avoid going outdoors for fear of sunlight, even 
  if she knows dawn is hours away.
  Effect: Your character moves away from the object of her phobia. If she must be near it, 
  she can tolerate being no closer than her Acting Speed in steps. If it approaches her, she 
  must move away at least her Acting Speed in distance in her next action. She cannot easily 
  target the trigger with close combat or ranged attacks. Such attacks suffer a -5 penalty as your 
  character shakes just looking at it. If space or circumstances don’t allow her to maintain her 
  distance, she freezes like a deer in headlights until she ﬁ nds an opening by which to escape. 
  (Her Defense still applies if attacked and she can choose to dodge and can take cover from 
  Firearms attacks, but she can take no other actions while “frozen.”)
  A successful Resolve + Composure draw must be made for a phobic Kindred to simply 
  approach the subject of her fear. Any sort of shock or surprise associated with the subject of 
  the phobia can cause Rötschreck. Draw normally for the character to resist, suitably modiﬁ ed 
  by the degree of exposure.
  Hysteria (severe; follows Phobia): Kindred hysteria operates much like that of mortals, 
  except it rises to new heights, as would be expected for a mental ailment of the undead. The 
  vampire’s emotions run high and stressful situations can cause ﬁ ts of rage, weeping, fainting 
  or other emotional displays.
  Effect: This condition operates as a phobia, but on a failed Resolve + Composure draw 
  your character cannot be in the same room with the object of her fear. She must run away 
  from it immediately, and cannot tolerate being within sensory range (sight, sound, smell) of 
  it. If the trigger comes within sensory range, she must move away at full running speed as 
  soon as she can take an action. She cannot target it for an attack under any circumstance. If 
  it touches her, make another Resolve + Composure draw for her to not freak out and run as 
  far away as she can, thinking of nothing else until she’s left the subject far behind. (Even if 
  sample derangements
  
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  this draw succeeds, your character must still leave the room or area.) If any of your Resolve 
  + Composure draws suffer a  failure on a chance draw or your character is unable to escape, 
  she faints and loses consciousness for the remainder of the scene. If your character is unaware 
  of the object’s proximity until it touches her, a Resolve + Composure suffers a -3 penalty. If 
  it touches her where she can’t see it but she can feel it — a spider dropping on her neck or 
  in her hair — the penalty is -5.
  For a Kindred character, you must roleplay most aspects of hysteria but also suffer a -1 penalty 
  on all draws to resist frenzy that relate to the object of fear. Any action that relates to the object 
  and that results in a  failure on a chance draw automatically causes your vampire to frenzy.
  Manic-Depression (severe; follows Depression): Severe mood swings characterize this de-
  rangement. It occurs in two forms, one psychological and one a defect in brain chemistry.
  The psychological form is a modiﬁ ed form of hysteria. The victim can swing from an en-
  thusiastic, conﬁ dent, even ecstatic state to lethargy and despair. The mood swings can happen 
  any time, but any success can push the manic-depressive into exaltation, and any failure can 
  plunge the person into depression.
  The second form of manic-depression is an organic disorder. It follows a regular cycle that 
  can range from hours to weeks. The manic phase begins with an excess of energy and conﬁ -
  dence, then proceeds to a sort of ecstatic frenzy as the person’s mind races faster and faster. 
  Eventually the person calms down and then slides into a depression as lethargic as the manic 
  phase was energetic. This form of manic-depression can mimic the effects of schizophrenia, 
  and lead to a near-suicidal state.
  Effect: Whichever form of the ailment your character has, whenever he fails a task, the 
  Storyteller may secretly draw his Resolve. A failure means the character lapses into depression 
  for the rest of the scene. The character also goes into depression whenever the player makes 
  a  failure on a chance draw, or the character has less than two Vitae.
  While depressed, the character loses half his Willpower points (rounding fractions down), 
  to a minimum of 1. A depressed vampire cannot expend Vitae to gain bonuses for Physical 
  tasks, either.
  Each scene thereafter, the Storyteller draws once. On a draw of 8, 9 or 10, the character 
  throws off the depression and becomes upbeat, energetic and obsessively active for as many 
  scenes as he was depressed. He regains the Willpower points he lost before, and all draws to 
  resist frenzy suffer a -1 penalty.
  Megalomania (severe; follows Narcissism): Clinical megalomania can consist of a delusion 
  that the individual is some famous and powerful person, contemporary or historical, or even 
  that he is God. A megalomaniac vampire might imagine that he is some famous or infamous 
  Kindred, or the Devil himself. 
  A romantic form of megalomania might be called “James Bond Mastermind Syndrome.” 
  This sort of megalomaniac obsessively seeks ever-greater wealth and power. Such individuals 
  hide their anxiety (even from themselves) behind a mask of arrogance and supreme self-con-
  ﬁ dence. The character may seek power by means ranging from intricate conspiracies to brutal 
  murder and terror. To this sort of megalomaniac, everyone is a minion who should do what 
  he’s told, or a competitor who must be destroyed. This belief extends to even members of 
  the vampire’s own coterie.
  Effect: If your character ever loses a contest to someone he feels is socially inferior, he loses 
  one point of Willpower due to shame and self-loathing (which is at the heart of his megalo-
  mania, as he secretly fears that he’s a fraud).
  Multiple Personality (severe; extreme; follows Irrationality): Multiple-Personality Disorder 
  (MPD) results from traumas so severe and prolonged that the victim’s mind splits into several 
  
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  personalities. When a vampire suffers this derangement, the Storyteller and player need to 
  agree on a set of alternative personalities for the character, as well as on what situations call 
  each personality to the fore. Each personality should have some connection to the trauma that 
  fractured the character’s mind. Alternate personalities might believe they belong to different 
  clans, bloodlines or covenants, or even not be aware that they are undead.
  Effect: A character with multiple personalities can manifest different Skills or perhaps in-
  creased or diminished Social Attributes for each identity (the number of dots allocated to your 
  character’s Social Attributes are rearranged by anywhere from one to three). The character does 
  not actually possess more Skills than other characters, he merely switches personalities when 
  he needs to use certain Skills. For instance, a tough-guy “protector” persona might emerge 
  whenever the character needs to ﬁ ght, so the baseline identity doesn’t need to face the moral 
  and emotional stress of combat. The “protector” persona takes possession of the character’s 
  combat Skills, while the other personalities don’t admit that they know how to ﬁ ght.
  This is an extreme derangement. The character must experience a life-altering trauma or 
  supernatural tragedy to manifest it. The ailment cannot normally be acquired by failing a 
  Humanity draw unless the sin performed is truly ghastly. MPD is an elaborate derangement, 
  and even more of a challenge to roleplay than most derangements. Its symptoms are frighten-
  ing, and the suffering it exacts from its victim is monumental. It should not be an excuse for 
  slapstick, wacky, foolish or childish behavior.
  See the Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook about purchasing different traits for different per-
  sonalities.
  Obsessive Compulsion (severe; follows Fixation): A character with this derangement fo-
  cuses her attention on a single repetitive behavior or action as a way to distract herself from 
  feelings of anxiety or inner torment. The compulsive character turns everything into a ritual 
  and feels utter dread of any disruption of her behaviors.
  Many European vampire legends say the undead suffer from an obsessive need to count 
  collections of small objects, so a mortal can protect himself by leaving piles of grain where 
  he sleeps. A marauding vampire feels compelled to count the grain before he feeds, legends 
  say, and this can keep the vampire occupied until dawn. Kindred who believe in the stories 
  mortals tell about them might suffer from this kind of ﬁ xation.
  Effect: Determine a set of speciﬁ c actions or behaviors that your character follows to the 
  exclusion of all else (even if doing so interferes with his current agenda or endangers his 
  existence or others’). The effects of obsessive/compulsive behavior can be negated for the 
  course of one scene by making a successful Resolve + Composure draw at a -2 penalty. If 
  your character is forcibly prevented from adhering to his derangement, he might lose control 
  among enemies or allies and attack either (or both) indiscriminately. An obsessive-compulsive 
  vampire is subject to a frenzy draw in this situation.
  Paranoia (severe; follows Suspicion): Paranoia is a species of delusion. The paranoid believes 
  that enemies persecute her and make her miserable. As a paranoid’s delusions intensify, she 
  spins out elaborate conspiracy theories to explain who’s doing the persecution, and why. 
  Everything goes into the conspiracy. Do the neighbors stay up late? They must be spying. 
  Does she have headaches? Her enemies have dosed her with some insidious toxin. Did she 
  lose her job? The conspiracy arranged it… and of course, they want other people to believe 
  she’s crazy. As paranoia deepens, the sufferer might plot to strike back at her persecutors, 
  whomever she imagines them to be.
  This derangement can be hard to diagnose among the Kindred because they really do 
  have enemies in the Danse Macabre. A paranoid vampire, however, can’t tell a real enemy 
  from one that exists only in his head. Imagined enemies can range from the CIA to Satan 
  sample derangements
  
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  himself. Paranoid Kindred often turn obses-
  sive compulsive as well and adopt complex 
  feeding precautions to prevent their enemies 
  from “tainting their blood supply.” They also 
  parse every question or comment for hidden 
  motives and meanings. Suspicion extends 
  even to progeny and thralls subjected to 
  Vinculums. (Maybe they’re only pretending 
  to be loyal!)
  Effect: A paranoid character has difﬁ culty 
  with all social interactions because of her 
  reﬂ exive suspicion of everyone. A character 
  who suffers from paranoia automatically 
  suffers a -2 penalty on Social draws. The 
  character is distrustful and wary of everyone, 
  even close friends and family. The slightest 
  hint of suspicious behavior is enough to pro-
  voke a Resolve + Composure draw to retain 
  control (made at a -2 penalty). A failed draw 
  indicates that your character ﬂ ees or attacks 
  an offender. Additionally, among Kindred, 
  the slightest hint that someone might be an 
  enemy can provoke a frenzy check, with the 
  number of successes required set by how 
  threatening the trigger event seems. A casual 
  remark that seems to show someone knows 
  a bit about the character’s activities might 
  require only one success to avoid frenzy. 
  Finding an intruder in his haven would 
  almost certainly require ﬁ ve.
  Power Fetish Obsession (mild only):
  Although Kindred value their supernatural 
  powers, their Disciplines and Vitae expen-
  ditures remind them of their undead state. 
  Some Kindred project their powers onto an 
  object, so they don’t have to take responsi-
  bility for them. Other Kindred develop the 
  “power fetish” delusion as a stronger form 
  of good-luck superstition. Whatever the 
  reason, the character believes she cannot use 
  her supernatural powers without the help 
  of a special object. In folklore, for instance, 
  the Swiss vampire called the Alp became 
  powerless without its hat. A character with 
  this derangement might believe that she 
  cannot use her undead powers without the 
  dress she wore when she was Embraced, her 
  lucky bracelet or some other article.
  
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  Effect: Any attempt to use Disciplines or expend Vitae without that object reduces any test 
  pools for an activity by three.
  Sanguinary Animism (mild only): Only Kindred can suffer from this special derange-
  ment. This delusion grows out of a vampire’s fundamental awareness of guilt about feeding 
  on mortals. Kindred with this delusion believe that they take part of victims’ minds or souls 
  along with their blood. For hours after feeding, the Kindred hears a victim’s voice in his head, 
  berating him, begging for mercy or making demands. The vampire even experiences ersatz 
  memories from his victim’s life, all concocted by the vampire’s unconscious mind, but seem-
  ing very real. Weak-willed or especially guilt-stricken Kindred might even carry out actions on 
  behalf of their victims. Whenever a sanguinary animist feeds on a mortal, the player makes 
  an Intelligence + Composure draw. If the draw succeeds, the imaginary voice and memories 
  of the victim torment the character for the rest of the night but the character can function 
  adequately. If the draw fails, the images in the character’s mind are so strong that the other 
  personality can inﬂ uence the vampire’s actions. The angry victim-personality usually means 
  to harm the character, but the vampire might silence the victim’s voice by doing something 
  he imagines the victim would like. If the player cannot roleplay the possessing victim’s per-
  sonality, control of the character can pass to the Storytelling staff for short times. Control 
  automatically reverts to the vampire just before dawn.
  For all the anguish that sanguinary animism causes, it illustrates how derangements work 
  (badly) to relieve guilt and stress. As long as the victim’s voice continues, she isn’t really dead 
  — or so it seems — while the vampire supplies her own punishment.
  Effect: Sanguinary animism becomes particularly severe when a vampire kills his vessel. 
  In this case, the Intelligence + Composure draw suffers a -3 penalty. A  failure on a chance 
  draw means that the ersatz personality of the victim becomes a permanent ﬁ xture in the 
  vampire’s mind. Under stress, the victim’s voice becomes more insistent. The Kindred might 
  distractedly respond aloud to the voices in his head. Further shocks could drive the vampire 
  into multiple-personality disorder, with the Kindred taking on the fantasized personalities of 
  victims. Diablerie is an especially bad idea for sufferers of this derangement!
  Schizophrenia (severe; extreme; follows Vocalization): Schizophrenia is the most severe 
  of all derangements. This mental illness includes hallucinations, delusions, radical mood 
  swings, manic or obsessive babbling on certain themes, and outbursts of violence. The victim 
  constantly hears strange hums, roars or voices in his head. People on TV or passing by seem 
  to look at and threaten him. Delusions of grandeur are common: The schizophrenic thinks 
  he’s Jesus, Napoleon (no, really, it happens) or the president.
  Unlike most lesser derangements, schizophrenia has a proven organic cause, an imbalance 
  of brain chemistry that drugs can treat in mortals. Stress also plays a role in sending a latent 
  schizophrenic over the edge, though, and mortals need both drugs and psychotherapy to 
  recover from the disease (if they can at all).
  Schizophrenia presents a formidable roleplaying challenge. The player must decide on a 
  general set of delusions, hallucinations and behaviors that relate to the trauma that causes the 
  derangement. The Storyteller, meanwhile, should prepare to include hallucinatory details in 
  her scenes and any descriptions given to the player, and possibly even enlist the other players 
  to help as well. The character doesn’t know what’s real, so the player shouldn’t either. The 
  player can probably guess that when the TV weatherman looks at the character and says, 
  “Your sire wants to kill you. You have to kill him ﬁ rst,” that isn’t real. When he waits at a bus 
  stop and another character pulls a dagger from under a coat, however…
  Effect: A character with this derangement is unpredictable and dangerous. His player auto-
  matically suffers a -2 penalty on all Social draws, and he might be aggressive or violent toward 
  sample derangements
  
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  people who confront him with trauma such as accusations, disturbing truths or heated argu-
  ments. Make a Resolve + Composure draw for your character to avoid escaping or attacking 
  the source of trauma. The player and Storyteller should also designate a set of conditions that 
  trigger the character’s mood swings and delusions. Under these conditions, a -2 penalty applies 
  to resist frenzy and Rötschreck as the vampire’s mind is racked by imaginary horrors.
  Your character must experience a life-altering trauma or supernatural tragedy to acquire 
  this extreme derangement. It cannot normally be acquired by failing a Humanity draw unless 
  the sin performed is truly gut wrenching or horriﬁ c.
  Golconda and Transcendence
  The burden of undeath weighs heavily on most Kindred. Not only are they denied the 
  sun, food and all the other simple pleasures of true life. Not only are they trapped in a Danse 
  Macabre with no beginning or end, but in the eyes of many, God Himself has cursed them. 
  But why? Why punish thousands of mortals for an individual’s crimes or bad luck? This bitter 
  mystery forms the crowning injustice of their damnation.
  The Lancea Sanctum gives the orthodox answer: original sin. Every son of Adam and 
  daughter of Eve is born in sin, and what is mortal history but a tapestry of violence, greed, 
  lust and deceit? Every man and woman deserves damnation a thousand times over for the 
  crimes of their ancestors, and the crimes they did not oppose when they lived. It is not for 
  mortals or Kindred to question the Almighty’s will. The Kindred should bow their heads 
  and accept their fate as sinners in the hands of an angry God. They have earned Hell, be 
  it the ﬁ res of the afterlife, the torments of the Beast or the hunger and the sheer ennui of 
  centuries of existence.
  Not all Kindred can accept this grim catechism. A few dare to hope that they can escape 
  damnation. Some Kindred believe that they can win a pardon from God. Others hope for 
  a more secular salvation, achieved through mysticism, self-discipline, drugs or alternative 
  philosophy. Tantalizing rumors slowly spread through the Kindred race of vampires who 
  became mortal again or who master the Beast. Elder Kindred scoff at such tales… but they 
  still listen.
  Of all these tales and legends, the most common theme is a mystical state called Golconda. 
  The term’s derivation is both simple and mysterious. Golconda is a town in India where 
  diamonds were mined in ancient times. Its name became associated with anything distant 
  and difﬁ cult to reach, but of immense value — a ﬁ tting name for the mystical transcendence 
  that legend describes.
  THE COVENANTS ON GOLCONDA
  Individual views about Golconda vary widely, but Storytellers can take the following 
  opinions as typical of the various covenants.
  The Carthians: Fairy tales like Golconda serve only to distract the Kindred from 
  political action.
  The Circle of the Crone: Golconda may be real. We do not, however, pretend to 
  know the secret ourselves.
  The Invictus: Golconda is a childish fable for the weak-willed and weak-minded. 
  Such a blessed state could not exist. Anyone who gives credence to such tales deserves 
  mockery.
  
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  The Lancea Sanctum: Golconda is a cruel delusion at best, a wicked heresy at worst. 
  Such tales lead Kindred away from accepting their place in God’s plan.
  The Ordo Dracul: Why bother with Golconda when transcendence can make one 
  more than a vampire, instead of just enabling her to settle for what she is?
  THE NATURE OF GOLCONDA
  According to the tales, vampires who achieve Golconda defeat the Beast or pacify it in 
  some way. They no longer suffer its relentless drive to rage and feed. They no longer require 
  blood, or at least not as much. These spiritual masters retain all their Kindred powers, though. 
  In fact, they can achieve the greatest heights of Kindred power without suffering the deadly 
  thirst for the Vitae of other Kindred that afﬂ icts the mightiest of the Damned. They aban-
  don the Danse Macabre. They walk unharmed through the wilderness and Lupines bow to 
  them. They walk through cities and the Kindred do not know them, for God has forgiven 
  and blessed them.
  Of course, no one can prove to have actually met such a redeemed vampire. Like any urban 
  legend, the tales always come second or third hand, at least. A Kindred known in another 
  city says his sire’s broodmate met a vampire who worked wonders and talked of Golconda 
  — that sort of thing. On rare occasions, Kindred claim to have achieved the blessed state and 
  say they will teach others of their kind. Elders always expose these self-styled gurus as fakes 
  working some sort of scam… at least, that’s what the elders say.
  Golconda legends describe a number of methods to achieve redemption. Cynics might 
  observe that the purported methods tend to reﬂ ect the mystical ideas that were popular 
  when the tale-teller lived. Older tales about Golconda emphasize the need for prayer, receiv-
  ing sacraments, pilgrimages to holy places, tests of faith and resolve, and physical asceticism 
  — fasting, ﬂ agellation and the like — to gain visions from God. In the Age of Enlightenment, 
  philosophy and self-control became prominent in the stories. In the 19th century, the stories 
  acquired Eastern elements such as meditation and paradoxical riddles. The 20th century 
  gave the stories a quasi-scientiﬁ c air, with drugs (or magic) to pacify the Beast, and a period 
  of study with a mentor that sounded very much like psychoanalysis.
  Most stories agree, however, that a Kindred who wants to ﬁ nd Golconda must pursue an 
  existence of unblemished virtue and humanity. He must feed as little as possible to sustain 
  his existence, and he must avoid any sort of harm to mortals or other Kindred. He must 
  ﬁ ght frenzy with all his might, never giving a moment’s control to the Beast. Most of all, he 
  must do penance for all his sins. If he cannot atone directly to a victim, he must perform 
  some deed to compensate a victim’s family, community or all humanity. Only then does he 
  even have a chance that God might grant him forgiveness. The quest certainly takes years, 
  decades or even centuries.
  Most of the stories also say that Kindred cannot ﬁ nd Golconda on their own. They need 
  a teacher who can guide them along the correct path, preferably a Kindred who has already 
  achieved salvation. These undead spiritual masters hide themselves well, but a determined 
  seeker can ﬁ nd one… or one of them mystically knows that a ready student emerges and ﬁ nds 
  the seeker himself. Some stories say that a Kindred who pursues Golconda might encounter 
  other seekers. He might study under a series of tutors, each one more advanced, and he might 
  teach other novices himself as he gains wisdom.
  At the end of this long quest, a vampire experiences a mystical vision called the Suspire. 
  Perhaps a mentor guides the Kindred through this ultimate spiritual test. Perhaps the seeker 
  learns to conduct the test himself. Or perhaps the vision takes the seeker by surprise. In the 
  Suspire, the vampire encounters God, the Beast or his own soul. As usual, stories differ.
  golconda and transcendence
  
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  The visionary encounter ends with a judgment passed on the Kindred. Not every seeker 
  survives this judgment. Failure might also leave the seeker insane or merely wracked with 
  despair at failing his one chance at salvation. The legends all agree on one thing: A Kindred 
  experiences the Suspire only once. A seeker never gets a second chance. If the seeker passes 
  the test, he achieves enlightenment and liberation from the curse of undeath.
  STORYTELLING THE QUEST
  We deliberately avoid specifying too much about Golconda and how to achieve it. By deﬁ ni-
  tion, Golconda pushes a character outside the rules that govern normal Kindred existence. 
  Nailing down a state of mystical transcendence with trait scores and test pools would cheapen 
  the whole idea. Still, we offer a few suggestions on incorporating a quest for Golconda into 
  your chronicle, assuming you want to include it at all. If you choose, the scoffers could be 
  right and Golconda could just be a wishful fairy tale.
  Before anything else, a character needs to learn that Golconda might exist. Stories about 
  the blessed state are neither terribly rare nor brutally suppressed (in most cities, anyway), 
  but they are not exactly common knowledge. Before a character can even think of seeking 
  Golconda, she must hear a story or two about it.
  If the character takes an interest in stories of salvation for the Damned, she can search for 
  more information. Doing so involves broaching the subject with other Kindred who might 
  not want to admit that they pay attention to such things, and it might expose the character 
  to Harpies’ derision. As the character hears more, she learns that attacks on her reputation 
  are the smallest danger brought by the search. Not everyone survives the quest. The character 
  also learns that the search takes a long time. As Storyteller, make it clear to players that if their 
  characters seek Golconda, they commit to a long, ongoing subplot, if not a whole new direction 
  for the chronicle. Salvation for the Damned is an epic story that one does not tell brieﬂ y.
  Early in the quest, a character has nothing but tales to guide her. She doesn’t know if Gol-
  conda really exists or exactly what she must do to achieve the state. She must proceed on faith 
  and try by reason and intuition to sift truth from the cryptic hints available. As Storyteller, 
  you need to supply those hints in the form of rumors and riddles. Some of these hints should 
  contradict or just be mystical-sounding gibberish. The character might try to track a story to 
  its source, asking each teller where he heard it. With luck, skill and perseverance, she might 
  ﬁ nd a Kindred who says he personally encountered someone he thinks was a Kindred in 
  Golconda, and he remembers a riddle or parable that was told. Another story might lead to 
  an obscure mystical tract written by someone who claimed to know the secret, or a meeting 
  with another seeker who can pass on his own beliefs and research. Tracking legends to their 
  source in this way certainly involves travel, with all the dangers it entails for Kindred.
  The character soon learns the importance of remorse and atonement. The greater a vampire’s 
  sins, the greater the penance she must perform. The legends and rumors might suggest ways 
  that Kindred can make amends for their crimes, but this is an opportunity for characters 
  (and players) to explore the nature and limits of atonement. How do you make amends to the 
  dead? Are some injuries beyond repair? Should a vampire even try to atone for some crimes 
  or should she simply accept punishment, even unto Final Death?
  Along the way, a character should also try to protect those weaker than herself and try 
  to make the World of Darkness a better place. Through her efforts, she atones on behalf 
  of all Kindred. If the Biblical metaphor is valid, Longinus’ act that conﬁ rmed the faith of 
  others proved his own damnation. Surely, any Kindred who seeks release from the curse of 
  undeath must show that she is aware of the signiﬁ cance of that burden. Doing so necessarily 
  involves maintaining (or recovering) a high Humanity, upholding every Virtue possible on 
  
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  every occasion possible, and resisting frenzy and Vice whenever those damning forces arise. 
  Indiscriminate feeding, using one’s powers to manipulate mortals and the cruel intrigues of 
  the Danse Macabre are anathema to the sincere seeker.
  If a character can consistently show penitent, abstinent and honorable behavior over 
  many stories, she might be ready for the next stage in the quest. The character can ﬁ nally 
  locate a mentor, or one might locate her. This mentor tests the resolve, wisdom and ethics 
  of the postulant through moral quandaries, enigmatic puzzles, strange tasks and dangerous 
  missions. A Kindred who won’t risk body and soul for salvation doesn’t want it enough to 
  earn it. Sometimes the challenge might be to teach another Kindred and help him begin the 
  quest for Golconda.
  The climax of the chronicle comes when a worthy character experiences the Suspire. To be 
  ready, a character needs a Humanity of at least 7. No other traits really matter. As Storyteller, 
  you decide upon the nature of the Suspire. It may be some sort of ritual. It may be a riddle 
  or a seemingly innocuous task that nonetheless has its own metaphorical (or metaphysical) 
  gravity. It may be a dream that comes over the sleeping character. Follow whatever scheme 
  suits your sense of the mystical.
  Tailor the Suspire to reﬂ ect the character’s personality and whatever themes and conﬂ icts 
  evolved in the course of the chronicle. Potential themes for a Suspire include the character’s 
  greatest hatred, fear or sorrow, an overwhelming Vice, how much she wants to be mortal or 
  a challenge to justify the existence of the Kindred and all their sins. This is entirely a moral 
  challenge. Do not use any situation that calls for draws. Work in a few hints, through refer-
  ences to past stories, what choice the character should make to pass the test. After all, the 
  player isn’t a spiritual master, to pluck enlightenment from nowhere. Generally, this kind 
  of intense experience is worth an entire side session, with other players playing the roles of 
  different elements of the quest or perhaps even their own characters (as seen through the 
  seeker’s distorted personal view). The Suspire should be difﬁ cult, even cryptic, but try to make 
  it a fair challenge — one the player really has a chance to ﬁ gure out.
  If the character fails, that’s it. The quest is over. The character can never try again. She can 
  remain a highly moral vampire, but she can never hope to transcend that state. Maybe she 
  can ﬁ nd a way to accept that, maybe not.
  If the character succeeds and achieves Golconda… you have to decide what the legendary 
  state actually is. Once again, we can offer only suggestions, which you may accept or reject 
  as you will.
  For a simple option, the character becomes mortal. She triumphs over the curse of un-
  death, so it no longer troubles her. Any Kindred who guided the character were vampires 
  who failed their own Suspires or who had not yet dared to take the ultimate test, and who 
  chose to guide other Damned.
  For a more complicated option, the character remains undead, but is free from many of 
  undeath’s restrictions. The character never suffers frenzy again. The Beast no longer has the 
  power to drive her into evil deeds. She may sin of her own volition, but never because the 
  player failed a draw. A vampire in Golconda still needs to drink blood, but she need never 
  fear taking too much because of the Beast’s hunger.
  Also, the character does not need to drink as much blood as before. The character loses one 
  Vitae per week, instead of one Vitae per night. Her player still spends Vitae normally to heal 
  wounds, augment Physical test pools and power Crúac or any Discipline powers that require 
  it. Perhaps best of all, the Kindred’s Blood Potency can increase without the need to feed on 
  stronger and stronger blood. Her feeding requirements are those of Kindred with half her 
  Blood Potency. If she ﬁ nds even that too much of a burden, she can voluntarily reduce her 
  golconda and transcendence
  
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  Blood Potency to a level where she can feed on animals. She cannot restore a higher Blood 
  Potency, though, without using the normal means to do so.
  All these beneﬁ ts last only as long as the vampire keeps her Humanity high. Should her 
  Humanity slip below 7 for any reason, the character falls from grace, loses the beneﬁ ts of 
  Golconda and can never gain them again.
  OTHER WAYS OF BECOMING MORTAL
  The Kindred tell stories about vampires who became mortal by other means than Golconda. 
  Some tales are distinctly sentimental. They tell of Kindred who became mortal through true 
  love for a living person; through miracles performed for exceptionally pious Kindred by 
  mortal holy men and women, or holy relics; by nobly sacriﬁ cing their unlives for others (and 
  becoming mortal as they died). Most Kindred cynically scoff at such stories. Then again, true 
  love, perfect faith and selﬂ ess sacriﬁ ce seldom happen among the Damned (which might be 
  part of what damns them).
  Stranger and more sinister rumors speak of Kindred who became mortal by destroying 
  their sires, their sires’ sires and their sires’ sires’ sires, perhaps by diablerie or by drinking a 
  potion of their dust. Other tales speak of powerful spirits who grant mortality for a price, or 
  of blessed artifacts that can end the curse of undeath.
  As with Golconda, Kindred never seem to have personal experience of such things. The 
  legends are remote and dubious. The Storyteller must decide if any of these tales are true.
  OTHER FORMS OF TRANSCENDENCE
  Another class of legends deals with other ways in which Kindred may gain powers denied 
  other vampires, or to escape the limitations of undeath. As usual when the Damned discuss 
  supernatural matters beyond their direct experience, tales tend to be so vague that no one 
  can guess if they could be true. Or they supply a mass of spurious detail, and no one can 
  guess what aspects might be true.
  The most reliable stories concern the genesis of new Disciplines. Knowledgeable Kindred 
  agree that many more Disciplines exist than the familiar powers known to all the clans (as 
  described in Chapter Two). Rare, little-known Disciplines are most often invented and prac-
  ticed by special bloodlines that arise among the clans. One popular theory attributes the 
  invention of new Disciplines to occult contamination from other denizens of the supernatural 
  world, such as werewolves and mortal mages. (See Appendix One for more information about 
  Disciplines and bloodlines.)
  Other stories speak of Kindred who gain special powers by selling their souls to the Devil. 
  These legends say that demons can teach sorcery, confer unusual powers (another explanation 
  given for new Disciplines), and release vampires from frenzy, the deadly effects of sunlight 
  and other aspects of the curse. Lancea Sanctum leaders rigorously condemn all these stories. 
  They insist that no Kindred ever proﬁ ted from dealing with demons. The Lancea Sanctum’s 
  Inquisitors stand ready to expose and chastise any vampire who dares to take on a second 
  damnation.
  Sheer age might grant more powers. The Kindred know that their race has existed for many 
  thousands of years, but vampires Embraced more than 500 to 1,000 years ago vanished into 
  legend. Many of them certainly met Final Death, but what happened to the ones who didn’t? 
  Did they all succumb to the Beast? Do they sleep in millennial torpors? Such long sleeps should 
  reduce the potency of their blood to that of mere neonates, but… the Kindred don’t really 
  know. Rare undead horrors such as the Unholy suggest that some elder Kindred escape the 
  traps of their thirst for ever-stronger blood and the slow erosion of their humanitas to become 
  something else, a creature that preys on the Damned as the Kindred prey on mortals.
  
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  Few Kindred would admit that they seek to become such monsters to monsters. In secret, 
  however, many old (and not-so-old) Kindred pursue scraps of rumors in hopes of achieving 
  a verboten transformation into something mightier, more fearsome and less limited. Among 
  the Kindred, each is enemy to all. They spend their unlives learning to be wolves, and for all 
  they profess to hate their condition, few accept the thought that other creatures still regard 
  them as kine to be devoured at will.
  golconda and transcendence • status in the danse macabre
  Status in the Danse Macabre
  Rule or be ruled. In the Danse Macabre, nothing is as much a measure of control, manipu-
  lation and desire as the esteem granted a Kindred by his peers. The various Status Merits 
  described in Chapter Two (see pp. 131-135) quantify that respect and regard for individual 
  characters. Status is ﬂ uid, however. Once play begins, a character’s actions (and the reactions 
  of those around him) have as much to do with his standing as any expenditure of experience. 
  This ﬂ ow of esteem and rank is one of the clearest manifestations of the Danse Macabre.
  In any large chronicle, Status acts as the essential measure of standing, respect and reputa-
  tion accorded to a vampire by undead society. As explained in Chapter Two, Status can take 
  several forms: Clan, Covenant and City. These Merits collectively determine reputation and 
  renown in Kindred society as a whole. Characters with very high Status traits are so well 
  known that most socially aware vampires know their names, even far from the celebrities’ 
  own domains. 
  Status is not a blunt weapon, though. It is a scalpel that must be used carefully. Apply 
  too much pressure and the tool breaks. Relying on Status to open all social doors is likely 
  to establish a Kindred’s reputation as boorish and unworthy of his high standing. At the 
  same time, failing to cultivate the respect of one’s peers by participating in Kindred society 
  leads to deteriorated Status. High standing is a mantle that requires constant care. Those 
  who wield it are under attack from those below, as well as under close scrutiny by those on 
  the same level and above.
  This section details a variety of systems related to Status, but it is the players, Storytellers 
  and the chronicle that provide a context for these systems. The in-game means through which 
  two Kindred achieve the same Status dots can vary greatly. A social wallﬂ ower who is the 
  progeny of the Prince, and an unbound rabble-rouser who has proved effective, might have 
  both City Status 2, but they aren’t treated the same. Similarly, a high Status does not mean 
  a “better” vampire, simply one with more respect in a certain group.
  Status is somewhat rigid among the clans and covenants, but each group has its own 
  standards and its own ways to appoint leaders. The Ordo Dracul values research into arcane 
  knowledge above all else, and holds the most advanced scholars in high esteem. The Circle 
  of the Crone emphasizes a Kindred’s spiritual nature, and the most fervent priestesses hold 
  the highest positions. The Ventrue prize temporal achievements such as political inﬂ uence, 
  favors owed and material resources. Clan and Covenant Status thus rarely carry over to 
  Kindred outside of those group. Few Ventrue know or care if a particular Mekhet is famed 
  in her clan as a big-shot hacker, for example.
  SPEAKING ABOUT STATUS
  “Status” is an out-of-character game term. It quantiﬁ es perceptions that exist in 
  character, but no Kindred would describe herself (or anyone else) as having “Status 
  
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  2,” and players should avoid using such terms as much as possible. Chapter Two’s 
  description of City Status provides a few terms that correspond with the trait’s various 
  dot levels (see p. 133), but a few other phrases can be of use. The terms below can 
  be woven into in-character conversation seamlessly and can even be used in out-
  of-character conversations between players to remain in the habit. These words 
  are generally capitalized so that their system implications are clear. The phrases in 
  quotations are other ways to convey the same information.
  • 
  Acknowledged (or “of low standing or rank”)
  •• 
  Recognized (or “of some standing or rank”)
  ••• 
  Valued (or “of signiﬁ cant standing or rank”)
  •••• 
  Respected (or “of high standing or rank”)
  ••••• 
  Admired (or “of pre-eminent standing or rank”)
  For Example: For declaring Status, one would state that “William Scott is 
  Acknowledged by Clan Gangrel,” “Dillon Radley is Respected in the domain of 
  London,” and “In the eyes of the Invictus, none is more Admired than Joshua Musgrove 
  himself.”
  STARTING PLAY
  As described in Chapter Two, characters entering an established chronicle cannot begin 
  with City, Clan or Covenant Status dots above 2. Even these scores are appropriate only if a 
  new character enters with an established connection to the city or faction in question. Clan 
  and Covenant Status increases occur as normal through experience expenditures, adjudicated 
  by the Storyteller, as explained below.
  Increases in City Status occur entirely as a result of in-character actions and interplay, as 
  explained below, and no further experience expenditures are required. Players should note 
  that characters starting with no City Status (zero dots) can quickly earn their ﬁ rst dot at no 
  cost so long as the Prince accepts them in the city.
  Storytellers setting up play in a new area should allocate some additional dots of City Status 
  to create the Kindred hierarchy of the domain. The Prince receives City Status 4 and each 
  of the ﬁ rst three Prisci start with City Status 3. The Prince can name his Primogen and the 
  ﬁ rst three each gains City Status 2. As outlined on p. 287, the Prince can also freely grant 
  City Status 1 to any character he acknowledges as a resident of his domain. Players need not 
  spend any Merit dots or experience for these starting scores, but the Storyteller is likely to 
  turn to them to ensure that stories start off right. The Storyteller may strip these City Status 
  dots (without refunding any experience) if characters are portrayed in ways that would weaken 
  their standing in their city.
  This allocation of City Status dots is usable regardless of the in-character history of the city, 
  whether Kindred have recently arrived from elsewhere or have been present in the shadows 
  all along. 
  Storytellers should be very selective when allowing characters to gain City Status by founding 
  a domain in play. There must be a signiﬁ cant and differentiated population center of some 
  relevance in the new area. A Kindred shunned in his own city who goes to the nearest small 
  town and declares himself Prince won’t get any respect.
  In the rare case when, after play begins, a domain goes without a Prince (or ruling body) 
  for a year or more, a new Prince establishing himself beneﬁ ts from the same free City Status 
  dots. The ﬁ rst Kindred to successfully hold Praxis for at least 30 consecutive nights gains 
  City Status 4 for free at the end of that period. As above, the ﬁ rst three Prisci to step forward 
  similarly gain City Status 3, and the ﬁ rst two Primogen named receive City Status 2.
  
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  DETERMINING ANOTHER’S STATUS
  Kindred are social predators; most struggle for station from the moment of their Embrace 
  until their destruction. But knowing ones’ own standing is useless without being able to tell 
  how esteemed others are. 
  The best way to determine social standing is certainly through roleplaying and interaction, 
  but the degree of attention Kindred pay to discussions of and clues to social position can have 
  a role. When one Kindred meets another, the ﬁ rst player may make a reﬂ exive Intelligence 
  + Occult draw to recall if her character has heard of the other in a particular context. Trying 
  to recall City Status, Clan Status or Covenant Status are all separate actions.
  This draw can occur only when the observing character reasonably determines the observed 
  Kindred’s identity. An introduction certainly qualiﬁ es, but overhearing a name is just as good. If 
  the observed character is never identiﬁ ed, no draw is possible. If he presents himself under an as-
  sumed name, then the draw is possible but can determine only the Status of his false identity.
  For City Status, Kindred can determine only the effective City Status of visitors, not strang-
  ers’ true status back home. For their part, visitors who size residents up suffer a penalty equal 
  to that imposed on their own City Status (see below).
  For Clan and Covenant Status, the draw fails automatically if the observer has no Clan or 
  Covenant Status of her own or she tries to determine Status across clan or covenant lines. 
  Failure: The observer has no sense of the subject’s standing. After a failed attempt, the observer 
  cannot try to determine the same Status type for the same subject until a full hour has passed.
  Success: The observer recalls the Kindred’s standing (the player knows the other character’s 
  dots of Status). In the case of characters with the relevant Status at zero, the observer knows 
  if the subject has not earned any standing in the domain, clan or covenant, or has somehow 
  been stripped of Status. If the latter case, the observer does not learn how Status was lost 
  unless it was in a blood hunt.
  STATUS AND TRAVEL
  Kindred are predominantly sedentary creatures and their ranks and privileges do not travel 
  well. Still, the clans and covenants do provide means to send word from domain to domain, 
  and a powerful Prince traveling abroad is still afforded respect. 
  Clan and Covenant Status do not change as a character travels. A Cardinal of the Lancea 
  Sanctum abroad still outranks a local parish priest. The visiting worthy may not have the 
  local resources to enforce his will, however, so respect of domain remains a wise move for 
  traveling Kindred, even among clan and covenant mates.
  City Status is the most bound to the conditions of a particular domain. This speciﬁ city 
  makes it an effective tool in that locale, but also makes the trait highly unsuited to travel. 
  Characters visiting a domain have no true City Status, but do gain an effective rating based 
  on their reputation back home and how far they have traveled. A visitor’s effective City Status 
  is equal to her City Status in her home domain, modiﬁ ed as follows:
  starting play • determining another’s status • stotus and travel
  3.10 — EFFECTIVE CITY STATUS WHEN TRAVELING
  Character Is... 
  City Status Modiﬁ er
  In his home region, but not city 
  -1
  In his home nation, but not region 
  -2
  Outside his home nation 
  -3
  These penalties are levied on a character’s City Status when he leaves his home city, and 
  don’t reﬂ ect on any bonuses for being part of the eminent clan or ascendant covenant (in 
  either his home city or the one he visits). If a character is under a blood hunt in his home 
  
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  city, his City Status  in his home city is considered zero (and so is effective City Status is also 
  zero). What’s more, a visitor’s effective City Status can never be higher than 3. The above 
  penalties also apply to any attempts a visitor makes to determine the City Status of a resident 
  in a visited domain (see “Determining Another’s Status,” above).
  Effective City Status does not grant any special powers or privileges and cannot be used as 
  a “social tool” as native City Status can (see p. 135). Instead, it denotes a level of respect that 
  a character’s reputation reasonably carries outside his home domain.
  Visitors are largely immune to the games of Status in a city through which they pass. The 
  worst a Prince and his Harpies can do is strip a newcomer of effective City Status in the 
  visited domain. This has no effect on the visitor’s City Status back home. Even the effects of 
  a blood hunt are only local. The Prince or a Harpy may send word of an infraction, praise-
  worthy deed or blood hunt back to the visitor’s home domain, but any result is dependent 
  on ofﬁ cials back home taking action. 
  Princes cannot ﬂ atly refuse to acknowledge Kindred who have any effective City Status (one or 
  more dots). They may, however, use their powers to reduce visitors’ City Status down to 1 and to 
  strip that last dot, revoking any welcome. Doing so is trivial in the case of those who arrive with an 
  effective City Status of 1, accomplished with a simple princely ﬁ at that the outsider is unwelcome 
  in the domain. Dealing with those with grander reputations can be harder and requires a Prince 
  to strip the visitor’s legitimacy through concerted effort, usually through a series of public insults 
  or reprimands. (For more on the Prince and Harpy’s Status-related abilities, see p. 286.) 
  If a visiting character decides to stay in a new domain, the effective City Status she would have 
  as a visitor to the city becomes her new City Status dots. Status in her former domain is lost (al-
  though she can return as a visitor). Kindred may only consider one place their home domain.
  CHANGING CLAN OR COVENANT STATUS
  Clan Status and Covenant Status increase with experience expenditure, but such spending 
  has to be approved by the Storyteller. Some limits exist simply to prevent everyone in the, 
  say, First Estate from having Invictus Status 5 in short order. A character must demonstrate 
  particular dedication to his clan or covenant to earn high standing in that group. The fol-
  lowing table is generic, but a useful guideline when adjudicating such matters; it functions 
  just as the table for City Status does (p. 290).
  3.11 — PRAISEWORTHY DEEDS FOR CLAN OR COVENANT
  Status 
  Deeds
  ••••• 
  Acting to position the clan or covenant to achieve eminence or as-
  cendancy
  •••• 
  Deﬁ ning an overall goal for the clan or covenant and organizing 
  members to achieve it; assuming a position of recognized leadership 
  within the clan or covenant
  ••• 
  Designing plans or removing obstacles in ways that advance the goals 
  of the clan or covenant; serving the clan or covenant signiﬁ cantly 
  above and beyond the expected 
  •• 
  Recognizing clan or covenant leaders and obeying their edicts; pro-
  moting loyalty among fellow members of the clan or covenant
  • 
  Regular attendance at clan or covenant gatherings; active participa-
  tion in regular clan or covenant activities
  STRIPPING CLAN OR COVENANT STATUS
  Removing dots of Clan or Covenant Status occurs when enough fellow members of the 
  faction get together to reprimand a character. To strip a dot of Clan or Covenant Status, a 
  
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  group of Kindred with a sum total of the appropriate Status Merit (in the clan or covenant in 
  question) of at least 20 times the target’s dots must publicly announce that they are stripping 
  Status from the subject. At least ﬁ ve of those Kindred must have Clan or Covenant Status (as 
  appropriate) equal to or higher than the targeted character’s before the loss. The victim cannot 
  be tricked or coerced into being one of the Kindred who reduces his own Status. Similarly, 
  participants in the action can’t be forced into it by Discipline use, although the application 
  of boons and similar social coercion is permissible. The same subject cannot be stripped of 
  Status by the same clan or covenant a second time until 90 nights have passed, even if the 
  second group of assembled Kindred is wholly different from the ﬁ rst. 
  The public announcement must be reasonably accessible to all members of the clan or 
  covenant — a large society gathering is typical, often followed by some sort of veiled pronounce-
  ment through the faction’s means of communication. A sanctioned in-character mailing list 
  can serve this purpose.
  Before acting, Storytellers and players involved should make sure that the targeted character truly 
  has committed a sin against his group. The following generic table can be a useful reference.
  changing clan or covenant status • covenant expulsion
  3.12 — SINS AGAINST CLAN OR COVENANT
  Status 
  Deeds
  ••••• 
  Deliberately disrespecting, lying to or giving bad information to a 
  clan or covenant member of equal standing
  •••• 
  Deliberately disrespecting, lying to or giving bad information to a 
  clan or covenant member of equal or higher standing
  ••• 
  Unintentionally stealing from, betraying or otherwise directly harm-
  ing a clan or covenant member; unintentionally betraying a clan or 
  covenant secret
  •• 
  Deliberately stealing from or directly harming a clan or covenant 
  member; unintentionally destroying a clan or covenant member
  • 
  Deliberately betraying or destroying a clan or covenant member; 
  deliberately betraying a clan or covenant secret
  Example: The Respected Inquisior Malachi of the Lancea Sanctum has long angered many of his 
  covenant mates, and adds insult to injury when his lack of caution leads to a group of Carthian rabble-
  rousers learning of the Lance’s plan to purge inﬁ dels in Malachi’s city. Malachi has Lancea Sanctum 
  Status 4 and has committed an appropriate sin against the covenant. Messengers and legates travel from 
  city to city, gathering the support of an impressive group of Sanctiﬁ ed (whose total Lancea Sanctum 
  Status adds to 80), including ﬁ ve prominent members (Lancea Sanctum Status 4 or 5). The players 
  involved clear matters with the Storyteller, who makes sure everything is legitimate. These assembled 
  worthies then issue an edict that Inquisitor Malachi has sinned against his church and deserves to be 
  reprimanded, but is still Valued by the Holy Spear. (Malachi’s Lancea Sanctum Status is now 3.)
  COVENANT EXPULSION
  The two covenants with highly authoritarian power structures — the Lancea Sanctum and the 
  Invictus — have a mechanism for expelling Kindred entirely from their ranks. Ejection immedi-
  ately reduces a subject’s Covenant Status to zero. Blackballing functions exactly like stripping a 
  single dot of Covenant Status, save that the assembled group must gather 40 times the target’s 
  Covenant Status, and must include 10 Kindred of equal or superior rank as the target. A former 
  member of these covenants loses his true membership if that rule is in effect (see p. 135). 
  The Carthian Movement, Circle of the Crone and Ordo Dracul have no mechanisms for 
  such expulsion. They can reduce a member’s Covenant Status dot by dot until it’s zero, but 
  can’t strip him of true membership (if appropriate). 
  
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  CHANGING CITY STATUS
  City Status is the most ﬂ uid of the three Kindred Status traits. Starting characters can have 
  up to only two dots in City Status. Once play begins, all changes result from the following 
  systems. Losses and gains in City Status occur through the intermediary of a small number of 
  Kindred ofﬁ cials in a domain: the Prince, his Harpy, the Harpy named by the Prisci, and the 
  Master of Elysium. Other positions — such as the Hounds and the Seneschal — do not have 
  the power to award or strip City Status. City Status can also gain a boost (or be protected) 
  by the overall position of a clan or covenant in a city. Kindred who remain active in their 
  domains also accumulate City Status over time. 
  POWER AT THE TOP
  Only so many undead can be inﬂ uential in a single city, so there is a limit to the number 
  of active characters who can hold high levels of City Status. At any one time, only a single 
  Kindred in a domain may hold City Status 5. This is usually (but not always) the Prince. 
  Likewise, a maximum of ﬁ ve Kindred may hold City Status 4 at any one time. These are usu-
  ally the Prisci, covenant heads or Primogen. If the maximum allowable characters already 
  have a certain level of Status, the City Status of one of the incumbents must ﬁ rst be reduced 
  somehow before another can take his place. 
  These limits do not apply to Kindred whose City Status temporarily rise  thanks to bonuses 
  resultant from a clan or covenant’s eminence (see p. 291). Thus, a Kindred with City Status 
  2, whose clan is eminent and who receives two bonus dots, is not counted among the ﬁ ve 
  Kindred holding City Status 4, nor does he displace someone at that level. Instead, for the 
  duration of the clan’s eminence, the character simply has as much social standing as those 
  who have earned City Status 4 without their clan being so prominent — this doesn’t grant 
  them any ofﬁ cial title, but can make it difﬁ cult for others to move against them.
  Note that holding an ofﬁ cial position in a domain does not grant dots of City Status or 
  any guarantee of esteem. However, the rough equivalencies between City Status and the 
  positions provided on p. 133 can serve as guidelines. Characters in ofﬁ cial positions and 
  with signiﬁ cantly lower City Status than suggested are unlikely to rest easy in their roles. A 
  Primogen with only two dots of City Status has to tread carefully, lest he anger the Prince and 
  ﬁ nd himself stripped of all rank. The actual naming of positions other than those described 
  here occurs purely through roleplaying.
  The Prince and Harpies (and to a more limited degree, the Prisci and Master of Elysium) 
  are the most immediate adjudicators of City Status. Actual City Status dots and in-character 
  favors and rights create a vicious circle of sorts. City Status can translate into access to the 
  Prince and to favors, but to gain City Status, a Kindred must do favors for the Prince or 
  Harpies. Such is the give and take of the Danse Macabre.
  STATUS POINTS
  The Prince and the two main Harpies of a domain are unique in that they have points as 
  well as dots of City Status. Like those of Willpower, these points can be spent for a variety 
  of effects. They replenish on the ﬁ rst night of every calendar month. If for some reason an 
  individual stops holding a position that grants Status points, the character immediately loses 
  access to their effects. If another character ascends to the vacant position, the new ofﬁ cer may 
  use only the points that remain unspent for the month. An election or appointment doesn’t 
  refresh the pool until the beginning of the next month.
  To see how many Status points a Prince or Harpy has, see the sections on the individual 
  positions, below. Note that in cities that use different names for equivalent Kindred ofﬁ cials, 
  those ofﬁ cials follow the same basic rules.
  
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  Points of City Status can be spent to award another character a permanent dot of City Status, 
  or to remove one. No Prince or Harpy can grant more than one dot to a single character within 
  the same calendar month, but the ofﬁ cial can remove more than one dot at one time (at a cost 
  of one point per dot in either case). No Prince or Harpy can affect her own City Status with 
  these points. They can affect each other’s traits, however. Granting each other more than one 
  dot over the course of a year is a sin against the city, see “Status Sins and Deeds,” p. 289. 
  A character’s last dot of City Status cannot be removed due to the expenditure of a Prince 
  or Harpy’s Status points. Only the Prince and the Master of Elysium have the ability to strip 
  that last dot and they do so without any expenditure of Status points (see below). 
  • The Prince: The Prince’s Status points are equal to his personal City Status (after taking 
  into account any bonuses provided by the position of his clan and covenant, see below). In 
  addition to spending Status points to grant or remove dots of City Status (as described above), 
  the Prince has special power over the ﬁ rst dot of City Status that another vampire has. Granting 
  that initial dot represents the Prince’s sanction of a Kindred to hunt in the city. The Prince 
  can grant that ﬁ rst dot to any character who otherwise has no City Status, and at no cost to 
  the newly Acknowledged vampire (in experience) or to himself (in Status points).
  The Prince can similarly strip a character who has (or has been reduced to) City Status 1 of 
  her last dot. He does so by casting the character out of the city or by clearly implying he no 
  longer cares for her fate (this is distinct from an actual blood hunt; see below). In the very rare 
  cases when he feels an entire group has betrayed the city (or his rule), a Prince may declare an 
  entire clan or covenant unwelcome in his domain. All members of the group who have City 
  Status 1 immediately lose that dot at no cost to the Prince’s Status points, but those with 
  higher City Status must be stripped of it dot by dot as usual. Eminent and rival clans and the 
  ascendant and contender covenants are immune to such sweeping declarations (see below). 
  • Too many or too Few Princes: There can usually be only a single Prince in a city, but 
  there are instances when two or more rival Princes claim domain over a city and they refuse 
  to recognize one another’s claims. In this care, calculate the total City Status dots of all ac-
  tive characters who support each contender. The contender with the highest total gets Status 
  points and their related abilities. Other contenders cannot grant Status and their supporters 
  are liable to face loss of personal Status by the winner’s decree — one reason why Kindred 
  contenders for the throne usually keep their ambitions closely guarded. 
  In cities with no single point of authority, the highest City Status of any of the individual 
  Kindred involved in the ruling council (or similar body) equals the points that are at the 
  disposal of the council to spend. Allocating them usually requires a prior arrangement among 
  council members and the Storyteller. Say, a majority vote is needed, or anyone may access the 
  points whenever they want to, without consultation.
  • The Prince’s Harpy: The Prince can appoint a Harpy at his discretion, empowering a 
  Kindred to grant his esteem (or to remove it). The Prince’s Harpy retains her own personal 
  City Status dots, and gains Status points equal to the Prince’s own City Status (even if that 
  means she has more points than dots). The eminence or ascendancy of the Prince’s clan or 
  covenant affects his Harpy’s Status points, while her own afﬁ liations affect only her City Sta-
  tus dots. Although the Harpy’s pool of points starts at the same number as the Prince’s, it is 
  distinct — the Harpy and Prince do not share points. The Prince’s Harpy can spend them to 
  bequeath or remove City Status dots from others, and can also act as an arbiter of prestation 
  (see p. 295). She cannot serve as Prince, Priscus or a Primogen. 
  • The Prisci: The eldest (or most respected) members of each clan stand as the domain’s 
  Prisci. No Kindred without appropriate Clan Status can serve as a Priscus, and if there is a 
  dispute over who a clan’s Priscus is, the contender with the highest combined amount of 
  changing city status • status points
  
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  Clan Status and City Status is the victor for the purposes of all Prisci votes. If only a single 
  member of a given clan has been visible or active in a domain over the previous three months, 
  the other Prisci do not have to accept a Priscus from that clan. 
  The Prisci have no impetus to agree or cooperate, other than that they can empower a 
  Harpy of their own. For a domain to have a second Harpy, there must be at least two Prisci 
  who do not also hold the title of Primogen. Without that number, the city is simply too weak 
  to support a second Harpy. A character must gain the support of a majority of the Prisci who 
  are not also Primogen to be named their Harpy. If a majority of such Prisci cannot agree, they 
  cannot name a Harpy. No Priscus can serve as a Harpy.
  • The Prisci’s Harpy: Once selected by the Prisci, their Harpy retains her own Status dots 
  and gains Status points equal to the highest City Status among the Prisci supporting her (even 
  if that means having more points than dots). She can spend them to grant and remove City 
  Status dots to and from others in the domain, and can also act as an arbiter of prestation (see 
  p. 295). The Prisci’s Harpy cannot serve as Prince, Priscus or a Primogen. 
  • The Master of Elysium: The Master of Elysium has no City Status points of his own, 
  but can remove dots from Kindred who perpetrate violence within Elysium or who otherwise 
  violate the institution. He does so at his sole discretion and may remove up to one dot per 
  week from any single Kindred (and may do so to as many Kindred as he sees ﬁ t as long as 
  they have violated Elysium in some manner). The Master of Elysium can remove a Kindred’s 
  last dot of City of Status in this manner.
  THE CASE OF BLOOD HUNTS
  The Prince can call a blood hunt on any Kindred in his domain. Doing so temporarily 
  removes all of the subject’s City Status dots until the matter is settled — usually with the target’s 
  destruction. The Prince (or his successor) can reinstate a hunted character’s City Status (thus 
  ending the hunt) at his discretion and at no cost in Status points. 
  The succession of a new Prince (whether through peaceful means or not) immediately ends all 
  ongoing blood hunts, unless the new Prince explicitly announces any of them to be still active. This 
  does mean that one way out of a blood hunt is to eliminate the Prince, although a formerly hunted 
  Kindred publicly revealed to have ended the hunt by such means immediately loses all of his City 
  Status dots. These dots return after a full year has passed since the revelation. Note that the hunt 
  on such an offending character is not restored, but the current Prince can call a new one.
  A Primogen or Priscus can effectively call a blood hunt on a character who doesn’t have 
  any dots in City Status (who thus doesn’t enjoy the Prince’s ofﬁ cial protection). If the Prince 
  disapproves, however, he may take steps to protect the target and punish the Primogen or 
  Priscus (perhaps by granting and stripping Status dots as appropriate).
  THE PASSAGE OF TIME
  City Status is highly contingent on remaining socially active in a domain. A Kindred who 
  has been present at every ball and court or whose name comes up a great deal is likely to 
  have signiﬁ cant standing. Conversely, one who vanishes from sight for months on end or 
  who slips into torpor sees her position erode very quickly.
  • Activity: For every 12 consecutive calendar months that a Kindred has been active in a par-
  ticular domain, acknowledged by its Prince, and has called it her home domain, she gains a dot of 
  City Status. This automatic gain can never raise City Status above 3 and does not apply if the Prince 
  refuses to grant acknowledgment. A Kindred may consider only one place her home domain.
  • Inactivity: A Kindred who is not visibly active in her home domain for six months has her 
  City Status halved (round down). Remaining inactive for another six months results in another 
  halving, and so on. Long-gone Kindred become irrelevant and are forgotten in the fog of time.
  
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  The Storyteller overseeing the domain determines activity. If a player attends a game in 
  character, that character is clearly active. Posting on in-character mailing lists or other remote 
  activities may also qualify at the Storyteller’s discretion. Players can maintain several characters 
  so long as activity requirements for each are upheld.
  ADJUDICATING STATUS CHANGES
  City Status is very ﬂ uid and changes largely at the discretion of the players portraying the 
  Prince and Harpies. Storytellers always have the right to step in if they feel an ofﬁ cial’s player 
  is being abusive, however. Favoritism and pettiness among characters is altogether appropri-
  ate, but is unwelcome among players. To help players and Storytellers adjudicate when an 
  increase or decrease in City Status is justiﬁ ed, the following table presents a series of sins and 
  praiseworthy deeds ranked by dots in the Merit. 
  In general, Princes and Harpies are justiﬁ ed in stripping City Status from characters who 
  commit sins at their rank of City Status or below. Meanwhile, a character who regularly does 
  a praiseworthy deed of a rank higher than his current City Status can qualify for an increase. 
  Avoiding sins and praiseworthy deeds can also justify changes in Status. Those who stalwartly 
  avoid Status sins (especially those above their current rating) may be worthy of an increase, 
  while those who fail to accomplish the deeds associated with their current dots or below may 
  well be in for a loss of Status. As always, individual judgment should come into play.
  When referring to these tables, Storytellers and players can take into account the bonus 
  City Status dots awarded by eminence or ascendancy. Members of a city’s leading clan or 
  covenant gain extra standing, but they must also hold themselves to high standards.
  Example: Santini the Nosferatu has City Status 4 and is thus a very important member of the domain. 
  He ﬁ nds out that the Daeva have organized a party, inviting all the local Ventrue and Mekhet — but 
  no Nosferatu or Gangrel. Annoyed at this display of snobbery, Santini crashes the party, appearing with 
  a number of uninvited guests, and proceeds to let them trash the place — tipping over tables, prodding 
  guests into frenzy, and so on. The Prince’s Harpy, outraged that someone who is held in such high esteem 
  would dare act so boorishly, strips him of a point of City Status right then and there (since “Actively 
  disrupting a gathering of the area Kindred” applies). The Harpy doesn’t think in terms of “Santini 
  committed a level-4 sin,” but rather states that “Santini didn’t display the grace expected from one held 
  in such high esteem in the domain.” 
  the case of blood hunts • the passage of time • adjudicating status changes
  3.13 — SINS AGAINST THE CITY
  Status 
  Deeds
  ••••• 
  Speaking ill of the city or its leadership in public
  •••• 
  Failing to attend regular gatherings of the local undead; actively 
  disrupting a gathering of the local Kindred
  ••• 
  Hindering a local industry or resource; killing a local mortal in a sus-
  picious manner without good cause; a Prince and Harpy exchanging 
  City Status awards with one another more than once a year; ordering 
  about or sanctioning a Sanctiﬁ ed character when the Lancea Sanctum is 
  ascendant (unless the one doing the ordering is Sanctiﬁ ed, a Prince or 
  a Harpy, see p. 292); refusing to change one’s vote among the Prisci or 
  Primogen as a result of Nosferatu or Ventrue eminence (see p. 293)
  •• 
  Accidental public violations of the Traditions; deliberate private viola-
  tions of the Traditions; murdering prominent local mortals without 
  dire need; actively disobeying city elders
  • 
  Deliberate public violations of the Traditions; wanton slaying of 
  mortals or destruction of property; betraying resident Kindred to 
  outsiders (Lupines, foreign vampires)
  
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  CLAN EMINENCE AND COVENANT ASCENDANCY
  Whereas Clan and Covenant Status measure an individual’s standing within a lineage or 
  society of the Damned, eminence and ascendancy measure a faction’s overall position within 
  a domain. Being a prominent member of the Circle of the Crone won’t grant much local 
  inﬂ uence if the domain as a whole is caught in the iron-gloved ﬁ st of the Lancea Sanctum.
  The eminence of clans and ascendancy of covenants is measured by the sum total of all the 
  City Status dots of active members of those groups. Those clans and covenants in the best 
  positions — wielding the most inﬂ uence — gain beneﬁ ts. 
  At the beginning of every calendar month, the domain’s chief Storyteller tallies the City 
  Status dots of every character who has been active in the previous month (see above for deﬁ ni-
  tion of active) to determine the relative inﬂ uence of each clan and covenant. The Storyteller 
  uses the following guidelines:
  • An individual character’s City Status dots count toward the tallies of both her clan and 
  covenant (they are not split between the two, both get all the dots). 
  • The City Status of characters in a bloodline is counted in their parent clan’s total.
  • The City Status of characters acting as inﬁ ltrators and impersonators is counted in the 
  impersonated clan or covenant’s total.
  • The unaligned are considered a sixth covenant that can (very rarely) be ascendant.
  • City Status dots earned by a character as a bonus for being in the previous month’s 
  eminent clan or ascendant covenant do not count in this tally.
  • Any gains or losses of City Status dots imposed by the Prince, Harpies or Master of 
  Elysium affect this tally. 
  • The Prince and Harpies’ Status points do not factor into this count.
  • If a player has multiple active characters in play, only her primary or main character is 
  involved in the tally; all others are ignored. 
  • Storyteller characters do not factor into this tally — only active characters portrayed by 
  players do.
  Once this tally is complete, the ﬁ ve clans and the ﬁ ve (or six) covenants are all ranked in rela-
  tive inﬂ uence. The two top-ranked clans are termed the eminent and rival clans, respectively. 
  The two top-ranked covenants are termed the ascendant and contender covenants. (Kindred 
  can and do use these terms to refer to the overall standing of their clans and covenants.)
  EMINENT/ASCENDANT BONUS
  The eminent clan and ascendant covenant receives several beneﬁ ts. First, all members 
  receive a number of bonus dots of City Status based on the total number of active members 
  in the domain. 
  3.14 — PRAISEWORTHY DEEDS FOR THE CITY
  Status 
  Deeds
  ••••• 
  Signiﬁ cantly expanding the city’s overall power, resources or reputa-
  tion; assuming a position of leadership in the city
  •••• 
  Expanding the city’s overall power, resources or reputation in a minor 
  way; removing a signiﬁ cant obstacle or threat to local Kindred
  ••• 
  Devising and implementing plans that further the goals of city elders; 
  carrying out speciﬁ c plans beyond the norm on behalf of city elders
  •• 
  Actively promoting loyalty to the city’s elders; obeying the edicts of 
  all city elders
  • 
  Defending the city against outside threats; regularly attending local 
  Kindred functions (without being disruptive)
  
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  These bonus dots are the same as those earned in any other way (and grant the Prince and 
  Harpies additional Status points if appropriate), but do not count in the next month’s tally. 
  They vanish on the last night of the month and are recalculated on the ﬁ rst of every new 
  month. The bonuses do not travel at all (see p. 283). 
  Each character is likely to be part of both a clan and covenant and can beneﬁ t from a City 
  Status bonus from both his clan and covenant in the same month. The modiﬁ ers are cumula-
  tive. These bonuses can bring a character’s City Status above 5 for the month, but characters 
  with such inﬂ ated Status dots do not count toward the normal limits on the number of 
  Kindred at City Status 4 and 5 in a single domain (see p. 286).
  ASCENDANT COVENANT BENEFITS
  When a covenant achieves ascendancy, it is the dominant socio-political entity in a domain. 
  Its ideology, organization and administrative methods imprint themselves on the city, and 
  members ﬁ nd it easier to obtain certain common beneﬁ ts from being in charge.
  Ascendant covenant and eminent clan beneﬁ ts (see below) are cumulative — a single char-
  acter can beneﬁ t from both in the same month. If they ever come into conﬂ ict, the covenant 
  beneﬁ t always takes precedence.
  • The Carthian Movement: Ascendant Carthians ﬁ nd it easy to interact with the mortal 
  world and co-exist with the mortals in the domain. By calling in a favor or otherwise greasing 
  mortal wheels, Carthians can ﬁ nd an improvised haven somewhere in the city on very short 
  notice, not needing to return to their normal homes. They cannot be left without a shelter 
  unless they are taken outside the city. Such improvised havens do not grant any of the beneﬁ ts 
  of the Haven Merit, however.
  Once per month, every ascendant Carthian can also call on her resources to attract a small 
  crowd of mortals (between 8 and 15 people, depending on how many would be available in 
  the area). These humans help out in an activity of the Carthian’s choice, whether staging a 
  protest outside an elder’s haven or building a simple structure for a community group, so 
  long as the activity is fairly innocuous and in line with the Carthian’s rhetoric. This activity 
  cannot involve anything immediately illegal beyond what might be expected of non-violent 
  protesters. A sit-in is reasonable, but an armed uprising or robbery is not. The mortals also 
  have no particular loyalty to the Carthian in question, so do not risk their lives or a lengthy 
  jail sentence unless other means are used to convince them.
  • The Circle of the Crone: Circle members ﬁ nd it very easy to develop small groups of mortal 
  followers. Most of these people are typically convinced that they’re involved in nothing more 
  than a pagan worship circle. By making requests for help in ritual research or observances, a 
  Circle member can use these mortals to help out with large rites (provided they don’t violate the 
  Masquerade), or to perform tedious and mundane research and acquisition of materials involved 
  in rites. Ascendant Acolytes thus gain the equivalent of two dots of the Allies Merit in the ﬁ eld 
  most useful to pursuing their research. So, an Acolyte whose occult studies focus on the lessons 
  of the plant world might gain an Ally in the park service or the city’s botanical garden. This is a 
  separate instance of the Allies Merit and does not combine with any similar Merits a character 
  may already have. This Merit cannot be used for tasks that are overtly supernatural or illegal. 
  clan eminence and covenant ascendancy • ascendant covenant beneﬁ ts
  3.15 — EMINENT/ASCENDANT BONUS TO CITY STATUS
  Active Members 
  Bonus
  1-4 
  No Bonus
  5-9 
  +1 City Status
  10-19 
  +2 City Status
  20+ 
  +3 City Status
  
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  While engaged in rituals and similar observations, Acolytes also gather great spiritual 
  strength from their faith. The knowledge that their covenant is dominant in a city — rep-
  resented by ascendant status — strengthens the faith of those in the Circle of the Crone, 
  allowing each member to regain a spent point of Willpower each week as they perform their 
  rituals (during downtime).
  • The Invictus: When the Invictus is ascendant, members of the First Estate are protected 
  from the vampiric games of rumor and innuendo. An Invictus Prince cannot lose any City 
  Status dots during a month in which his covenant is ascendant, and Harpies who are not 
  themselves members of the First Estate must spend three points of Status for every dot of 
  City Status they wish to remove from a member of the Invictus. Finally, no member of the 
  Invictus can have his last dot of City Status stripped from him, unless the Prince or Master 
  of Elysium doing so is herself a member of the covenant.
  • The Lancea Sanctum: When the Lancea Sanctum is ascendant, the covenant’s deep-seated 
  belief in the righteousness of its cause combines with its inﬂ uence in the city to strengthen 
  the Sanctiﬁ ed ability to carry on the ﬁ ght. Once per week, a Sanctiﬁ ed character may pray 
  to Longinus and regain a spent point of Willpower. This prayer takes a full minute if done 
  during a game session and approximately an hour if performed during downtime. 
  In a city where the Lancea Sanctum is ascendant, all Sanctiﬁ ed characters are further 
  considered exempt from the authority of all Kindred ofﬁ cers save the Prince and Harpies 
  — unless the ofﬁ cer in question is also Sanctiﬁ ed. The Master of Elysium cannot strip covenant 
  members of City Status and the Sheriff cannot order them about. This exemption doesn’t 
  provide any supernatural protection — it is merely considered unthinkable (and a sin against 
  the city, see p. 289) to attack an ascendant Sanctiﬁ ed. 
  • The Ordo Dracul: When the Ordo Dracul is ascendant, the Dragons’ conﬁ dence in their 
  mystical abilities and the supremacy of their territory is so unshakeable that they are socially 
  unﬂ appable. For every dot of City Status she has at the beginning of the month (before any 
  ascendancy bonus), a Dragon may ignore the result of a single Social (instant or extended) 
  action performed against her that is not supernatural in nature. 
  What’s more, each Dragon can select a discreet territory (no more than a few city blocks) 
  and claim it as her personal ﬁ efdom when the covenant is ascendant. The Dragon effectively 
  becomes regent of the area. Others who hunt there must either pay some tribute or leave 
  at the Dragon’s discretion. The Dragon may not lay claim to a place already claimed by an-
  other unless she has a higher City Status (after the ascendancy bonus). The Ordo normally 
  uses this privilege to ensure that members have access to all the best wyrm nests at which to 
  perform their mystic rites, though it has certainly seen more petty application. When the 
  covenant falls from ascendancy, all claims to territories are lost unless individual Dragons 
  can defend them.
  • The Unaligned: Should the unaligned somehow become ascendant, the domain is ef-
  fectively an outlaw paradise. Until they cease being ascendant, no boons involving members 
  of that domain are valid. Other Kindred recognize the lawlessness of the domain and the 
  futility of expecting the Traditions or Elysium to be upheld.
  EMINENT CLAN BENEFITS
  Kindred in the eminent clan gain more than an increase in Status. They gain access to 
  certain special, unique resources.
  • Clan Daeva: Daeva almost never fail to get invitations to the most exclusive parties, 
  and as a matter of course, eminent Daeva are automatically welcome at any social occasion 
  — either mortal or undead — that they wish to attend. 
  
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  Sometimes the most useful invitations, however, are to the sorts of soirees where emo-
  tions run high, intoxicants ﬂ ow freely and no one is likely to notice a bit of indiscretion in a 
  dark corner. If the Daeva are eminent, Succubi are never considered without a ready source 
  of blood in their home city and require no tests to hunt to full capacity during downtime. 
  Unless a Daeva character is under particular pressure, she begins a session of play with her 
  full capacity of Vitae.
  One game session per month, a player of a Daeva character may also send her character 
  out of play for a full hour and return with her maximum capacity of Vitae. The character 
  must not be followed or otherwise molested for this effect to function and the player must 
  stay out of the game for a full hour.
  • Clan Gangrel: When the clan is eminent, the Gangrel effectively turn their combination 
  of human wariness and animal cunning toward the games of politics. This makes it very dif-
  ﬁ cult to trap, surprise or isolate them in Kindred society. The Prince, the Master of Elysium, 
  nor anyone else can strip a Gangrel of her ﬁ nal dot of City Status. The Prince can still call a 
  blood hunt, however. What’s more, any attempt to gain all but the most obvious and public 
  information about a Gangrel through use of the Animalism Discipline fails automatically. 
  Once per month, a Gangrel’s player may ask the Storyteller if a situation his character is about 
  to enter appears to be a trap. Only direct attacks or uses of supernatural powers targeted at the 
  Gangrel are detected as “traps” for the purpose of this beneﬁ t. Attempts to lure the Gangrel 
  into a socially scandalous situation are not detected, for example, nor are meetings that are 
  designed to weaken the Gangrel politically.
  • Clan Mekhet: When the Mekhet are eminent, the Shadows’ knowledge of secrets and 
  sharing of useful information achieves a high. Each resident Mekhet receives a number of 
  free information snippets about other members of the domain equal to her City Status. The 
  player should ask for this information from a Storyteller. This information is restricted to a 
  subject’s dots in certain social Merits: Resources, Status (each type counts as a separate snip-
  pet), Herd and Retainer. A Mekhet can learn a character’s dots in Clan Status or Covenant 
  Status, even if the Mekhet isn’t part of the clan or covenant in question.
  Example: Elijah is a Mekhet with City Status 3 and his clan is eminent this month. He learns the 
  Lancea Sanctum Status of a zealot who has made his existence hell, the wealth (Resources dots) of his 
  Ventrue ally Javier, and the Nosferatu Status of Javier’s enforcer Cross. All this could be very useful 
  information, indeed.
  • Clan Nosferatu: When his clan is eminent, the Nosferatu Priscus may use his clout to 
  force a single other Priscus to abstain from voting in any matter to be settled by the assembled 
  Prisci (such as naming a Harpy). A Nosferatu recognized as a Primogen may do the same in a 
  meeting of the Primogen council. Refusal to abstain is a sin against the city (see p. 289) and 
  usually results in punishment from the Harpy or Prince. This ability can be used only once 
  per targeted Kindred per meeting.
  In addition, the city’s Nosferatu gain effective regency over the sewer system, so any clan 
  member may travel unseen to most urban locations, as well as safely go to ground from most 
  city locations. The Nosferatu Priscus may extend this free passage to any number of Kindred 
  from other clans in the domain, but must do so explicitly and in such a way as the rest of 
  the clan is aware of it. Nosferatu (but not other allowed Kindred) automatically succeed in 
  feeding attempts in the sewers during downtime (so long as they feed on animals or mortals), 
  but not during a game.
  • Clan Ventrue: When his clan is eminent, the Ventrue Priscus may demand to change 
  the vote of another Priscus in any Prisci votes. A Ventrue Primogen may do the same on 
  the Primogen council. Refusal to change one’s vote is a sin against the city (see p. 289) and 
  ascendant covenants beneﬁ ts • eminent clan beneﬁ ts
  
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  usually results in punishment by a Harpy or the Prince. This ability can be used only once 
  per targeted Kindred per meeting.
  In addition, Harpies may remove only a single City Status dot from the Prince (if a Ventrue), 
  the Ventrue Priscus, and the Ventrue with the highest City Status sitting on the council of Pri-
  mogen (if any). Harpies may remove only one dot from each over the course of the month.
  Finally, any dots in the Resources Merit held by a Ventrue character are largely inviolate 
  while the clan in eminent. The actions of other characters cannot reduce an eminent Ventrue’s 
  wealth. (The Storyteller adjudicates this, telling others who attempt to undermine a Ventrue’s 
  wealth that their efforts fail.) 
  CONTENDER/RIVAL BENEFITS
  Being the member of a group that is perceived as the legitimate threat to the throne has 
  its beneﬁ ts. Above all, it is harder for the powers that be to act against you. The members of 
  a contender covenant and rival clan are thus somewhat protected from their ascendant and 
  eminent opponents.
  If an ascendant or eminent Prince or Harpy wants to remove a dot of City Status from a 
  contender or rival Kindred, he must spend twice the Status points he normally would. This 
  usually means spending two points per dot, but this effect can combine with the protections 
  offered by some clans and covenants. This extra cost applies even when crossing clan/cov-
  enant lines — a Harpy of the ascendant Invictus still ﬁ nds it more challenging to put a rival 
  Ventrue in his place. 
  PRESTATION
  Boons are a means of openly formalizing agreements of debt between Kindred; the system of 
  boons is known as prestation. Owing a boon is a formal acknowledgment that one Kindred owes 
  another a service. When and how that service is performed is at the discretion of the Kindred 
  holding the boon (i.e. to whom the favor is owed), within the limits of the type of boon.
  BOON TYPES
  Prestation is a very formal affair among most Kindred and boons come in different types. 
  Each type reﬂ ects the importance of the favor that creates the debt; repaying a boon requires 
  an act of similar weight. Kindred revealed to have engineered dangerous situations — either 
  to vampiric survival or to the Traditions — to attain boons are likely to see those boons 
  invalidated by a Harpy.
  • The simplest type is a trivial boon, which represents a minor favor. Examples include an 
  introduction to an inﬂ uential Kindred or granting feeding rights for a short period.
  • A minor boon denotes a notable favor, such as protecting or saving a treasured property 
  or valuable Retainer, or granting feeding rights for some time. A minor boon is roughly 
  equivalent to three trivial boons. 
  • A major boon represents a considerable favor, such as protection from near destruction or 
  a long period of service above and beyond the call of duty. It is roughly equivalent to three 
  minor boons.
  • Above all stands the life boon, which is granted only in the most extreme cases — usually 
  when a Kindred saves the existence of another without having any formal obligation to do 
  so. Allies don’t owe each other life boons; such a debt is owed only under exceptional circum-
  stances. A life boon cannot usually be repaid through multiple lesser boons. 
  DISPUTES AND FORMALITIES
  Kindred who owe each other any sort of debt often seek to formalize it by having a Harpy 
  record the type of boon owed, which is then made known to the Harpy (or Harpies) of any 
  
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  city where the Kindred in question intend to reside for an extended period. This procedure 
  protects the vampires involved as the Harpy acts as arbiter. When disputes arise, the Harpy 
  decides whether a particular service is appropriate to repaying a favor and can act (using 
  her Status points, see p. 286) to punish an offending party. A Harpy usually acts to compel 
  those who refuse to repay boons owed, but can also restrain those who demand service out 
  of proportion with what they are owed. 
  Kindred holding or owing boons can petition the Prince in deﬁ ance of a Harpy, although 
  doing so is usually only likely to lead to complication or embarrassment. Harpies and Princes 
  cannot arbitrate boons that they hold or owe; those matters are supervised by another 
  Harpy.
  The boons of blood-hunted Kindred are voided until the blood hunt is either called off 
  or they are destroyed.
  TRANSFERRING BOONS
  A Kindred who holds a boon (to whom a favor is owed) may transfer it to another Kindred. 
  Such a change is usually done to repay a debt owed to the recipient or to incur a debt from 
  him, but can also be a particularly vicious means of bringing someone into disrepute. While a 
  Sanctiﬁ ed Cardinal may not object to owing a boon to a member of the First Estate, the debt 
  might be shameful if it was known that the Invictus transferred the boon to a Hierophant 
  of the Circle of the Crone. Domains that do not honor boons are considered disreputable, 
  usually held by revolutionaries or the unaligned. 
  If a Kindred owing boons is destroyed or sent to torpor for a very long time without having 
  been guilty of a vampiric crime, the holders of the boons may justiﬁ ably petition the Harpies 
  to transfer those boons to any Kindred who put the unfortunate vampire down.
  Example: Cornell holds a minor boon and a major boon over Barnard. One night, Barnard 
  accidentally interrupts Emilio and Madryn as they are feeding. As a result of their ensuing frenzy, Barnard 
  enters torpor. Cornell demands that the boons he is owed — which are now useless — be transferred. The 
  Harpy agrees, ruling that Madryn owes Cornell a major boon, and Emilio owes him a minor one.
  contender/rival beneﬁ ts • prestation
  
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  Chapter Four: 
  Storytelling
  Ex Lungeum Leorum
  (Know a lion by its claw)
  —Latin proverb
  ng
  
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  Knowing the proper application of the rules for a Mind’s Eye Theatre session is only 
  part of the process for putting together a truly memorable and immersing experience. Some 
  might even argue that the rules are actually the least important part of successfully holding 
  such an event. 
  By now you are familiar with the mechanics of adjudicating a game session. You are pre-
  pared to handle combat situations, rules altercations and properly judge whether the actions 
  of the player’s characters succeed or fail in a fair and just manner. But what comes next is 
  the understanding of how to craft a grand story around the bare skeleton of those rules. And 
  that’s really the heart of any chronicle — the story itself.
  Speciﬁ cally, these stories center on the society and nightly affairs of the walking dead. They 
  are stories about a relentless hunger that makes you a monster. It’s about having power and 
  control over others, but ultimately not over yourself. Oh, it’s true that these characters can 
  concentrate their abilities into some really amazing feats, but in the end they are all just slaves 
  to that hunger that never really leaves them. Despite the fancy clothes, calm demeanors and 
  secrets within secrets, they all hear the call of their own monstrous hunger. In order to distract 
  themselves from that gnawing need they imbed themselves in a world of secrets, madness 
  and treachery. These are stories about making choices when none of your options are good, 
  safe or easy. Most of all, it’s a story you don’t tell by yourself. You tell it in partnership with 
  other players. One of you takes the role of Storyteller, but all of you work together to make 
  the story complete.
  The Requiem is subtitled, “A Modern Gothic Live-Action Storytelling Game.” This chapter 
  serves as a guide to you on how to run such a game. Storytellers have the most need to read this 
  chapter, of course, but some topics most deﬁ nitely will concern conscientious players, too.
  The Mind’s Eye Theatre core book already told you what a Storytelling game is. So, what 
  is a “Modern Gothic Storytelling Game”?
  The concept of what makes a good horror story has shifted with exposure to present day 
  media. Most commonly what is labeled as “horror” comes in the form of the blood-splatter-
  ing shocks such as those presented in a modern slasher movie. For the purposes of this game 
  setting, however, it is important to remember that horror also applies to the eerie mysteries of 
  a classic ghost story. The Requiem can incorporate any sort of horror, but the game focuses 
  on what is commonly referred to as gothic horror. For our purposes what this represents 
  is a more personal sense of horror and revulsion. It is not being momentarily startled as a 
  hooded man with an axe jumps out of the closet, but rather the horror whose source is one’s 
  own deeds, of one’s own self. 
  In most horror stories, the protagonists are victims. Something bad happens to them; you’re 
  scared on their behalf. They innocently wander into a situation that places them in some 
  sort of physical or emotional danger, most often at the hands of some sort of supernatural 
  force. In The Requiem’s particular brand of gothic horror, characters ﬁ ll the roles of victim 
  and monster at the same time. They do the bad things and suffer the consequences, or they 
  try not to do bad things, and suffer the consequences of that choice. The personal horror 
  of The Requiem is about realizing, beyond all doubt, that you are the monster. (Or at least 
  your character is!)
  You can tell all kinds of stories in a Requiem chronicle. There are others themes to these 
  stories that can range from dark romance to gritty war stories. Your stories, however, should 
  offer characters a chance to discover just how difﬁ cult their existence as Kindred can become, 
  especially if they are seeking to tame their dark appetite. It is their payment for the abilities 
  they can possess — it is the cost of immortality. Can the characters withstand the hunger and 
  rage of the Beast and still function within the ruthless demands of Kindred society? Can they 
  
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  maintain some moral standard when no mortal law can bind them and the Beast constantly 
  goads them to assault and murder? If they do chose to give in to their dark urges and throw 
  away all sense of conscience, what will be left to keep them from sliding down into a feral 
  state that renders them no better than a rabid animal? Even if characters can afﬁ rm their 
  humanity this time, well, there’s always tomorrow night, the night after that, and the night 
  after that…
  Forever.
  Getting Started
  As Storyteller, you create a dark reﬂ ection of the real world for the players’ characters to 
  inhabit, including all the other people they meet and the locations they may visit. You also 
  help guide the stream of events that these characters will ﬁ nd themselves confronted with 
  and present the challenges they must inevitably overcome. This can sometimes seem like a 
  daunting task given how much effort can be involved. Fortunately, you don’t have to create 
  it all at once. 
  The Requiem presumes that most stories take place within one metropolitan area. This 
  location serves as the launching point and active staging ground for your stories. So in the 
  beginning, you don’t have to worry about Kindred, mortals or other supernatural creatures 
  elsewhere in the world. For now, you only have to concern yourself with the little pieces of 
  the world that affect the characters involved in your game setting — and for Kindred, that’s 
  a lot less than it is for most mortals.
  Even more fortunately, your players can help. Once a chronicle begins, every choice the 
  characters make has consequences, good and bad, that can spark new stories. If you’ve managed 
  to fully engage the players’ interests, they’ll move beyond reacting to situations you create, to 
  initiating stories themselves. It’s when this interactive element comes into play that a chronicle 
  truly becomes a shared work of Storytelling — and, very probably, the most fun.
  Building the story that serves as the framework for your chronicle starts with discussions 
  with your players. What sort of chronicle do they want? Personal horror and a modern-gothic 
  setting permit a wide variety of different plots and styles of play. A Requiem chronicle can 
  range from a desperate struggle against implacable, marauding Lupines to elegant intrigue 
  in Elysium. Do the characters want espionage, mystery, love stories, black comedy? Do they 
  want to play neonates (the default chronicle), elders among the Primogen or something else? 
  Does any aspect of the game or setting especially appeal to them? There’s no point in running 
  a chronicle that bores or irritates your players.
  PLAYER SURVEYS
  When attempting to write a Requiem chronicle, one of the ﬁ rst things to consider 
  is what type of game your players would prefer. There is no sense in preparing a 
  chronicle centered around murky conspiracies and political intrigue if most of your 
  players are looking to explore the morality of undeath or throw down against some 
  rival Kindred. So how does a Storyteller get a sense of what the players are looking 
  for? As discussed in Mind’s Eye Theatre, one method is to hand out a survey. It is a 
  simple and reliable method of learning what your troupe wants without having to 
  sit down and interview each player. There are many different types of stories that can 
  be covered in a Requiem chronicle, and while you can’t please everyone, you can at 
  least get an idea of the sort of game your players are expecting.
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  In addition to the categories presented in Mind’s Eye Theatre, you may wish to 
  add or replace some Kindred-speciﬁ c categories such as: “The Struggle Against the 
  Beast,” “Internal City Politics” and “Vampiric History.” Another category that might 
  deserve special addition for Requiem chronicles (and perhaps Mind’s Eye Theatre 
  in general) is “Player vs. Player.” Quite simply, some players love competing against 
  their friends in a game environment, while others would rather focus on external 
  threats and battling Narrator characters instead. The Requiem can easily become 
  extremely cutthroat in ways that some players love but others ﬁ nd uncomfortable, 
  so don’t underestimate the importance of this question. If a lot of the players enjoy 
  being pitted against each other, they’re likely to be ﬁ ne with a chronicle that revolves 
  around wresting control of the city from other players. If most of the players would 
  rather go up against Narrator characters, you could run the same story and simply 
  put all the players on the same side against a Narrator faction. 
  If your players have previous knowledge of The Requiem you might inquire as to 
  which clans, covenants and political factions appeal to them the most (and least). Cover 
  some of the themes that go along with The Requiem, perhaps asking players to choose 
  one or two they’d like to see the most. Also, a player survey is an excellent place to 
  put a space for players to list any kinds of topics or stories they ﬁ nd uncomfortable 
  or objectionable.
  Remember, this isn’t an examination to get into a university, but rather a poll of 
  your player’s interests in regards to the Danse Macabre. Keep your list of questions 
  short, but urge your players to take your survey seriously. After all, this is helping to 
  personalize the game to best entertain them. It’s in their best interests to be forthright 
  and thoughtful. 
  Also, another consideration to keep in mind in the early planning stage is how long a 
  chronicle you and your players want. A short chronicle of four to six episodes demands quite 
  different planning than a chronicle meant to continue indeﬁ nitely, through dozens of sessions 
  and multiple story arcs. In a story with a prior set limited running time, the players might try 
  to give their characters every trait, Merit and personality quirk right away since the chronicle 
  won’t have many opportunities to grow and change. On the other hand, players might gener-
  ate more singularly focused characters, with less attention paid to their chances of surviving 
  a long chronicle. As a Storyteller, meanwhile, you need to devise plots with clearly deﬁ ned 
  endings. While some loose ends might exist, your own characters and story elements need to 
  make an impression quickly. They might not be on your imaginary stage very long.
  Once you have some idea of what sort of chronicle you plan to run, you can ﬂ esh out 
  vague notions into characters, a setting, plots, a theme and other details. Remember, if you 
  are planning on maintaining a staff of Narrators and Assistant Storytellers, seek their input 
  in this process. Different perspectives are extremely useful in plotting out a long running 
  story that will maintain the interest of its players. 
  You might start with a particular theme, and choose plots to illustrate it; you might begin 
  with a character or set of characters, and build the chronicle around them. Sometimes it’s 
  best to simply start with a strong visual image that captures the essence of what you want your 
  story to be about: A vampiric lord of a city whose normally casual demeanor begins showing 
  signs of a growing insanity. A circle of malcontents meeting and conspiring in hushed tones 
  in a crowded bar surrounded by unsuspecting mortals. A revel of the undead — showcasing 
  the contrast of the twisted hypocrisy of displaying polite behavior among blood thirsty mon-
  sters.  Don’t be too quick to settle on just one idea, either. A good method of helping plot 
  out events is to just jot down ideas as your fancy wanders, and look for connections between 
  them. Brainstorm with a list of images that best reﬂ ect what you want to see in your story. 
  Eventually, bits of inspiration will coalesce and you will know what your chronicle is about.
  
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  PERSONAS — WHO WILL JOIN THE DANCE?
  Your players’ characters are the most important part of the chronicle. What sorts of char-
  acters do they want to play? How can you assist them in polishing their ideas? How do they 
  relate to the ideas you have percolating?
  As an example, let’s suppose you want to build your chronicle around the meteoric rise 
  and equally spectacular fall of a vampire Prince in a large city. You envision the characters as 
  hip-deep in the political intrigue surrounding the Prince’s career, with themes of treachery 
  and the corruption of power. One of your players, however, has her heart set on playing a 
  member of the clan of Nosferatu who’s chieﬂ y interested in protecting his mortal family 
  (without letting them see him, no less), while another player wants to play an apolitical Me-
  khet who seeks mystical enlightenment through the Circle of the Crone. Neither seems very 
  compatible with your concept. So what is to be done? 
  First, you shouldn’t force the players to abandon characters they love and play characters 
  they don’t want. This statement certainly ties into the earlier topics of polling your players 
  for their thoughts during the planning stages of your chronicle. You want players to become 
  your co-creators, not passive or resentful spectators.
  So negotiate. Maybe you can shift the emphasis of your chronicle, so the Prince’s rise and 
  fall plays out in the background and the characters deal with its side effects. Perhaps the 
  central challenge that faces the characters is to avoid the machinations of the elders so they 
  can pursue their personal goals. Maybe, however, the players hadn’t fully considered how 
  their characters could become involved in politics, and they’ll adjust their characters to suit 
  the chronicle idea. The Nosferatu could be interested in the Prince’s rise if he sees a chance 
  to help his family through his political connections. The Mekhet could sympathize with a 
  Prince who is also involved in the membership to the Circle of the Crone. Mature players 
  usually want some notion of a chronicle’s premise so they can create characters that are suited 
  for the story. This sort of give-and-take helps both sides, as players and Storyteller get a better 
  idea of who will take part in the chronicle and what they will do.
  This process of cross-fertilizing ideas continues as the players write up their characters and 
  ﬂ esh out the details of their personalities, backgrounds and social connections. As they build 
  characters, you build a world the characters can inhabit. At the same time, you can help sug-
  gest ways the characters might ﬁ t into your world.
  For instance, suppose one of your players wants her character to have been some sort of 
  government agent before his Embrace — something in law enforcement, but maybe espionage. 
  As you bounce ideas back and forth, you agree that an FBI agent in an organized crime task 
  force could ﬁ ll the bill: law enforcement, but with espionage too, thanks to undercover and 
  surveillance work. The player gives her character Allies and Contacts in the form of other FBI 
  agents, snitches and criminals who never knew he was really a G-man. The G-man character 
  also receives suitable Skills, such as Streetwise, Larceny, Subterfuge, Firearms, Academics (for 
  law) and Crafts (to use electronic surveillance gear).
  You, meanwhile, ponder how to ﬁ t an Embraced G-man into your chronicle. Perhaps one 
  of the city’s Primogen has secretly placed a mole inside the FBI task force and uses her to 
  gain information about a rival’s mob allies. That Primogen could be the character’s sire, using 
  him as part of his schemes to manipulate the task force. Or perhaps the character doesn’t 
  know about the Primogen’s subversion, and is in for a nasty shock when the elder Kindred 
  turns his ally against him! Perhaps the Primogen, or some other Kindred, plans to Embrace 
  another person on the task force, a friend from the character’s mortal days. Maybe someone 
  plans to Embrace a mobster who hates the character for sending him to jail.
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  As the player develops more details about the FBI task force, then, she does some of your 
  work for you. Each personality at the task force (or the criminals it builds cases against) 
  becomes another character for you to blend into your world, and another hook to draw the 
  character into stories. You gain allies for the character to protect, hide from, exploit, betray 
  or slaughter in frenzy; enemies to hunt him or to reconcile with him; rivals; potential helpers 
  — all story material waiting for you to use it.
  As the example suggests, Social Merits can play an important role in deﬁ ning a character 
  and providing impetus for stories. Newly Embraced neonates still have many connections 
  to their mortal existence they left behind, so encourage players to buy these Merits for their 
  characters. Brainstorm the details of each Merit and how the character acquired it. Why, 
  for instance, does a character have high Resources? Does she come from a wealthy family? 
  Did she make a fortune in business, or through some well-paid profession such as medicine 
  or law? Did she win the lottery? Does her money spring from darker sources, such as deal-
  ing drugs? Never let these Merits sit as abstract dots on a character sheet. Tie them back to 
  something concrete.
  Don’t forget to ask how the Embrace affected the character’s social connections. Did she 
  somehow keep her mortal friends, relatives or co-workers from realizing she became a vampire? 
  Does she maintain a completely false existence as a mortal, or does the world think she’s dead 
  and only a few people know she isn’t? (Well… not quite dead.)
  On the other hand, did the character try to walk away from her old existence, perhaps to 
  the extent of faking her death? If so, how does she feel about this break with everyone she 
  knows and loves? Can the character really stay away from her old home, family and friends, 
  maybe even a spouse and children? Yet how can she not, knowing what could happen if the 
  Hunger overwhelms her? Do the character’s loved ones accept her disappearance, or do they 
  try to ﬁ nd out what happened to her? Such broken connections offer their own opportunities 
  for wrenching drama, pathos and horror.
  Most dangerous of all, do some of her contacts, allies or other people know what she really 
  is? Such breaches of the Masquerade open wonderful Pandora’s boxes of story opportunities. 
  The character must prevent these people from telling anyone else. He must hide or defend 
  them from other Kindred who would kill them to keep the secret, or justify her own connec-
  tion to them. For their part, how do these other people react to learning that vampires are 
  real and the character is one of them? Does a person turn against the “monster,” freak out 
  some other way, try to ignore the character’s undeath or try to come to terms with it? Does 
  one ask to be made a vampire too, because he sees the power and none of the horror?
  Make sure that players don’t ignore the Embrace itself as part of their characters’ back-
  ground. It is important to emphasize to your players that the Kindred don’t sire childer lightly 
  or often. What made this particular mortal so important to one particular vampire that he 
  sacriﬁ ced part of his soul to bring her into the darkness? Such a deed suggests a great need 
  for the character’s abilities, great love… or great hatred. Odds are, the character dwells in the 
  same city as her sire, too. If not, the character (or sire) made an extraordinary and dangerous 
  effort to move to a different city. What drove the character to this desperate deed? Has she 
  found acceptance by other Kindred despite her lack of a sire to vouch for her? More likely, 
  though, the character’s sire still plays an important part in her unlife. Even if both of them 
  think the Embrace was a ghastly mistake and never want to see each other again, other Kin-
  dred see them as linked. Each character’s deeds reﬂ ect on the reputation of the other. Each 
  character’s enemies might oppose the other (and if the character and her sire are themselves 
  hostile, the opportunities for opposition, alliance and treachery between them and their 
  various enemies become downright Byzantine).
  
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  It’s always tempting to gloss over a character’s background and “get on with the plot,” so 
  the game can begin. Some players also feel reluctant to develop social or emotional connec-
  tions for their character, out of fear that those connections may be turned against them. To 
  be human, however, involves contact with other people. The struggle to hold onto a fading 
  humanity loses much of its poignancy and horror if no one else cares what happens to the 
  character, and she doesn’t care what happens to anyone else.
  Also, as a Storyteller, you should ﬁ nd a careful balance between keeping your players’ 
  characters involved in the story and showing too much favoritism. In the example mentioned 
  before, if your story focuses around the events of the local branch of the FBI then the character 
  with the background in that organization may seem to be getting too much attention. The 
  story may seem to be focusing too much on his background alone, and other players may be 
  resentful of such direct attention being given to just one player. There are a lot of voices in 
  your game, though, so don’t focus on just one or two.  
  As a Storyteller, do your best to spread the attention to backgrounds as evenly as possible. 
  Or connect certain backgrounds so that multiple players can be involved. Rely on your Nar-
  rator staff to assist you in keeping track of everything that is going to be involved. Or perhaps 
  assign speciﬁ c staff members to keep an eye on the activities of certain coteries so everyone 
  involved in the sessions can have a chance to shine.
  ONE COVENANT OR CLAN?
  You might ask your players if they want to use the full range of clans. A chronicle 
  in which the coterie draws members from any clan provides the “default setting” 
  for The Requiem, but coteries in which everyone belongs to the same clan have their 
  own points of interest. The same goes for covenants: A coterie can have members 
  from more than one covenant, if that’s what the players want, but a coterie that stays 
  within one covenant has possibilities too.
  For one thing, it allows you and a Storyteller an easy explanation for why the 
  characters came together and stay together. The players’ characters may be all the 
  neonates of that clan or covenant in the city, drawn together by shared inexperience 
  or pushed together by clan or covenant superiors who want them all in one group. 
  For instance, a coterie could consist of reclusive Ordo Dracul members who’ve formed 
  their own lodge to share their occult knowledge and collectively bargain with other 
  aspirants for tuition, or young Gangrel broodmates striving to wrest recognition of 
  their independence from hoary and corrupt elders of the covenants. It might even 
  serve as a mystery. Perhaps the characters all awake from their Embrace at the same 
  time, with no trace of the vampire who created them to be found. This is a departure 
  from the standard chronicle setting, but it provides an excellent reason for the players 
  to cooperate — at least in the beginning. 
  A coterie based on a single clan or covenant also gives your players a chance to delve 
  into the inner workings of that particular group and explore the range of possibilities 
  it holds. How many ways can one challenge the social order as a Carthian? How many 
  ways can one seek power as a Ventrue?
  A limited coterie may also help players who have trouble deciding on a character 
  concept, and helps players to get away from just the statistics of a character. Simply 
  saying, “Make a character” can overwhelm some players — the possibilities might 
  seem too wide. “Make a Daeva” or “Make an Invictus character” might help such 
  players, by giving them a clear point at which to begin.
  SETTING
  Where will you set your chronicle? Predators in nature follow the trail of their prey and 
  vampires are no different. The Kindred usually dwell in cities. The larger the city, then the 
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  more Kindred it can sustain. The size of the city and the amount of players in your story, 
  therefore, has implications for you’re where you are choosing to set your chronicle.
  Vast urban conglomerations such as New York, London or Mexico City might hold hun-
  dreds of Kindred, with every ofﬁ ce of vampire governance ﬁ lled. Every clan and covenant 
  has well-developed social structures with their own ofﬁ ces. No Kindred can claim to know 
  all other Kindred, though. The politics of the undead start to resemble old-time mortal 
  machine politics, with inﬂ uence brokers promising the support (or enmity) of whole groups 
  of Kindred, in return for largesse from the leaders. The characters must work to stand out 
  from their fellows. On the other hand, they may be able to hide out or forge an alliance with 
  a whole new faction if their current situation becomes too dangerous.
  There are some grand advantages to maintaining a large city as the center of your story.  
  The Storyteller can always justify some new character appearing in her chronicle. He just 
  moved from across town, or the characters just didn’t happen to meet him until now. Of 
  course, the characters don’t know if that stranger is telling the truth… unless they investigate 
  the stranger’s claimed background, which could be a whole story in itself.
  Second-tier cities such as Houston or Toronto sustain fewer Kindred, so the social structures 
  are sparser. A large percentage of the Kindred claim some sort of title, or else many ofﬁ ces go 
  unﬁ lled because they aren’t needed (this is often the case in smaller chronicles). Even if every 
  clan and covenant ﬁ nds representation, the numbers of Kindred within each group might be 
  low enough that clans and covenants need little internal organization. Individual personalities, 
  grudges and inﬂ uence can matter just as much as clan or covenant allegiance.
  Middle-sized cities offer sufﬁ cient scope for Byzantine Kindred intrigue, while not over-
  whelming the players’ characters. It’s easier to make a name for yourself when your coterie is 
  itself a noteworthy interest group. On the other hand, if every coterie is worth cultivating for 
  its support, every coterie is worth crushing, to deny its support to one’s rivals. The characters 
  also have little trouble learning about other Kindred in town.
  A third-tier city such as Las Vegas or Venice can support only a few dozen Kindred. Such cities 
  might not contain members of all the clans and covenants, which can make their societies highly 
  idiosyncratic. Actual clan and covenant politics hold little sway, however, compared to the personal 
  relationships between the Kindred. Everyone knows everyone else. This type of setting is an excel-
  lent choice for placing restrictions on clan or covenant in relation to character creation. 
  In a small city, the players’ characters form a major demographic of the Kindred popula-
  tion. This keeps the characters in the center of plots, but the setting could feel constricted in 
  play. If the players want to explore constantly evolving relationships between a limited cast 
  of characters, though, a small city can work just ﬁ ne.
  Give thought to the city’s age, too. In the New World, many major cities are less than a 
  century old. The ﬁ rst Kindred to settle in the city probably still dwell there and most other 
  Kindred are their descendants within two or three generations. The alliances and rivalries 
  between those founding Kindred probably still dominate undead politics.
  In the Old World, by contrast, many cities are very old indeed. London and Paris have been 
  metropolises for several centuries (and signiﬁ cant towns long before that). Rome and Alexandria 
  have ﬂ ourished for more than 2,000 years; Baghdad is only the latest city in its location, in a 
  series stretching back to ancient Babylon. Equally long Kindred histories can generate local 
  bloodlines, bizarre customs, elaborate traditions, ancient secrets and vendettas whose origin 
  is lost even to Kindred memory. Having younger Kindred begin their unlife in such a location 
  provides them with a plethora of story ideas, as they learn the secrets and histories that sur-
  round them. Players who are new to the Mind’s Eye Theatre experience, however, might ﬁ nd 
  themselves somewhat overwhelmed by too much background material all at once. 
  
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  Many players and Storytellers like to set their chronicle in the nearest large city — perhaps 
  the one they live in themselves — or some metropolis they know through books, movies and 
  TV shows, such as Chicago or New York. Such a setting has the advantage that the players 
  already know a fair bit about it and can easily learn more. Visits to the library can turn up 
  all sorts of famous, notorious or merely eccentric people from the city’s history, which might 
  have inﬂ uenced Kindred history as well. Every signiﬁ cant city also has weirdness in its past and 
  present, from mass murders to quirky monuments, that can inspire supernatural mysteries.
  On the other hand, you may want to invent a ﬁ ctional city. This has the advantage that 
  you can create whatever history, geography, local celebrities and colorful locations you want. 
  That’s a lot of work, though, and a lot to keep straight. Players do notice inconsistencies and 
  may catch you in one if you don’t take adequate notes during play.
  Daring troupes may want to try out more unusual settings. In a small city, the coterie could 
  be the only vampires in town. Such a chronicle consists entirely of their interactions with each 
  other and the mortals around them. Here, especially, the players and their characters drive 
  the chronicle. Indeed, the ﬁ rst story could be about how and why they came to the town.
  The Kindred abhor both travel and the countryside. That doesn’t make a travel-based or 
  rural chronicle entirely impossible, though — just very difﬁ cult. The hazards of travel could ﬁ ll 
  a chronicle with suspense, as the characters juggle the logistics of their journey with hunting 
  and staying safe during the day. They almost certainly need ghouls or other Retainers, who 
  for this purpose might be played as full-ﬂ edged characters. Unlife in a small town or in the 
  wilderness might also be possible, if the characters possess the right blend of Disciplines and 
  a great deal of care. 
  For a very unusual chronicle, perhaps the coterie tries to turn an isolated, small town into 
  its collective herd. Even if these Kindred can succeed in conditioning, blood bonding or 
  otherwise subverting the mortal community leaders, how do they persuade or frighten the 
  rest of the populace into accepting their role as a food source? If they can do that, then how 
  do they keep the secret from the rest of the world? A wilderness chronicle, meanwhile, would 
  setting
  
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  focus almost entirely on raw survival: hunting for animals to feed upon, avoiding the sun, 
  possibly even dodging other supernatural creatures who also hide far from mortal eyes.
  THE SHADOWY REFLECTION
  Once you decide where to set your chronicle, take that location and translate it into the 
  World Of Darkness. Exaggerate the negative in a real-world city to turn it into a hellhole.
  Make the slums, barrios and other low-income neighborhoods poorer and more dilapi-
  dated. More buildings are vacant, except for the squatters. Gang tags and other grafﬁ ti are 
  everywhere, the only new paint any building has seen in decades. Many buildings, even 
  people’s homes, have broken windows covered with boards or plastic sheeting. The streets 
  glitter with broken glass while garbage chokes the alleys. The only evidence of money comes 
  from the pimps and drug dealers who cruise around in ﬂ ashy cars. Most people won’t meet 
  another person’s eye and talk as little as possible, as they try to avoid the notice of the young 
  toughs who swagger about in gang colors. Boomboxes, screaming arguments, car alarms and 
  the occasional gunshot provide the soundtrack.
  Afﬂ uent residential neighborhoods hold their own inhumanity. Blocks of apartments or 
  condominiums are built like fortresses. Suburban homes look like they were cloned, with 
  no trace of individuality. Anyone who can afford it lives in a gated community, behind high 
  concrete walls topped with barbed wire or broken glass, and an armed guard at the gate. The 
  very richest people, however, can live in luxurious penthouse suites or private, walled estates 
  — rather more common in the World of Darkness than in most real, contemporary cities.
  Strip away any trace of beauty or humanity from the business districts. Skyscrapers become 
  brutal monoliths faced with blank, featureless steel, stone, concrete or glass, or fearsome gar-
  goyles jut from their crenellations. At night, the streets are deserted except for the homeless 
  person huddled on a grate or in an alley. Let a business person have to walk a ways, though, 
  instead of driving into and out of a skyscraper’s guarded, underground parking garage, and 
  human wolves appear like magic to demand money. Away from the ﬁ nancial towers, some 
  businesses stay open: bars, strip clubs, nightclubs and X-rated video parlors, with the occasional 
  convenience store or gas station. Out in the suburbs, meanwhile, massive iron security grills 
  turn the closed shops and ofﬁ ces of the strip malls into lines of prison cells.
  The industrial district becomes a barren wasteland of crumbling brick and concrete factories 
  and warehouses. Most of the industries shut down long ago, leaving towering machines to 
  rust and collapse onto poison-soaked dirt or asphalt.
  Now and then, one comes across relics of a more gracious past, or at least a past with more 
  ornamental tastes. An old church might nestle in between grim ofﬁ ce blocks, its stained 
  glass and carved stone more astonishing by the contrast. Older retail blocks still show fancy 
  brickwork and molded concrete, albeit grimy and eroded by time and neglect.
  As you design your World of Darkness city, think of places where Kindred might dwell or 
  congregate. Museums, opera houses and other “cultural” locations work well for Elysiums, 
  but so do old rail or bus terminals built in elegant Art Deco or earlier gingerbread style. 
  Feel free to change your urban landmarks to make them more atmospheric: a derelict train 
  station instead of a new one, for instance. Ruined churches are too perfectly symbolic of the 
  World of Darkness for you to ignore. Buildings left unﬁ nished and abandoned also convey 
  the despair of the World of Darkness.
  WHY IS THAT EVEN THERE?
  There is another advantage to understanding what your player base wants out of 
  a chronicle. It allows you to plan out what in-game locations are going to be used 
  
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  in your story and how you can use what space you have reserved for your game to 
  represent these places.
  Most live-action stories are limited by what real-world space a Storyteller and the 
  staff has to work with. Some folks are blessed with a sizable game location and plenty 
  of free space that is away from prying eyes. Most have to make do with what they 
  have at hand, however, especially in urban areas where games can be held only in 
  apartments or townhouses.
  If you ﬁ nd that none of your players are interested in any kind of occult themes in 
  their story then don’t waste the space on converting the living room into a mysterious 
  arcane library. If your players seem like they are not going to trafﬁ c the local sewer 
  systems with any kind of frequency, do not designate a room for the sewer warren 
  or forgotten subway system. Not every typical facet of a city populated by vampires 
  needs to be represented in your setting — especially if you are greatly limited in your 
  playing space. 
  Find out what types of places your players’ characters would frequent and see how 
  these places ﬁ t into your game setting. A compromise can be reached and you can 
  use these locations to your best advantage when planning out spatial relations with 
  your staff. If it’s not going to be used, don’t bother even mentioning it.
  GENERAL FEATURES OF THE WORLD OF DARKNESS
  As a guiding principle, keep the ambience of the World Of Darkness in mind as you design 
  your setting. For the Kindred, this world is even darker and deadlier than it is for the mortals. 
  Vampires are not the only predators out there. There are dangers and threats that the mortal 
  world is completely ignorant of that hungrily wait in the shadows for hapless vampires as well. 
  Also, one of the largest sources of antagonism may come from the self-destructive nature of 
  the characters themselves. Consider these following guidelines for setting the tone of your 
  chronicle:
  • The Death of Virtue: People in the World of Darkness know they live in a decaying, 
  vice-riddled world. They learned from centuries of greed and lies from leaders in business, 
  government, religion and every other institution. Cynicism and despair saturate the culture, 
  from the tags on the walls to the movies in the theaters. Everyone knows that virtues such 
  as compassion or charity mark you as a sucker, ready to be victimized, while justice and faith 
  are words used by scoundrels to hide their sins. True selﬂ essness, love or honor is more rare 
  and precious than diamonds.
  • No More Good Guys: Did they ever really exist at all? Modern mortals certainly have 
  no one to inspire them. The media caught them in sex scandals or taking bribes, or maybe 
  destroyed their reputations just to make a good story. Local community leaders sold out or 
  died in the endemic urban violence. The precious few people who genuinely seek to make 
  the world a better place remain voices in the wilderness, their good works obscured by the 
  torrent of cynicism and sleaze.
  • Violence and Fear: Crime is omnipresent and life is cheap, especially for the young. 
  The poor lash out from frustration and greed, with well-heeled criminals as their anti-heroes. 
  Bored rich kids look for thrills through violence and drugs. At every level of society, people 
  ﬁ nd no shortage of other groups to blame — other races, other classes or just people who 
  like other things.
  • Isolation: Many families and neighborhoods adopt a siege mentality against the rest 
  of the world, convinced that they live surrounded by enemies who want to strip them of 
  whatever they have. The well-to-do hide behind walls, gates and security systems, sending 
  their children to private schools, careful to avoid anyone outside their class. The less afﬂ u-
  ent watch out for gangs and stay away from windows, especially at night, lest they become 
  the shadowy reﬂ ection • general features of the world of darkness
  
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  a target. Everyone watches TV instead of talking to their neighbors. Churches, clubs and 
  other social groups merely give people a chance to hide from the world together, with a few 
  people who think like them.
  • Madness: In a mad world, why not go mad yourself? Insanity takes many forms in the 
  World of Darkness. Sometimes it’s obvious, like the bag lady talking to herself as she roots 
  through the dumpster, or the junkie ranting through his withdrawal on a street corner. Some 
  forms of madness hide themselves, like the affable family man who molests his daughters. 
  Other lunacies grow from isolation and fear, such as fanatical racism or other forms of bigotry. 
  Many people seek escape through the temporary madness of drugs.
  THEMES
  This is a world in which virtue cannot count on a foreordained triumph. In fact, most of 
  the evidence suggests that virtue hasn’t got a chance. The only question left would seem to 
  be whether the world will choke and die on its own corruption, or just grind on the same 
  vicious round forever — a horrible ending, or horrors without end.
  Most people have given up. They merely want a little comfort in the short life allotted to 
  mortals. Only blind fanatics seem to care about the world’s future, and they would rather cast 
  the world into ﬁ re than bend one inch on their ideologies. The few people who achieve real 
  power have chosen to reign in Hell instead of struggling to make the world a better place.
  As a race, the Kindred fall in that last category. In some ways, their unnatural state gives 
  them great power. In other ways, it makes them weaker than the mortals they prey upon. 
  Deep down, they know this. If the mortals give in to despair, why would the Damned hope 
  they could make a difference?
  Regardless of clan, covenant or setting, the players’ characters face this choice between 
  striving for virtue or surrendering to vice. The choice doesn’t have to be stated openly, but it 
  lies at the heart of The Requiem. Can the characters strive to become something more than 
  monsters? Especially when they know that sometimes they must fail? “Doing the right thing” 
  is difﬁ cult from within the Requiem. Often it is dangerous. Sometimes it’s hard to tell exactly 
  what the right thing is. Nevertheless, they may achieve heroism during their tragic unlives by 
  struggling to ﬁ nd courage, compassion or other virtues within themselves.
  Within that broad theme of moral choices and their consequences, you can develop a variety of 
  other themes for your chronicle. A theme gives your chronicle a central idea that organizes your 
  stories and ties them together. This isn’t a “moral to the story” — nothing so cut-and-dried. A good 
  theme is a question. The characters supply their own answers, through the choices they make as 
  they react to the situations you present. Suitable themes for Requiem chronicles include:
  • The Danse Macabre: Kindred existence is a ghastly, undercover war of each against all, 
  with power over mortals as both weapon and prize. Young vampires struggle to gain some 
  power and security despite the greed of their elders; the older vampires struggle to keep the 
  power they’ve acquired and gain more, to use against their own rivals. Young and old are 
  both willing to betray other Kindred of their age in order to better their own position, strik-
  ing alliances of convenience.
  Can the characters avoid the Danse Macabre, or must they participate for their own survival? 
  Can they escape the vicious cycle of needing still more power to deal with the enemies they 
  made through their past gambits? Can they use their power for virtuous ends? Do virtuous 
  ends even exist in the World of Darkness? Most importantly, can they trust each other, or 
  will they betray each other for the sake of individual power?
  • Bound by Invisible Chains: The Requiem brings power and freedom from mortal laws 
  and limitations… or does it? Many Kindred believe they are the undying masters of the night, 
  
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  at least within their cities, but they bind themselves through favors owed and their own laws 
  — especially the authority of the Prince and the need to observe the Traditions. The intrigue 
  of the Danse Macabre traps them as well, though the tar-baby makes a better metaphor here 
  than chains. Kindred grab for power, and ﬁ nd themselves caught by the need to direct and 
  defend their mortal pawns from their jealous rivals. Their own nature binds them even more 
  thoroughly. The Kindred cannot escape the Beast Within, only struggle to restrain it lest it 
  capture and destroy them. Their vices provide another level of entrapment, and few Kindred 
  manage to escape the grip of their own selﬁ sh passions. In view of all this, is even a Prince 
  truly the master of his fate?
  This theme works best in a chronicle about a group of ambitious neonates who want to 
  win ofﬁ ces and titles in their covenant, clan or the city’s general Kindred hierarchy. Perhaps 
  they want power for its own sake. Perhaps they merely want to escape the Danse Macabre 
  by winning it, achieving sufﬁ cient rank and inﬂ uence that no one dares to command or 
  threaten them. They must scheme to escape the grip of their sires and parry the attacks of 
  their equally ambitious peers. Eventually they must challenge the inﬂ uence of the elders they 
  hope to supplant. Along the way, however, the characters must cut deals and incur debts, 
  make and break alliances, acquire short-term partners and long-term enemies. If the characters 
  ever reach the pinnacle they seek, they may ﬁ nd that they are still not free. They have simply 
  raised the stakes by entering a higher realm of competition. Of course, they also must defend 
  themselves against younger Kindred who want to supplant them in turn.
  • Dark Redemption: Undeath horriﬁ es some newly Embraced Kindred. They struggle 
  to reclaim as much of their lost humanity as they can and redeem themselves to their own 
  consciences, if not necessarily to God. Characters who seek redemption might try to use their 
  Kindred powers to do good. This could be anything from destroying a predatory street gang 
  of mortals to intriguing for the power to shape the mortal city government’s policies toward 
  the poor and homeless. Of course, such characters ﬁ nd plenty of other Kindred to oppose 
  as well: Most vampires ﬁ nd such altruistic campaigns foolish at best, a threat to their own 
  power and food supply at worst. The characters’ own nature presents the most immediate and 
  ineradicable threat, however. One moment of surrender to the Beast could turn a mission of 
  mercy, justice or other virtue into a horriﬁ c bloodbath. Can the Damned truly do good in the 
  world, or are they doomed to corrupt and destroy everything and everyone they touch? Can 
  any number of good deeds make restitution for the evils that Kindred inevitably commit?
  Working with this theme will require a lot of extra work on the part of you and your Narra-
  tor staff. Those players involved with this type of story will require a large degree of attention 
  in order to make the story meaningful. The payoff for them and for your chronicle in the 
  long run, however, makes the effort worthwhile. 
  • Home Lies the Heart: A vampire’s existence is lonely and full of horrors. A coterie makes 
  a poor substitute for true friends and family. Some neonates try to cling to the relationships 
  of their mortal lives. Can a vampire really go home and reclaim her mortal relationships, or 
  does she merely set herself up for worse tragedy and desolation?
  This theme examines the Kindred’s separation from humankind. Vampires can never re-
  claim some aspects of mortal existence, such as daylight and becoming a parent. Their hunger 
  presents a constant danger to any mortal around them. Other Kindred will surely condemn the 
  characters for endangering the Masquerade. If a character clings to mortal family and friends 
  he may have taken for granted in life, is he just being selﬁ sh? Or has he found the only thing 
  in the Requiem that really matters? As for the character’s mortal loved ones… well, what sort 
  of choices do they make, and what are the consequences? Are they blind to their danger, or 
  bravely risking their lives to help the character hold onto his humanity?
  themes
  
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  Themes help you focus the events and actions of your stories around a single idea. Your 
  chronicle gains consistency and emotional resonance as the characters see your theme from 
  different angles. As the chronicle reaches its resolution, you can provide a climax by present-
  ing the characters with a situation that forces them to answer, once and for all, the questions 
  raised by the theme.
  A chronicle can explore more than one theme. In fact, it’s best not to tie every story too 
  closely to a single theme, at least in a long chronicle. If you make your theme too omnipres-
  ent, or spoon-feed particular answers to the players’ characters, the chronicle can seem forced 
  or preachy. You might choose one major theme, but build occasional stories around other 
  themes. You can also combine themes. For instance, the members of the coterie might hope 
  to resume as much of their mortal lives as possible, with all the difﬁ culties that entails, but 
  ﬁ nd themselves drawn into the Danse Macabre by the need to defend their loved ones from 
  the machinations of other Kindred. Quite possibly, each character might explore his or her 
  own theme. You are limited only by how much work you and your players are willing to place 
  into developing themes.
  DRAMA 101
  Most roleplaying games could fairly be described as “action-adventure.” Characters pursue 
  goals and face dangers along the way. It doesn’t much matter whether the game bills itself as 
  high fantasy, science ﬁ ction, western, wuxia, talking animals, or even horror. The characters 
  have a problem; they try to solve it.
  You can run The Requiem that way, too. The World of Darkness offers characters no 
  shortage of dangers to get in the way of the characters’ goals, from mortal authorities that 
  must be kept ignorant to crazed Lupines out to destroy all Kindred. As a Storytelling game, 
  however, The Requiem was designed with drama in mind. Drama differs from action-ad-
  venture in that characters must make difﬁ cult decisions. “How do we stop the Lupine?” is 
  action-adventure. “What should we do about the Lupine? Kill it, hide, try to reason with it, 
  steer it at our enemies?” is drama.
  In drama, there’s no obviously right answer, or it’s one that characters don’t want. For 
  instance, maybe the characters discover that the witch-hunter who’s destroying the Kindred 
  is also somebody’s best friend from his mortal days. Do they try to stop him, and maybe kill 
  him in the process? The hunter is a murderer: He kills mortal retainers as well as their Kin-
  dred masters. On the other hand, he used to be a friend. So do they try to reason with him 
  and invoke old ties of friendship? That would be a more humane and forgiving approach… 
  but it would deny justice to the slain mortals, aside from being incredibly dangerous if the 
  witch-hunter sees his former friend as just another vampire. On top of this, the Prince will 
  certainly ask hard questions if he learns that the characters have some connection to the 
  hunter. He might think they planned the murders together.
  One simple way to generate drama is to ﬁ gure out what situations the characters least 
  want to be in — not for reasons of danger, but based on their fears, shames, ambitions and 
  other emotions. Place the characters in those situations. As the chronicle proceeds, your list 
  of emotionally taxing situations changes as the characters themselves grow and develop. Old 
  situations drop off the list as the characters resolve personal issues, and new situations join 
  the list as the characters make decisions and form new relationships.
  A character’s Virtue and Vice provide a shortcut for designing dramatic situations. You 
  might want to create a situation in which a character must sacriﬁ ce his cherished Virtue 
  to uphold some other aspect of his unlife, such as Humanity or a social debt. Less virtu-
  ous characters can ﬁ nd their Vice in conﬂ ict with similar other aspects of character. For 
  
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  instance, a vampire known for pride, might ﬁ nd that to achieve revenge (driven by pride) he 
  must humble himself before a rival (going against pride). With a little work, you can devise 
  situations where characters must indulge Vices in order to achieve Virtuous goals, or even 
  stranger juxtapositions. 
  For the climax of a chronicle, or at least a story arc, pick the most dramatically extreme 
  situation possible — the situation you think the character would least like to face. Pit the 
  character against her greatest fear, or tempt her with multiple rewards offered by different 
  parties — possibly including herself. If your players are willing to face such situations, they 
  might have the most intense roleplaying experience of their lives, and a story they’ll relish 
  repeating for years to come.
  CHRONICLE OUTLINE
  As the examples show, themes often suggest plots all by themselves. Your chosen themes 
  can also help you turn a vague notion for a chronicle into a complete plot, by suggesting what 
  sort of choices and challenges the characters face. Like a movie or novel, a chronicle should 
  have a beginning, middle and end, so the players know their characters’ actions build to some 
  sort of climax and resolution. You’ll have a better idea of how to design individual stories if 
  you start with a clear idea of where the entire chronicle should go.
  For instance, let’s take another look at that idea of a chronicle built around the rise and 
  fall of a charismatic Prince. The premise sounds political, so you might select “Bound by 
  Invisible Chains” as the chronicle’s theme. The neonate characters would see the apparent 
  freedom and power of the older Kindred, compared to the oppression they experience in 
  their own unlives. Then the would-be Prince offers them a chance to grab that power and 
  freedom for themselves. The attempt at revolution draws them into an ever-deepening mire 
  of intrigue, favor-trading and deceit.
  Once in power, however, the new Prince turns out to be just as despotic as her predecessor. 
  Some of the characters have gained the power and inﬂ uence they sought, but at the price of 
  obligations to the Prince and her other allies. Others might have broken those promises and 
  alliances, but become hunted outcasts as a result. As the Prince’s rule becomes harsher, these 
  characters must decide where their loyalties lie. Who will join the new crop of rebels who 
  arise, and risk their power and perhaps their lives? Who will stick with their Prince and try 
  to improve the regime from within? Sell out their old principles? Run away? As a Storyteller, 
  you have to decide if you want the chronicle to end in a blazing ﬁ nale of a Kindred civil war, 
  or allow for a prolonged power struggle with factions of characters within your chronicle 
  choosing sides.
  In a larger chronicle, the drama could be even higher. What if the majority of the characters 
  decided to support the older Prince? What if a few players worked to restore the old power, 
  or at least remove the current power structure? Who will seek a position of neutrality? Or will 
  some players take a mercenary position, working for whatever side offers the sweetest deal? 
  Bargains will be struck and broken, power will shift in unpredictable ways, and everyone in 
  the game will be affected by the result.
  For those who support the Prince they helped into power, they have some choices to make. 
  They now must either they must burn with her, or combat the efforts of their fellow Kindred 
  who are in many ways just as idealistic as they were in their efforts. If they turn on the Prince, 
  there is a chance they will lose all of the inﬂ uence they built within the city. They also gain a 
  reputation as turncoats and fair-weather allies; not unheard of among the undead, but often 
  difﬁ cult to live down as well. Such a reputation ensures that no one will trust them for a long 
  time, no matter how principled they feel their choice was.
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  Now you can go through this skeletal plot and block out its beginning, middle, climax and 
  end, along with the sorts of choices you present to the characters. Remember that your actual 
  stories may change from what you plan; this is still just a slightly more detailed outline.
  Opening
  The story should start simply, if only because the characters need some time to learn 
  about the city, the other Kindred and the relations between the groups in town. (New play-
  ers would also need time to get comfortable with the Mind’s Eye Theatre rules, as well as 
  the special powers and weaknesses of vampires.) It would be best to center the ﬁ rst stories 
  on the characters’ Embrace experiences, as well as their relationships with their sires, other 
  members of their coteries and the remnants of their mortal lives. Depending on how much 
  time you have to devote to it, you might want to have prelude sessions, where one or two 
  players experience the Embrace on an individual basis — especially if they have the same sire. 
  Use your Storytelling staff and perhaps even other players as background personnel (perhaps 
  offering experience points for assisting).
  The characters’ reactions to undeath and the Kindred they meet can give rise to conﬂ icts 
  and goals that you develop in later subplots. The players will establish where their loyalties 
  lie (or lack thereof), and the usual backroom deal-making will begin. Along the way, you can 
  use Narrator characters and Storyteller-controlled events to show the characters how much 
  power the older, better-established Kindred have over them — especially the iron hand of 
  the Prince. You and your Storytelling staff can arrange to show the unrest growing among 
  some the city’s Kindred as they chafe under a tyrant’s reign. This calls for stories, scenes and 
  encounters that give the characters ﬁ rsthand experience of tyranny. 
  For example, one character might try to continue running a business he started as a mortal, 
  only to have one of the Prince’s cronies seize it under the pretext that the character’s continu-
  ing involvement risked the Masquerade. Another character might see his sire, who has tried to 
  treat him fairly, forced to abase himself before the Prince in order to gain some triﬂ ing favor. 
  To cement the image of the Prince as a despot, have the characters ordered to take part in a 
  blood hunt against another neonate, whom they’ve already met. They know the victim well 
  enough to realize the charges are trumped-up or even false, or at least other Kindred mutter 
  this to the characters. Older Kindred might ﬁ nd ways to weasel out of the blood hunt, but they 
  make clear to the characters that any neonates who refuse to join the hunt will be suspected of 
  collaboration with the “criminal,” and could face blood hunts themselves some night.
  This introductory phase of the story ends with the characters’ ﬁ rst big decision, their re-
  sponse to the Blood Hunt. In the end any that join in harrowing or murdering the fugitive 
  will have to deal with the fallout of their actions, as well as potentially the consequences to 
  their Humanity. It is possible that some of the more sympathetic players will turn away but 
  let other Kindred kill the fugitive, or they try to ﬁ nd some way for the fugitive to make the 
  dangerous journey out of town, with full knowledge that if anyone else ﬁ nds out they, too, 
  face a sentence of Final Death.
  Unrest
  Some time in the introductory phase, some of the characters might meet an ancilla — a 
  Carthian is a natural choice, but any covenant will do — who cautiously opposes the current 
  regime. She speaks eloquently about how the Kindred should govern themselves, while barely 
  avoiding direct accusations about the Prince’s deeds. She helps neonates cope with the trials 
  of joining the undead, such as giving advice on setting up a new identity, or getting permis-
  sion to hunt in an older vampire’s territory. 
  After the blood hunt, this ancilla becomes bolder and sounds out the characters about 
  forcing changes in the policies of the Prince and Primogen. In this middle phase of the 
  
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  story, the characters may join the ancilla in seeking ways to undercut the Prince’s clique 
  and gain power at its expense. Or other factions of players might try to set her up against 
  the Prince directly — or seek to gain favor with the Prince by revealing her subversive 
  ways. Eventually, it becomes clear that the ancilla wants to become Prince herself, and 
  promises her fellow conspirators that her new regime will be far more humane than that 
  of the current Prince.
  In this phase, the major choice facing the characters is whether to join the ancilla’s con-
  spiracy, denounce her, work both sides or back away and try to avoid the conﬂ ict. Becoming 
  a revolutionary sounds more heroic, but as Storyteller, your job is not to force the characters 
  in a particular direction, merely to present them with choices.
  If enough of the characters denounce the ancilla, she goes into hiding and the building 
  revolution is quelled… for the moment. The Prince rewards those characters who were loyal 
  with hunting territories, minor titles and other privileges. Of course, they also gain a reputation 
  as snitches and toadies, and they keep their new privileges only as long as they continue to 
  please the Prince. The ancilla continues her agitation from hiding, and perhaps the revolution 
  eventually comes anyway. The characters just happen to be on the other side.
  If the characters join forces with the ancilla, they face the challenge of lining up support 
  from other Kindred who might feel dissatisﬁ ed with the current regime. They might ﬁ nd, 
  however, that other Kindred want more than a promise of better leadership. Everyone says 
  they want some more immediate reward or guarantee before they risk their status, inﬂ uence 
  and possibly their unlives on a coup. These characters must do a series of favors for other 
  Kindred in the city. Most of these favors have nothing to do with political reform and may 
  involve the characters in sleazy dealings. One potential ally, for instance, might want the 
  characters to help him enslave a prominent mortal bureaucrat or businessman. Another 
  might want the characters to sabotage the plans of her rival. They both want assurances of 
  more favors in the future. They might even insist on oaths to that effect, backed up by curses 
  or Vinculums if the characters or their ancilla patron default on their word.
  At this point you might want to assign Narration staff to keep track of the different factions 
  and their webs of intrigue. If it’s possible, separate the tasks of adjudicating the supporters, 
  the revolutionaries and the in-betweens to different staff members so you can concentrate 
  on running the story as a whole.
  Revolution!
  The climax of the story’s middle phase comes with the revolution against the Prince. Here, 
  you may have already decided that the revolution succeeds whether the characters join it or 
  ﬁ ght it (or you may leave it entirely up to the actions of the characters to decide the fate of 
  the city). Since the revolution involves most of the other Kindred in the city, you can justify 
  its success through the deeds of other characters. Of course, it’s best from a dramatic point 
  of view if the characters play some vital role in the coup’s success, whether it’s a lightning 
  raid to capture the Prince or a dangerous negotiation to secure the backing of a powerful 
  sorcerer. Even if the characters defend the Prince, the ancilla generously offers them a chance 
  to redeem themselves in the new order. It need not even come to a direct conﬂ ict. Many 
  Kindred seek to avoid actual physical confrontations. It might be a matter of pulling together 
  enough political muscle with the city’s elders to force the Prince from power.
  A great deal of the outcome — indeed, the entire outcome — rests on what the characters 
  decide to do on these critical nights. The Prince’s power structure might be able to weather 
  the storm and send the revolutionaries packing (or at least shame them out of the political 
  game). It might even happen that both sides wipe each other out, politically if not literally, 
  and a third group assumes power.
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  A New Beginning?
  The ﬁ nal phase of the story deals with the new regime’s fall from idealism into a new tyr-
  anny. Your ﬁ rst thought might be to have the new Prince simply reveal the full extent of her 
  ambition, and that the whole coup was simply a cunning scheme to seize power. The famous 
  dictum about power corrupting also springs to mind. The story’s theme, however, is supposed 
  to be one of disillusionment and entrapment. Instead of simply revealing the new Prince as a 
  villain equal to the one before, you could lure the characters themselves into becoming part 
  of the “corruption” and “abuse of power.”
  In the previous phase of the story, the characters made a lot of promises. Now the Kin-
  dred who supported the coup want payoffs. Whatever reforms the Prince and the characters 
  propose, someone whose support they need says, in effect, “What’s in it for me and what’s 
  it worth to you?” Someone else ﬁ nds that the reform hurts his own interests and opposes it 
  no matter what sweetener the characters offer. Those characters who supported the rise of 
  the new Prince also ﬁ nd that fulﬁ lling their earlier promises means bending their reformist 
  principles a little… then a lot, as other Kindred test the limits of what they can claim or extort 
  from the new Prince. The various demands and promises inevitably conﬂ ict, too: What do 
  you do when you ﬁ nd that you’ve promised two Kindred your help in circumventing the 
  other one?
  Eventually the new Prince might decide that she needs to make an example of the most 
  troublesome and demanding Kindred in the city, to show the rest that her administration 
  won’t be pushed around. You can make the target a real sonofabitch, so the characters don’t 
  feel so bad about hauling him in for a forced Vinculum or some other penalty. Loyalties 
  might be divided if that character is one of the players — and is part of a group of characters 
  that is active in your setting. That makes it easier when they ﬁ nd that two Kindred have 
  irreconcilable differences and one of them has to go, for the good of the community. Let 
  each story show the Prince giving a harsher response to challenges to her power, and a more 
  abrupt, less diplomatic answer to disputes. For a sub-climax, let her order something very 
  much like a command of the old Prince’s that especially offended the characters: Maybe she 
  orders a blood hunt against some neonate who made himself inconvenient, or as a way to 
  pay off a political debt.
  Once the characters realize that the new regime is turning as bad as the old one, they face 
  their ﬁ nal tests of loyalty and integrity. Will some characters stick with the new Prince as a 
  ﬁ rm investment? Perhaps another starts lining up support for another coup, using the same 
  techniques that worked for the previous political maneuver, while avoiding its mistakes. After 
  all, it’s been shown how it could be done. You as a Storyteller might even face multiple coup 
  plots, as ambitious Kindred think, “Why shouldn’t I be Prince?”
  Thus does the story come full circle. Some of the characters may have become the author-
  ity ﬁ gures they once hated and envied, except they are less powerful since they lack their 
  predecessors’ age and experience. How do they respond to the new revolution? Try to ﬁ ght 
  it? Join it, try to convince the new young ﬁ rebrands that it isn’t a devious plot to destroy 
  them, and hope that they can do it right this time? Say, “A plague on all your houses!” and 
  try to trip-up all the Kindred scrambling for power? Where, ﬁ nally, does honor lie in the 
  world of the Damned?
  Summation
  This is an example of a simple framework for your chronicle’s main plot, with the main 
  challenges and choices that all of your players’ characters will face. As you play through the 
  chronicle, the characters’ individual goals and backgrounds will spawn smaller plots. You can 
  tie some of these subplots in to your main plot. Other subplots will surely remain separate, 
  
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  but providing added conﬂ ict and character development. For instance, while the would-be 
  usurper gathers support, she might decide that she could undercut the Prince’s power by 
  Embracing a key mortal at a company under the Prince’s sway — a company that supplies 
  much of the Prince’s wealth and other social connections. That mortal, however, is also close 
  to one of the players’ characters. Alternatively, the characters might oppose the Embrace on 
  grounds of principle, even though they support the idea of overthrowing the tyrant Prince. 
  At least one character faces a signiﬁ cant choice with far-reaching consequences no matter 
  what he decides.
  Stay alert for potential subplots, both at the start of the story and as it develops. Incorpo-
  rate them when you feel they enhance the chronicle, and resolve them quickly when you feel 
  they distract the characters too much. Of course, you may ﬁ nd that a number of subplots 
  unexpectedly converge into a new, major plot that the characters follow on their own. If that 
  happens, don’t be afraid (or too proud) to chuck your carefully planned plot and follow the 
  new story to its own conclusion. If you and your players ﬁ nd the new story entertaining and 
  dramatic, you have still done your duty as Storyteller.
  OTHER SAMPLE CHRONICLES
  Other ideas for potential chronicles, and the themes they incorporate, include:
  • The Search for Truth: Secrets and lies permeate the World of Darkness, and the Kindred 
  possess more than their share. Seeking the truth can be both difﬁ cult and dangerous.
  Some secrets are straightforward: The law-and-order Prince once committed diablerie, and 
  as a result, he doesn’t like anyone probing too deeply into his past. Indeed, the Kindred of 
  other cities form a mystery few Kindred dare to investigate.
  Other secrets are more arcane: What is the nature of the Beast, really, and can it be tamed 
  or excised? Even the most metaphysical inquiry can feed back into the game’s moral and 
  political themes if someone else thinks that the characters should not ask such questions, 
  or doesn’t like the answer he ﬁ nds. For example, the leader of the local Circle of the Crone 
  won’t be pleased if the characters ﬁ nd that some cherished mystical notion she espouses 
  simply isn’t true.
  Such a chronicle centers on mystery and deception. Themes include the conﬂ ict between truth 
  and social harmony, the past not being dead after all, and discovering the truth about oneself.
  • Liberty or Death: The characters are unaligned Kindred who rebel against the heavy 
  hands of their sires. They cannot tolerate the idea of remaining beholden to a sire for decades 
  or centuries. Their sires, of course, insist that the characters toe the line for the common 
  good because they insist that only strict order and obedience can protect the Masquerade, or 
  keep the Lupines at bay, or some other overwhelmingly important goal.
  By going independent, the coterie drives its sires to put aside their own differences to support 
  the traditional order. The characters ﬁ nd most of the city’s powerful Kindred against them, 
  or at least unwilling to help them because they don’t want their own childer getting notions 
  of rebelliousness. The Carthians might help them, if the city has any, or the local Carthians 
  might want to drag the characters into some agenda they don’t want. Can the coterie carve 
  out a niche for itself despite the hostility they face?
  Relevant themes for such a chronicle include the price and nature of freedom, self-will 
  versus the common good, and how far one will go to get one’s way.
  • Golconda: Rumors spread of a mysterious new vampire in town, who claims she knows 
  the secret of salvation from the Beast, Golconda. Does the stranger speak the truth, or is she 
  spinning lies to lure local Kindred into some diabolical scheme? Is it all just big talk in hopes 
  of conning the Prince and Primogen into letting her stay? The characters decide to ﬁ nd out. 
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  Along the way, they face the temptation of Golconda, and the intrigues of Kindred who feel 
  threatened by the message of salvation.
  Potential themes include faith justiﬁ ed or betrayed, the search for redemption, and trust.
  • Angels of Death: Horriﬁ ed at what they have become and how they were drafted into the 
  Kindred race, the characters set out to destroy their sires and all other Kindred; or at least all 
  others who dwell in the city. They ﬁ ght against their fellow Kindred for the sake of mortals, 
  yet may ﬁ nd themselves feeding on mortals, too — and of course the mortal populace would 
  destroy the Angels of Death as readily as the monsters they hunt. Other Kindred might even 
  mistake them for members of Seven, and ﬁ ght ﬁ re with ﬁ re.
  Suitable themes include honor and betrayal, the nature of humanity and monstrosity, the 
  limits of justice, prejudice and becoming what you oppose.
  SUPPORTING CAST
  Unless you plan a quite unusual chronicle, the players’ characters will interact with many 
  other people, both Kindred and kine, in the course of your stories. Before you begin the 
  chronicle, you need to deﬁ ne at least some of these people. Of course, it’s not possible (or 
  necessary) to write up everyone the characters might meet. If you set your chronicle in a large 
  city, you probably need not bother detailing every vampire in town, at least not right away. 
  The Kindred and kine that matter most for your plot, however, should be designed with as 
  much care and detail as the players’ characters. Boring Storyteller characters can weaken the 
  cleverest plot, while interesting, three-dimensional characters can make even the oldest, most 
  familiar story into something that seems fresh and new.
  Start with the Storyteller characters who matter most to the coterie, and who appear in the 
  earliest stories of your chronicle. This probably includes the sires of the players’ characters. 
  The relationship between sire and childe is one of the deepest, strongest and most enduring 
  connections among Kindred, whether they like it or not. Even if a character and his sire 
  loathe each other, Kindred society won’t let them avoid each other forever. Give consider-
  able thought to the characters’ past and present mortal associates, too. Remember that your 
  players can help you brainstorm the histories and characteristics of their characters’ loved 
  ones, acquaintances, relatives or important social contacts. The city’s Prince and a few other 
  prominent Kindred also probably play important roles in the chronicle. As the chronicle 
  progresses, you can ﬁ ll in other characters as needed.
  When you design important Storyteller characters, keep these guidelines in mind:
  • Envision the Role: Each character performs one or more functions in your chronicle. 
  Establish what role you intend the character to play in a story, and ﬁ gure out what qualities 
  the character needs to ﬁ ll that role. In the given sample plot, for instance, the old Prince 
  needs to seem both tyrannical and powerful, so the players’ characters have reason to hate 
  him while believing they must garner widespread support before they dare to attack him. 
  The ambitious ancilla revolutionary, on the other hand, needs to show sufﬁ ciently admirable 
  qualities that the characters believe she would make a better Prince. She must seem compas-
  sionate to the characters’ problems, sincere in her devotion to reform, and smart and strong 
  enough to pull off a coup and govern the other Kindred afterward. Even a minor role such 
  as the anonymous clubber or vagrant who falls to a character’s hunger should receive a few 
  moments’ thought. When the characters feed, you want to remind them that they are com-
  mitting an ugly deed against people with lives and feelings, not cardboard cutouts or “blood 
  batteries” there for their own power-ups.
  • Paint a Picture: Try to form an image of what each Storyteller character looks like. A 
  character’s appearance can evoke the qualities you assign to the role, or surprise by their ap-
  
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  parent inconsistency. For instance, if the tyrant Prince is a tall, broad-shouldered man with 
  crew-cut gray hair, wearing a gray silk suit, with a retinue of younger men in black suits and 
  sunglasses, you evoke the contemporary image of power and authority. If he looks like an 
  aging hippy or a young Jazz-Age dandy, you might have to work a little harder to convince 
  the players that their characters should fear him. On the other hand, sometimes the contrast 
  between appearance and reality forms the point of the character. Consider the image of a 
  burly man with a square jaw and a prominently broken nose. This image suggests strength 
  and aggression. Now make this man a member of a character’s herd and shift the image to 
  this powerfully built man on his knees, submitting to the Kiss from a smaller vampire. The 
  new image evokes the power and horror of the Kindred.
  • Choose a Name: Carefully chosen names can enhance the image and role of a character, 
  while inappropriate names can detract form a character. Avoid names that make the players 
  giggle; it spoils the mood of horror. For instance, if you name the tyrant Prince Aloysius, he 
  sounds more pretentious than frightening. A common, abbreviated name like Tom or Billy 
  might make him sound too ordinary, though. A slightly unusual name such as Brandon or 
  Lorimer helps this important character stand out.
  Before you run your chronicle, spend an hour ﬂ ipping through the phone book. Write 
  down any memorable names you ﬁ nd. Not only can you assign these names to the Storyteller 
  characters you’ve designed in advance, you have a supply of names ready for the Storyteller 
  characters who appear without warning. If a member of the coterie suddenly decides to talk 
  to the gangbanger instead of eating him, or chats up a clerk to gain access to city records, you 
  aren’t left fumbling for a name.
  • Age: Both mortal age and the length of time spent undead can matter for Kindred 
  characters. An appearance of either callow youth or enfeebled age can lead characters to 
  underestimate one of the Kindred. Most importantly, however, the time since a character’s 
  Embrace has bearing on her attitudes to mortals and other vampires. As the decades pass, 
  everyone the Kindred cared about in life grows old and dies. Eventually the character has 
  spent more time among the undead than among the living, and her attitudes inevitably shift 
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  to match. What insights can a mortal who has seen just a few decades offer to a creature who 
  considers World War I a recent upheaval and the rise and fall of Communism a short-lived 
  fad? After a century or so, Kindred tend to regard mortals as domesticated animals. They 
  have their uses, and you might even like some of them, but they remain creatures of limited 
  life span and awareness… and you don’t feel too bad when you turn them into food. Elder 
  vampires become inhuman. Not only does their Humanity drop; they develop a detached, 
  ruthless sense of expedience that renders them more alien than any mortal stranger. An elder’s 
  passions grow from hopes, fears and habits that have had decades or centuries to grow into 
  obsessions that would seem insane to mortals.
  • Personality: Pick a few words to describe each character’s personality. To make your 
  characters more interesting, pick personality traits that don’t obviously ﬁ t together, or that run 
  against the players’ expectations for their role in the chronicle. For instance, if you plan an 
  adversary who will dog the coterie at every turn, you might make him cunning, ruthless… and 
  affable, or even compassionate. Sure, he believes that he must destroy the characters, but he 
  regrets the necessity and hopes he can persuade them to cease their opposition to his plans.
  • History: Every major character needs a background, just like a player’s character. What 
  conﬂ icts has this character already faced? Who has she loved, hated or feared? Could former 
  friends or enemies appear to complicate her unlife and that of the players’ characters? If 
  she’s a vampire, why was she Embraced? How did she reach her present status, whatever that 
  is? Design as much of the character’s past as you feel her role demands. A character who 
  ﬁ lls a limited role in the chronicle, such as a street contact or the mortal pawn of a Kindred 
  character, might not require much background. The unlife of a 200-year-old Priscus who will 
  play an important role in a story arc deserves a fair bit of attention.
  • Quirks: Little quirks of behavior can help the players remember a Storyteller character. 
  Kindred, like kine, accumulate odd habits over time. A mortal who picks his nose while talking 
  to the characters stands out as a disgusting slob; a Kindred who enjoys feeding on mortals to 
  the strains of Die Fledermaus establishes himself as a twisted creature of the night.
  • Flaws/Weaknesses: Everyone has some sort of ﬂ aw or weakness that he struggles against… 
  or that he cannot perceive and refuses to admit exists. At the very least, everyone in the 
  World of Darkness suffers temptation from at least once Vice. Deﬁ ne it for major Storyteller 
  characters.
  In particular, you need to establish a few weaknesses for the major adversaries of the coterie. 
  An enemy who fears nothing and never makes mistakes is not only discouraging to the players, 
  he’s as boring as a hero who never does anything wrong. The players will enjoy discovering 
  and exploiting an enemy’s blind spots, obsessions or other ﬂ aws, while a well-chosen weakness 
  adds pathos or tragedy to a hero who must battle inner demons as well as outer dangers.
  • Traits and statistics: Do these last. They’re just numbers, and if your characters aren’t 
  unique and interesting, the best trait ratings in the world won’t help your chronicle. For many 
  Storyteller characters, they won’t even come up. (You don’t need to supply traits for every 
  herd member or the snitch who tells characters the world on the street.) Only important 
  Storyteller characters deserve the same detail you would apply to the players’ characters. Most 
  of the time, you can settle for writing down ratings for the traits that matter most, such as, 
  “Jackson the Snitch: Intelligence 2, Streetwise 4, Contacts (Street) 4.”
  Always try to avoid leaving Storyteller characters as nothing more than stereotypes. It’s 
  easy to get lazy and fall back on a few well-worn images such as the Ventrue businessman or 
  the unbound Gangrel. Sure, many Ventrue are in business, and it’s hardly rare for Gangrel 
  to become independent. All too often, though, every Ventrue businessman or unaligned 
  Gangrel starts to look and act the same.
  
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  Defy your players’ expectations. The stereotypes for each clan exist for a reason: The clans 
  do tend to select certain sorts of people, from certain walks of life. Those are only tendencies, 
  though, not ironclad rules, and even the tendencies are vague enough to hold many variations 
  in the details. Even a character who seems to fall squarely in the mainstream of a clan’s image 
  can be personalized to become a unique and interesting individual.
  Consider, for instance, that stereotypical Ventrue businessman who wields a controlling 
  share of one of the city’s major corporations. He (of course a he) should be cool and arrogant 
  in his power, reﬁ ned in his tastes. Yawn. Now let’s put a few spins on the stereotype:
  Ventrue One spent most of his mortal life as a surfer. Daddy dragged him to lead the 
  family business’s branch ofﬁ ce in the city, and then a Kindred turned him into a vampire to 
  strengthen his stranglehold on local industry. Ventrue One still has long, sun-streaked hair 
  and lounges around in shorts and a T-shirt whenever he can escape the ofﬁ ce… and when 
  the wind blows strongly at night, he’s out with his board again, riding the waves.
  Ventrue Two is a woman. She graduated from business school and clawed her way up the 
  corporate ladder until she hit the glass ceiling. Her sire saw her as an eternal secretary, but 
  she had other ideas. Now she has her own company and ruthlessly competes to crush every 
  former boss she feels held her back. Her herd consists of her own secretarial pool… all young, 
  male, ﬁ t, tanned and looking scrumptious in identical bespoke slacks and sport jackets.
  Ventrue Three made his fortune in real estate. He became successful enough that his sire saw 
  him as a way to become the one-stop supplier for Kindred in need of havens. The fact that Ven-
  true Three already had a wife and children did not matter to his sire. Some years later, Ventrue 
  Three’s sire suffered an unfortunate accident that resulted in his destruction. Ventrue Three now 
  holds back from political machinations, though many Kindred still request his help in securing 
  havens. Ventrue Three’s great secret is that he drank his young son dry in frenzy… and, mad with 
  horror and remorse, Embraced him immediately afterward. The rest of his mortal family now 
  serves as his ghouls and conditioned retainers, hiding and protecting his undead son.
  Yes, they are all Ventrue businessmen, but players would never forget who’s who.
  When plotting out your cast of support characters, keep in mind that all of these parts 
  will have to be played out at one time or another. Do not arrange for so many characters 
  that you and your staff have to continuously change hats throughout the long evening of 
  the game sessions. 
  Talk to your staff and decide the minimum of supporting cast roles that need to be ﬁ lled. 
  Make arrangements with your staff of Narrators to ﬁ ll these roles but try to remain in posi-
  tions outside the ﬂ ow of action. If you become so enmeshed in the web of deceit going on 
  in your chronicle, some might accuse you of bias toward certain other characters and events. 
  Also, if you are so busy interacting with players as a strong character, you will ﬁ nd yourself 
  distracted from adjudicating rules and other Storyteller concerns.
  supporting cast • crafting stories
  Crafting Stories
  You’ve outlined the chronicle you want to tell, designed a setting and detailed the major 
  Storyteller characters who inhabit your World of Darkness. For their part, your players have 
  created their own characters and made suggestions you incorporated into your plot and set-
  ting. It’s time to begin play and turn this mass of notions into actual stories. Now all that 
  background work starts paying off because you know your World of Darkness well enough 
  
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  to concentrate on telling stories, and to improvise when the players’ characters do something 
  you didn’t expect.
  PRELUDES
  As an introduction to your chronicle, you might want to run a brief, solo story about each 
  character’s Embrace — a set of preludes. Some Storytellers prefer just to talk over these details 
  with their players, so they can launch straight into the plot. The Embrace is perhaps the most 
  important event in a character’s unlife, though. It deserves a little extra attention. A prelude 
  helps players get to know their characters before the chronicle really begins. It’s a chance to 
  establish relationships with the Storyteller characters who matter most to each character, 
  especially the character’s sire, and to ﬁ nd out how the character feels about his Requiem.
  It’s also tremendously dramatic. Indeed, you can’t get much more dramatic than your own 
  death. The Embrace begins in a moment of hot pain and spurting blood as the sire bites 
  the character. Did the character accept the Embrace willingly, seduced by his sire’s promises? 
  Did he even ask for it? Or was he taken by force? Whether the character wanted to become a 
  vampire or not, however, the Kiss quickly turns terror into ecstasy, wiping away any resistance. 
  As the character’s blood drains away to feed his sire, he feels himself dying, but it’s far too 
  late to struggle, assuming he could think past the pleasure of the Kiss. He sinks into darkness 
  and death — as if it were the most perfect sleep. And then…
  …he’s back. Back in a body turned cold, with his sire’s blood in his mouth. And he’s so 
  empty. So hungry. He smells blood in the air, warm blood of the living. Driven by instincts 
  he cannot yet name, he rises to attack his ﬁ rst prey, to feed for the ﬁ rst time, perhaps to 
  make his ﬁ rst kill. And then what does he do? By playing out the story of the Embrace and 
  the character’s ﬁ rst victim, you can show the conﬂ icts and urges that set the Kindred apart 
  from the kine.
  ASSEMBLING THE COTERIE
  After launching the characters into their unlives, you need to bring them together into a 
  coterie. Since The Requiem is so much about the interactions between the characters, you 
  can’t just have the characters meet in a bar (or an Elysium) and decide to go on an adventure 
  together. That works just ﬁ ne in some genres, but not here. The characters need some reason 
  to associate with each other. Establishing this reason could form the subject of the ﬁ rst story 
  in the chronicle, though you can begin a chronicle with the characters already together. As 
  with preludes, however, playing out the characters’ meeting can help the players develop 
  greater insight into their characters and how they interact. It can lay the groundwork for 
  possible conﬂ icts in the future.
  How you bring the characters together depends in part on the type and purpose of the 
  coterie. Internal factors such as camaraderie, belonging to the same clan or running a busi-
  ness together can pull together the members of a coterie. External factors such as a common 
  enemy or a shared duty assigned to them by the Prince can push them together. Some 
  examples include:
  • The Gang’s All Here: The characters knew each other before the Embrace, so they stay 
  together afterward. This decision does raise the question of why a number of vampires would 
  choose to sire childer more or less at the same time, and pick a particular group of mortals. 
  (The Willpower cost of the Embrace almost guarantees that no Kindred would Embrace all 
  the characters together, though a creative Storyteller can devise a justiﬁ cation for such a deed.) 
  If the characters form a group with impressive abilities, perhaps a whole faction of Kindred 
  could agree to recruit them as childer and minions, as in…
  
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  • The Sire’s Ready Hand: A group of allied Kindred carefully choose the characters to 
  form a group of elite agents. Each character brings special skills and mortal connections to 
  the coterie. The characters probably had little choice about their Embrace, or about working 
  together. They might have been manipulated, deceived or coerced outright. Such a situation 
  can link all the character preludes into one tale of terror, while introducing the characters to 
  the goals and conﬂ icts that will drive the chronicle.
  • As The Prince Commands: For a variation, the characters might be Embraced for 
  personal reasons, but the city’s Prince calls them together some time later and assigns them 
  a particular task or responsibility. The characters might be tied by nothing more than a 
  handshake or by the power of a common Vinculum to the one who assembled them. Aside 
  from this shared duty, however, the characters do not need to have anything in common. 
  In fact, they might hate each other. Such a coterie can be difﬁ cult to play. If the players and 
  Storyteller work to ﬁ nd ways for the characters to set aside or work through their differences, 
  however, it can lead to some intense roleplaying and Storytelling.
  Both of these two premises for a coterie have the advantage that they can accommodate 
  characters of any clan or covenant. The players and characters also receive a well-deﬁ ned goal. 
  (Of course, the stated goal might turn out not to be the real challenge at the heart of the 
  chronicle.) On the other hand, some players deeply dislike playing characters who have to take 
  orders. If that’s the case, either don’t use this premise at all, or quickly lead the characters out 
  of their subordinate position. The Kindred who oversees them might meet his Final Death, 
  or the characters might ﬁ nd a reason and opportunity to rebel.
  • Outcasts: The characters are pariahs in Kindred society. Perhaps each character did some-
  thing so shameful that other Kindred despise them. Perhaps a character’s sire was destroyed 
  for some crime, and her childer inherit her disgrace. Perhaps a character exiles himself to 
  escape a tyrannical sire. Whatever the reason, the characters have no one to rely on but each 
  other, at least among their fellow vampires. Some characters might seek to acquire enough 
  power or prestige to rejoin Kindred society, or clear their names of a false accusation. Others 
  might simply band together to carve out their own hunting turf and defend it from other 
  Kindred. A coterie of outcasts might even declare war on the other Kindred. For instance, 
  a coterie of diablerists becomes outcast the moment any other Kindred discover their goal. 
  Stalking and slaying older Kindred offers such a coterie a fast track to supernatural power, 
  at least in terms of their Blood Potency, but it carries grave risks and exacts a terrible price 
  on the character’s souls.
  • Spirits of Like Mind: The predatory and territorial nature of the Kindred does not pre-
  vent them from forming relationships based on shared experiences and common interests. A 
  shared belief or goal could draw together Kindred from diverse clans, and perhaps even from 
  different covenants (though the covenants are themselves based on common interests).
  A coterie might share a relatively straightforward goal, such as the aforementioned outcasts 
  who work together to seize a common hunting ground against the opposition of more powerful 
  but solitary Kindred. Common enemies, such as a force of Lupines or mortal mages system-
  atically destroying the city’s Kindred, offer another simple reason to work together. A coterie 
  could also follow political goals, such as the sample plot’s revolt against a tyrannical Prince, 
  or protecting mortal society from undead manipulation. Characters might feel conﬂ icts of 
  loyalty between their common goal and any ties to their clan, covenant or sire.
  CONFLICT WITHIN THE COTERIE
  Some of these coterie premises assume a greater or lesser degree of conﬂ ict between the 
  characters. Both you and your players might want to discuss the degree of internal conﬂ ict 
  preludes • assembling the coterie
  
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  and treachery you can accept in a chronicle. Tastes differ. For some players, having characters 
  at each other’s throats (when they aren’t stabbing each other in the back) offers unparalleled 
  roleplaying opportunities. Other players prefer characters to cooperate, considering betrayal 
  among the characters an insult to the other players. They would rather see treachery limited 
  to Kindred outside the coterie, while their characters remain honorably loyal to each other.
  Ambition and manipulation, however, are built-in parts of the Kindred condition. While you 
  should never force betrayal on characters (and players) who don’t want it, the mere possibility 
  of treachery, deception and hidden agendas are powerful themes a Storyteller can draw upon 
  to evoke the ultimately lonely, isolated horror of being a vampire. It’s enough to assemble a 
  group of characters with potentially opposing goals. In proper dramatic fashion, you offer 
  choices: At various points in the chronicle, set up situations when characters could follow 
  personal agendas at the expense of the group’s objectives, and let them decide what to do.
  Consider a coterie in which one character sees diablerie as a way to take revenge on other 
  Kindred for being dragged into undeath. Another member has political ambitions and wants 
  to curry favor with the city’s older and more powerful vampires. A third member thinks he’s 
  fallen in love with one of the city’s Primogen. Each of these three might face some tempta-
  tion to exploit another member’s goals. The diablerist could pretend to help the would-be 
  lover pursue his passion, in hopes of gaining unguarded access to the Primogen. The lover 
  could feel bound to expose the diablerist for the sake of the Primogen, or might see the social 
  climber’s shmoozing as a way to get close to his love. The political aspirant, meanwhile, could 
  see a chance to manipulate the other two, ﬁ rst assisting in the destruction of the Primogen 
  and then betraying the diablerist in hopes of winning a place among the city’s elite. Or they 
  could keep faith with each other: All three of them might decide that their personal goals 
  aren’t worth hurting an ally. The choice is theirs.
  FIGHTING WITHIN THE RANKS
  In live-action games, players often compete openly against one another for 
  resources, position and power. So how do you prevent the aggressive nature of vampire 
  society from crossing over into the real world feelings of your players? After all, most 
  vampires are complete bastards to each other. Are your players mature enough to 
  leave game events at the door?
  A good Storyteller should be up front about the nature of the chronicle from the 
  beginning. The actions of a character should not be an out-of-game reﬂ ection of the 
  player herself. If you feel that some players are starting to take aspects of in-game 
  events personally, take them aside privately and politely address your concerns. If it 
  continues to be a problem address it with your staff.
  INTERLOCKING BACKGROUNDS
  Whatever the justiﬁ cation for bringing a coterie together is, the Storyteller can strengthen 
  the ties between characters by interweaving the people and events of their backgrounds. For 
  instance, two players might say that their characters worked for a major corporation before 
  their Embrace. Could it be the same corporation? One character’s sister could be the woman 
  who broke another character’s heart. The drug dealer who ruined one character’s life worked 
  for another character’s sire.
  You can overdo this, making it seem like a city contains only a dozen people apart from the 
  characters, and too many soap-operatic interconnections can make the players roll their eyes. 
  Still, it can be convenient to give each character an indirect link to one or two other characters. 
  For instance, you can use one Storyteller character as a hook to draw two players’ characters into 
  
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  a story, instead of just one. In the end, the more that the characters feel they have a personal 
  stake in a story, the better the chances are that the other characters will go along.
  PLOTS
  The plot is the chain of cause and effect that links the events of the story.
  Just like the chronicle as a whole, each story needs a central idea that you develop through 
  a beginning, middle and end. In the story’s beginning, you present a situation that drives the 
  characters to act. The middle consists of what the characters do about the situation, and how 
  other characters respond to their actions. The situation resolves itself at the story’s end.
  A good plot needs focus. You should be able to sum up a plot’s premise in a few sentences. 
  For instance:
  • The leader of the coterie’s covenant asks the characters to convey a gift to the Mekhet 
  Priscus, with whom he wants an alliance. The Nosferatu Primogen, however, wants to block 
  the alliance by stealing the gift.
  • Members of a character’s herd are disappearing. A Carthian whom the coterie has never 
  met approaches to say he has a clue.
  • A character’s mother, who thought he was dead, discovers that he still exists and wants 
  him to come home — but she doesn’t know he’s a vampire.
  If you cannot explain a plot in a sentence or two, you are probably trying to do too much at 
  once. Very likely, you actually have two or three plots in mind. Pare your idea down into one 
  or two central actions. Then work out what causes these central events, and what happens 
  once the characters get involved.
  PRIMARY PLOTS, SECONDARY PLOTS AND SUBPLOTS
  Not all plots serve the same function. Primary plots help to advance the overarching plot of 
  the chronicle. They form chapters in a longer story. Secondary plots are more self-contained. 
  They may have nothing to do with the chronicle’s main plot, but provide entertaining diver-
  sions. A subplot is a smaller story that runs alongside other plots and concerns just one or 
  two of the characters.
  A chronicle should intersperse primary and secondary plots, with a few subplots now and 
  then. Unless a chronicle is very brief and focused, it just doesn’t make sense that everything 
  that happens to the coterie revolves around one conﬂ ict or situation. Secondary plots and 
  subplots let you develop aspects of the characters that the main story might not call upon. 
  Diversions from the main plot also keep the players on their toes, because they don’t know 
  whether a particular story has some wider signiﬁ cance. Events that look unconnected to 
  the main story might later turn out to be very important indeed — maybe even if you didn’t 
  plan them that way. For instance, the coterie could make an enemy in a secondary story who 
  returns to oppose them in a primary plot.
  For your primary plots, refer back to your chronicle outline. Where are the characters in this 
  overarching story? What’s the next step the characters must take to advance the plot, or what 
  special challenges or decisions should they face? At the start of a chronicle, most primary plots 
  might involve meeting the city’s other Kindred and deciding upon their allies and enemies. 
  Returning to the “Revolution” sample story, one primary plot might involve one character’s sire 
  bringing the coterie on a visit to another inﬂ uential vampire. In the course of this meeting, the 
  characters incur the jealousy of the other vampire’s childe, who will become an ongoing rival 
  to one character, but they also see the ﬁ rst hint of unrest at the Prince’s heavy-handed rule.
  Anything goes for secondary plots. They might serve as a change of pace. If the characters 
  have sweated through a series of grim and difﬁ cult moral dilemmas in the primary plots, maybe 
  it’s time to break the tension with a simple brawl or something darkly humorous. Perhaps 
  assembling the coterie • plots
  
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  they meet a band of enthusiastic, would-be vampire-hunters who possess more weaponry and 
  enthusiasm than skill, knowledge or sense? The challenge becomes to survive these lunatics 
  and maybe, if the characters feel generous, persuade them to quit before they kill themselves 
  with their extremely unsafe improvised weapons. On the other hand, if the characters have 
  become a bit complacent about their undeath, maybe it’s time to hit them with a story about 
  a mortal family member or lover who becomes a victim of cutthroat Kindred intrigue. Sec-
  ondary plots also offer a chance for you to experiment with different Storytelling styles and 
  techniques, and as transitions between one major story and another.
  Subplots are good for character development. They provide extra conﬂ icts and obstacles that 
  may complicate the resolution of a main story. For instance, one character’s subplot about her 
  attempt to provide for her mortal children without revealing that she still exists as a vampire 
  might conﬂ ict with her obligations to the coterie or to her sire. Another character’s attempt 
  to gain favor within a particular covenant may draw her into conﬂ ict with a clan leader with 
  whom the coterie seeks an alliance. Such conﬂ icts provide more chances for characters to 
  make decisions that inﬂ uence the course of the main story.
  If you and your players developed characters in sufﬁ cient detail, many of your stories will easily 
  spin off additional complications for individual members of the coterie. Use subplots based on 
  a character’s background or current activities to further enmesh the character in your setting. 
  Subplots also give players a chance to contribute more ideas and deeds into how your World 
  of Darkness develops. One subplot per character at a time is usually enough, though, and you 
  don’t have to bring every subplot into every story. If your subplots don’t leave enough time for 
  the main story to advance, trim a few subplots or put them on hold for the time being.
  CONFLICTS
  Stories usually revolve around some sort of conﬂ ict. A conﬂ ict consists of some obstacle or 
  opposing force that characters must overcome to achieve their goals and resolve the plot. This 
  doesn’t have to mean a ﬁ ght, though that’s one possibility. Some conﬂ icts take place within 
  characters, rather than between them. For instance, suppose that the characters’ patron, a 
  member of the Primogen, asks the coterie to eliminate several key mortal servants of a rival 
  Primogen — without revealing who did it, of course. The characters face external conﬂ ict in 
  the form of the mortals’ bodyguards and security systems, the need to preserve the Masquerade 
  and the equal need to conceal their involvement from the rival Primogen. They might also face 
  internal conﬂ icts. Characters with a high Humanity could balk at cold-blooded assassination, 
  which could spark another layer of conﬂ ict within the coterie, or between the characters and 
  their patron. Even if murder per se no longer bothers the characters very much, a character 
  might object if he has a personal connection to one of the victims.
  Storytellers should watch closely for chances to present the characters with such ethical 
  conﬂ icts. More than any other sort of conﬂ ict, an internal conﬂ ict presents the coterie with a 
  problem it cannot solve through brute force. Indeed, the very point of an ethical dilemma or 
  internal conﬂ ict might be that characters must decide what constitutes an acceptable solution. 
  It makes the players think, and it can produce superb drama and roleplaying.
  The usual sorts of conﬂ icts break down into a number of categories:
  • Kindred vs. Himself: The character faces divided loyalties or conﬂ icting desires. A character 
  can follow two goals, but achieving one means abandoning the others. Therefore, the character 
  must decide where his priorities lie: Keep faith with one ally or the other? Seek power, or pre-
  serve his Humanity at all costs? Protect mortal loved ones by staying close to them, or protect 
  them by staying away? Even a character’s Vices can produce conﬂ icts. For instance, a character 
  who known for Pride (as a personality aspect) and Greed (as a game trait, via his Vice) might 
  
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  encounter a situation in which he can make a lot of money but only if he abases himself to 
  another person, or in which he can humiliate a rival but at great expense to himself.
  • Kindred vs. the Beast: Vampires cannot avoid this conﬂ ict, and they never know when 
  it might erupt. Storytellers can exacerbate the conﬂ ict with the Beast by creating situations 
  where a character must resist frenzy, Rötschreck or Wassail to achieve their goal, or in which 
  surrender to the Beast could destroy something (or someone) the character holds dear. In 
  the longer term, the struggle to retain or recover Humanity — maybe even to seek Golconda 
  — can form the basis of an entire chronicle.
  • Kindred vs. Kindred: Individual Kindred may oppose each other because of clashing 
  ambitions, competition for hunting grounds, moral differences, or because they just don’t like 
  each other. We’ve already given several examples of reasons why characters within a coterie 
  might disagree and need to resolve differences.
  • Weak vs. Strong: Differences in status and power can drive conﬂ ict between Kindred. 
  Younger Kindred fear and envy the power of their elders. Unaligned Kindred with more at-
  titude than experience chafe at the rule of the Prince, Primogen, covenants and clan leaders. 
  On the other hand, older Kindred fear their resentful childer — but what can they do? If they 
  give away any of their own power and inﬂ uence, their rivals might gain an edge. The power-
  ful also stick together out of conviction that their childer lack the prudence that comes with 
  experience and could endanger the Masquerade if they were not ruled with a ﬁ rm hand.
  • Clan vs. Clan: Each of the clans has its own culture, interests and viewpoint that give 
  them grounds to disagree as groups. The Ventrue tend to think they should be in charge; 
  other Kindred often disagree. The unnerving nature of the Nosferatu frequently makes them 
  unwelcome in polite society; they seek to claim the power and status they feel they deserve. All 
  too often, though, the conﬂ ict between clans within a city grows from some personal slight 
  that one clan member offered another. Both clans close ranks out of pride, the members of 
  one clan demanding an apology and the other clan refusing to knuckle under.
  • Covenant vs. Covenant: Each covenant espouses a particular ideology of how vampires 
  should organize and comport themselves, from the strict hierarchy and formality of the In-
  victus to the modern populism of the Carthians. Believing that you are right usually involves 
  believing that people who disagree with you are wrong, so that gives any covenant grounds for 
  conﬂ ict with any other covenant. Any alliance between covenants is most likely temporary, at 
  least as Kindred reckon such things, but a covenant that shows too much hostility could unite 
  the other covenants in a coalition against it. Within covenants, conﬂ ict can arise between 
  different interpretations of the covenant’s doctrines and practices. Most obviously, some 
  covenant members might be more willing to compromise with other Kindred, while other 
  members demand strict adherence to ideology.
  • Clan vs. Covenant: Although Kindred of any clan might join any covenant, each clan 
  favors some covenants over others. The leaders of a clan and covenant within a city might 
  oppose each other, and drag their followers into conﬂ ict. That becomes awkward for any 
  character who falls within both groups. You can build a conﬂ ict between any other factions 
  or centers of power, too: Prince vs. clan, covenant vs. Primogen, and so on.
  • Individual vs. Society: Kindred society, like mortal society, has its rules. Some rules, like 
  the Traditions or the prerogatives of sires and Princes, are explicitly stated. Some are not. 
  Even the Carthians, who deny the traditional primacy of Princes, and the unaligned, who 
  deny any authority beyond their own coterie leaders or even themselves, follow their own 
  standards of conduct. Anyone who challenges the rules of his society, be it Kindred, kine, 
  covenant or clan, gets into trouble with the people who believe in those rules and have a stake 
  in enforcing them. Kindred who endanger the Masquerade by letting mortal associates know 
  plots • conﬂ icts
  
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  they are vampires violate the most important taboo of Kindred society and set up themselves 
  and their loved ones for a potentially deadly conﬂ ict. So do any characters who try to change 
  the nature of Kindred society itself, or at least the current regime of the city’s vampires.
  • Kindred vs. Mortal World: The Kindred defend the Masquerade with such zeal because 
  they know that in a concerted war between Kindred and kine, the mortals would easily win. 
  Kindred power depends on mortals not knowing how the undead manipulate their lives. 
  Therefore, the Masquerade imposes serious restraints on a coterie’s actions. Sure, maybe a 
  group of Kindred can use its supernatural powers to subvert, work around or kill any mortal 
  who gets in its way… but every use of supernatural power is potentially a Masquerade breach 
  that its members must cover up later.
  Some mortals do know the Kindred exist, and hunt them. Some of these people support the 
  Masquerade in order to preserve their own secrets, to prevent panic or to prevent a far more dan-
  gerous fascination with the power of the undead. Other vampire-hunters simply lack credibility in 
  the public eye. All sorts of vampire-hunters pose an obvious threat to the unlives of any Kindred 
  they encounter. Hunters who want to expose the existence of the Kindred present a further chal-
  lenge, in that characters must discredit or silence them as well as survive their attacks.
  The most gripping conﬂ icts, however, arise when Kindred come into conﬂ ict with the mor-
  tals they once loved. How do you explain to your parents, your best friend or your spouse that 
  you are worse than dead? How do they react if they discover what a monster you have become? 
  When it comes to mortal loved ones, the options for Kindred range from bad to worse.
  • Kindred vs. Other Supernatural Creatures: The Kindred share the World of Darkness 
  with a variety of other supernatural creatures. They know that ghosts, Lupines and mortal 
  mages exist. Dubious rumors tell of everything from elves to demons to creatures of pure 
  nightmare. Very few Kindred actually meet other supernaturals, and most would like to 
  keep it that way. Now and then, however, Kindred ﬁ nd themselves challenged by encounters 
  with other dwellers in the hidden world. Sometimes the challenge consists of surviving and 
  escaping the encounter (the usual course with Lupines). Sometimes the challenge consists 
  of recognizing the very existence of a supernatural force, ﬁ guring out its powers and motives 
  and carefully working out boundaries that both sides can respect.
  DEVELOPING THE STORY
  You have an idea for your story; you know which players’ characters and Storyteller characters 
  will be involved; you’ve decided what challenge or conﬂ ict the characters will face. Now it’s 
  time to plan the structure of the story and block out possible scenes. Most importantly, you 
  need to ﬁ gure out why the characters get involved.
  CHARACTER HOOKS
  “Hooks” are story jargon for factors that draw a character into a plot. In some games, the 
  players readily accept that their job is to throw their characters into whatever situation is 
  presented for them, but a Storytelling game demands a little more attention to the characters’ 
  motivation. Kindred don’t go haring about, possibly risking their unlives, because some mys-
  terious sixth sense tells them a story has begun. As a Storyteller, however, you possess a vast 
  arsenal of ways to draw characters into stories. Here are some of the more common sorts:
  • The Carrot: A character sees a chance to get something she wants. This might be anything 
  from blackmail information about a Priscus to meeting her favorite writer at a bookstore 
  signing. The character tries to acquire what she wants, so she places herself in the middle 
  of the story as it begins. For instance, the person who has the blackmail information wants 
  $10,000 in return, which the character doesn’t have; a fan who’s a mage also comes to the 
  bookstore, and realizes the character is a vampire.
  
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  • The Stick: Some external threat forces the characters to take action. Typical examples 
  include the Prince telling the coterie to perform a mission or suffer the consequences. Or 
  an enemy attacks the characters (physically or by slander, personally or by proxy, or attacks 
  someone close to the characters). The characters get involved to prevent something worse 
  from happening to them.
  • It’s My Job: The character has a professional obligation to get involved. A Sheriff, Whip 
  or Scourge doesn’t ask for a motivation when her Prince, Priscus, covenant leader or other 
  superior gives an assignment. This being the World of Darkness, the job could turn out to be 
  something quite different than the character initially thought. For instance, does the Invictus 
  Prince really want the Circle of the Crone Hierophant’s murder solved?
  • Curiosity: If a character possesses a special interest in some subject, any event that relates 
  to that subject might attract the character’s attention. For example, a Circle of the Crone 
  blood sorcerer might want to investigate strange events that hint of magic at work.
  • Personal Connections: Someone close to the character — a mentor, rival, or one of those 
  mortal friends, relatives, partners and other contacts you made the player deﬁ ne — is already 
  involved. This person needs help or has attracted attention that extends to the character. The 
  person might want something from the character, or the character might want something 
  from the person. For instance, a character might learn that his old girlfriend is deeply in 
  debt to a loan shark, who now demands that she work as a prostitute, or the character’s sire 
  draws him into her plot against a rival.
  Early in the chronicle, you need to work especially hard to provide hooks for all the charac-
  ters. Character One wants to investigate the museum burglary because one of the stolen items 
  might be magical. Character Two helps because he used to be a cop and still doesn’t like thieves. 
  Character Three has a contact who works as a museum guard and was injured in the burglary. 
  The coterie is still new, so the characters might not have very strong reasons to work together. As 
  the chronicle progresses, the characters probably build up some trust and a sense of obligation 
  to each other. If the characters don’t especially like each other, they might still accept that they 
  have to help with each other’s problems and schemes in order to receive help in return.
  In the longer term, you need to give characters a reason to care about the challenges that 
  drive the chronicle as a whole. That was the whole point of negotiating with the players about 
  their characters and the rough premise of the chronicle. It couldn’t hurt, though, to review 
  the chronicle now and then and ask yourself how well your stories have drawn the characters 
  into the overarching plot. Using the “Revolution” sample plot, for instance, if the characters 
  don’t already loathe the tyrant Prince by the time they meet the revolutionary ancilla, you 
  haven’t made the Prince’s tyranny matter enough to the characters. Its past time you had the 
  Prince do something truly vicious to maintain his power at the coterie’s expense.
  OPTIONAL RULE: THE PRICE OF BLOOD
  The acquisition of blood occupies a great deal of time and attention for vampires. 
  Most spend years cultivating potential donors or locating areas where a potential 
  missing person is not going to be noticed. In a Requiem session, a character has traits 
  that help determine how difﬁ cult it is to acquire an evening’s meal. Storytellers can use 
  this optional method, however, to reduce draws and really drive home how harrowing 
  this activity can be. This method requires some additional planning on the part of the 
  Storytelling staff, but it can be very rewarding to players and Storytellers alike. 
  The only props required for this method is an opaque bowl or other container and 
  some glass or plastic beads of varying colors. The suggested variation should be no 
  more than four colors; for this example we will use red, purple, green and black. The 
  beads represent the amount of Vitae available in a given city setting. Each time a 
  developing the story • character hooks
  
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  player wants to attempt to feed, he must ﬁ nd the member of the Storytelling staff 
  who is in charge of the bowl. He informs this person of his desire to have his character 
  feed and explains the method he intends to use. The player then reaches blindly into 
  the bowl and draws a bead. The color will dictate how successful he is.
  Red would normally be the most plentiful color in the bowl as it represents that 
  the feeding went as planned. That player is out of game for the appropriate amount 
  of time of his feeding as required as set by the Storyteller. If another color is drawn, 
  however, some complication arises, the degree of which is dictated by the color of 
  the bead drawn. These complications are worked out in advance by the Storyteller 
  staff so they can easily be modiﬁ ed to ﬁ t the appropriate circumstance of feeding. 
  The vampire must then resolve these issues before returning to regular game-play. 
  For example, if a purple bead (the second most plentiful color of bead) is drawn, then 
  a minor difﬁ culty has come up in the attempt. Perhaps the victim was on some sort 
  of hallucinogenic substance that now translates over to the vampire feeding from 
  her. If a green bead (a major difﬁ culty) is drawn, then a friend of the victim shows 
  up unexpectedly and interrupts the feeding.
  If the ﬁ nal type of bead — in our example the black bead — is drawn, then there is a 
  large crisis the character must deal with, which could lead to a potential breach of the 
  Masquerade. Perhaps a police vice raid is occurring at the location where the character 
  is feeding, or the character sees the ﬂ ash of a camera at the other end of the alley then 
  watches as a car speeds away. (Or perhaps the feeding goes off without a hitch… as far 
  as the character knows.) Obviously, the black beads are to be employed sparingly. 
  By adding and removing different colors of beads in different amounts, the 
  Storyteller can simulate problems in feeding as the city dictates. If there is a police 
  crackdown in the city, then more red beads would be removed and replaced with more 
  purple and some green to simulate enforced curfews and stepped-up police patrols. 
  If players start to use their inﬂ uence to reduce the police presence in the city, then 
  the other colors can be replaced with more red. Characters with certain backgrounds 
  might be able to negate or lessen a bad draw, as dictated by the Storyteller. 
  SETTING THE STAGE
  As you pique the characters’ interest, you need to draw them into the story and set out the 
  challenges they face. You shouldn’t reveal everything at once, though. Give them only part of 
  the situation. The players need some goal for their characters to accomplish. To accomplish that 
  goal, however, they need to follow leads that you plant. For example, if you present them with 
  a mysterious death (that, for some reason, they cannot leave to the police), they can interview 
  people who knew the victim and search for physical clues. If they try to forge an alliance with an 
  inﬂ uential Kindred, they need to ﬁ gure out what she wants and how they can serve each other’s 
  interests. Clever players can look ahead and anticipate where the coterie’s actions might lead. 
  If they don’t, they leave their characters open to all sorts of complications and plot twists.
  Early in the story, you also present the important characters, if only by implication. For 
  instance, if the point of the story is the search for an unknown person who kidnapped one 
  character’s mortal brother, the characters might never have met the kidnapper before. They 
  know they’re after someone, however, so the mystery kidnapper counts as “introduced.”
  After the ﬁ rst hour of play, the players should have a pretty good idea what challenge the 
  characters face, what conﬂ ict awaits them, and what other characters matter for the story, 
  even if they haven’t met all those characters yet. They could, of course, be mistaken on several 
  counts. In the World of Darkness, matters are seldom how they seem. The characters have a 
  direction, though, and the story is well begun.
  BUILDING THE ACTION
  The bulk of the story consists of the characters’ initial actions to deal with the situation they 
  discovered in the introduction, other characters’ responses to those actions, and the coterie’s 
  
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  deeds in return. The characters learn more about the situations, including a few surprises. They 
  meet other characters, gather information, implement plans and face minor challenges.
  Not every surprise necessarily comes because someone lied to the coterie. Storyteller char-
  acters might be misinformed, ignorant or outright deluded themselves. Other characters 
  might blunder into someone’s careful plan and disrupt it. For instance, the mystery kidnapper 
  might demand that the coterie rob a certain art dealer in order to get the abducted brother 
  back safely — only when the characters open the dealer’s vault, they ﬁ nd no trace of the art 
  treasure they were told to steal. Was the whole situation a complicated setup? Was the kid-
  napper misinformed about the art dealer, or the item? Did someone else buy the art treasure 
  the day before? Whatever your devious mind has planned, the characters just experienced 
  a plot twist. The challenge they thought they would face (burglary) was replaced by another 
  challenge (where is the art treasure, and what the heck is really going on?), though the main 
  challenge of the plot (secure the brother’s return or rescue) still needs resolution.
  When you design the middle portion of a story, you need to decide who knows what and is 
  doing what, but leave room for the characters to make their own decisions, including multiple 
  possible courses of action. Storytelling the middle of a game demands some ﬂ exibility since 
  everyone is reacting to everyone else and you don’t really know what actions the characters 
  will choose. You can (and should) furnish hints that some courses of action are more useful 
  than others. Just as you should try to surprise the players at least once in a story, you can also 
  expect they will surprise you now and then. If you know your World of Darkness and your 
  Storyteller characters, however, you can work out how other people respond to unexpected 
  choices by the characters.
  CLIMAX
  At the story’s climax, all the chains of cause and effect come together. The characters face 
  the biggest challenge and succeed, fail or decide what, indeed, constitutes success. Their deci-
  sion and actions resolve the central conﬂ ict. Mysteries are explained. They ﬁ nd the missing art 
  treasure and exchange it for the brother. Or they go after the kidnapper directly, to succeed 
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  or fail in a rescue attempt. Or they discover who pulled the kidnapper’s strings, or whatever 
  the real story turned out to be.
  Make sure your climax is worth the effort that the players and characters invested to get 
  there. This is a golden rule for Storytelling. Arty modern novels can get away with anticlimax 
  now and then, but a group of players who spent hours trying to achieve a goal feel cheated 
  if they learn it was all for nothing. Give them something spectacular at the story’s climax: 
  the most wrenching ethical decision, the most dangerous ﬁ ght, the most enigmatic puzzle, 
  the most difﬁ cult social challenge. The rewards, of course, are proportionally great, whether 
  that reward consists of money, victory over an enemy, social prestige or a brother rescued. 
  Conversely, the price of failure becomes higher as well.
  AFTERMATH
  After the climax, the story probably still has a few loose ends. The characters learn the con-
  sequences of their choices. Other people react to their deeds. Remaining questions might ﬁ nd 
  their answer. The aftermath phase might not need much intensive roleplaying. Much of it could 
  be downtime, which you simply describe. You might include a question-and-answer period in 
  which the characters can explore points of special interest, such as, “What does my sire say about 
  this?” or, “What can we ﬁ nd out about that art treasure’s history?” Some scenes, such as receiving 
  a reward (or dressing-down) from the Prince, should still be roleplayed — but brieﬂ y.
  The aftermath connects the coterie’s actions back out to a wider world. Doing so reinforces 
  the sense that the characters’ actions matter to other people too, and they dwell in a wider 
  world. This, in turn, sustains the players’ interest and curiosity. Meanwhile, you can also plant 
  the seeds of future stories. Not every question is necessarily answered, and some Storyteller 
  characters might react to the coterie’s achievement by setting their own plans in motion. 
  Such connections between stories turn a series of events and challenges into a chronicle. You 
  already know how your stories ﬁ t together into a greater whole. The ties between one story’s 
  aftermath and another story’s introduction show your players how it all ﬁ ts together, too.
  Technical Matters
  There you have the basics of constructing stories and chronicles. Storytelling is a perfor-
  mance art, however. It’s not enough to have a great plot. You must also try to present the story 
  in an interesting, exciting way that draws in your players and makes them feel the horror of 
  their characters’ existence.
  You learn the craft of Storytelling by doing it. Just as with stories and chronicles, however, 
  you can prepare for your “performance” by practicing some simple techniques that make 
  your story more vivid. This section also tells how to avoid a few of the pitfalls that can make 
  your chronicle less enjoyable.
  DESCRIPTION, SETTING AND MOOD
  Horror, especially personal, gothic horror, depends on what you feel more than what you 
  do or what sort of props surround your character. How you present people, places and events 
  goes a long way to making your chronicle a World of Darkness instead of a World of Action 
  Movie With Vampires or, even worse, a World of Campy Humor. (If you want an action-movie 
  or camp humor style, go ahead. You bought this game; you can play it how you choose. We 
  assume, however, that you bought The Requiem because you thought a “Modern Gothic 
  Storytelling Game” sounded interesting — so that’s what we tell you how to do.)
  
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  All this goes for characters, too. Show some detail that individualizes each Storyteller char-
  acter and suggests how the players should feel about them. You have a harder job with this 
  than the players do, since they have to create only one vivid character each, while you have to 
  manage a world (or at least a city). Minor characters who appear only once need only one or 
  two details to keep them from seeming like identical drones. Important Storyteller characters 
  should receive all the detail you can gracefully convey to the players. Get inside their heads 
  to work out how they talk and react to the players’ characters. Give them quirks in how they 
  dress or how they talk. For instance, one character might always wear immaculately polished 
  black shoes and tap the side of his nose whenever he makes a point.
  Above all, remember that Kindred characters are vampires. Their bodies are pale and cold, 
  they don’t breathe except to talk, they don’t eat, and they might not have seen daylight in a 
  long, long time. The older a vampire is, the less contemporary — maybe even the less human 
  — her personality will seem. Your description can include manners of speaking, clothing or 
  customs that the character acquired in her mortal life and went out of fashion decades or 
  even centuries ago.
  ACTION AND VIOLENCE
  Remember that these are not the same. Do try to keep the pace fast and the characters busy 
  doing something, whether they are running through alleys or discussing the signiﬁ cance of 
  an enigmatic postcard. You won’t achieve much horror with one ﬁ ght scene after another, 
  though.
  Violence is an important part of the World of Darkness. Vampires are consummate predators 
  in a cold and brutal world. They can’t avoid violence, whether it takes the form of grappling 
  with struggling mortal prey or an assassination attempt from an enemy’s hired knives.
  Combat is seldom an optimum way for Kindred to resolve their differences and other 
  challenges. Leaving aside the game-mechanical effect of Humanity loss, ﬁ ghting is danger-
  ous. Kindred can look forward to centuries of continued existence. Should they risk those 
  centuries and all they have built and may yet achieve? This is especially true for older Kindred 
  who have spent decades or centuries acquiring rank, alliances and mortal inﬂ uence as means 
  to get their way.
  Even in the World of Darkness, open violence also tends to attract the notice of the police. 
  If a vampire slaughters a punk in an alley, the cops probably shrug and put it down to gang 
  vendettas. If gunﬁ re erupts in the home of an eccentric tycoon (who doesn’t come out dur-
  ing the day…) and he is never seen again, the cops ask questions. Cops asking questions can 
  endanger the Masquerade. Heaven help the vampire who kills a cop: The police never stop 
  hunting a cop-killer. Again, such a pursuit can endanger the Masquerade… and in the World 
  of Darkness, police who catch up to a suspected cop-killer might decide to decide to save the 
  taxpayers the cost of a trial by killing the quarry themselves.
  Most of all, The Requiem is a game of drama. Characters face challenges that are meant 
  as tests of, well, character, not their ability to rack up a body count. Having someone trying 
  to kill you tends to inhibit moral questioning.
  THE HORROR OF MANY
  So how does a Storyteller convey a sense of personal horror in a chronicle that 
  consists of perhaps dozens of players? With so many stories, plots and people running 
  around, some details can be pushed to the sidelines. As the Storyteller, however, you 
  should deﬁ nitely make the effort to bring home the inhuman themes of the game. 
  No matter how your players view the subject, their characters’ inhuman nature should 
  become an issue at several points.
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  One idea of how to do so is to arrange for smaller sessions during downtime, 
  whether it’s as important or a private clan meeting or as intimate as playing out 
  the nightly interaction a character has with the humans around her. These smaller 
  sessions offer a chance for characters to get some spotlight time for themselves, but 
  it also allows a Storyteller to get up close and personal. Read over your notes on a 
  character’s background, and look for elements that can be used to contrast what the 
  character has become as opposed to what he once was. These events should never 
  feel as though they are being forced on the player; they should play out as normal 
  responses to events that have taken place in the chronicle or that were set up in a 
  character’s history.
  Perhaps an old friend recognizes the character as he visits one of his contacts, 
  who happens to live near the neighborhood in which the character grew up. Or a 
  bereaved relative catches a glimpse of the character at a family funeral and attempts 
  to follow him. If these examples seem a bit too direct or heavy-handed, feel free to 
  try something a bit more metaphorical or symbolic. For instance, a character might 
  run into a mortal who is much like he might have become had his sire not found 
  him, providing a glimpse of the road not taken. Or an elder who discovers that her 
  old family estate is about to be torn down might work to save it out of pure vanity, 
  only to ﬁ nd herself confronted with sunny childhood memories that haven’t surfaced 
  in centuries.
  Regardless, do your best to really bring home the concept that these characters were 
  once part of something natural and living, even if they never really realized it before. 
  Even if you only do so for a particular character once in the course of a chronicle, that 
  once will be more than enough if it’s memorable and well executed.
  MYSTERY AND INTRIGUE
  In the World of Darkness, few people, Kindred or kine, are entirely what they seem at ﬁ rst 
  glance or seek exactly the goals they say they do. Much is hidden, whether because it’s criminal, 
  shameful or just because someone wants an edge by deceiving the people around him.
  So never show the characters everything that’s going on. Keep them guessing through plot 
  twists, betrayals, hidden complications and surprising revelations.
  Running an actual mystery story presents challenges to Storytellers as well as players, 
  though. Your players might not know how to look for clues, gather testimony and construct 
  a chain of reasoning and evidence. As the Storyteller, you need to make an extra effort to 
  give the characters leads so the stumped players don’t just sit around in frustration, spinning 
  theories without knowing how to check them. Know your players: If you have a group of 
  Agatha Christie fans, feel free to present them with challenges to their logic and insight. If 
  they prefer the Mike Hammer approach, make the deceptions a bit less cunning and ensure 
  that the characters can ﬁ nd the answer if they show the determination to follow one lead 
  to the next.
  Intrigue among the Kindred demands discretion, too. If the characters feel they cannot 
  trust anyone, you have overdone the hidden agendas and betrayals. After all, a betrayal only 
  becomes shocking when trust existed before. Before one character’s treachery can outrage 
  another, the ﬁ rst character must have shown faith in other matters, so the reversal comes 
  as a genuine surprise. An excess of hidden agendas can also convince players that they can 
  never predict anyone’s motives or actions. In the most extreme case, the Storyteller characters 
  become “plot-bots” whose only motive seems to be to do whatever the Storyteller wants at 
  the moment, with no regard for any sort of consistency. One moment a character helps the 
  coterie, the next he’s screwing it over for no apparent reason. Make sure your Storyteller 
  characters have consistent motives in the various intrigues, even if those motives have more 
  than one layer.
  
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  PLOT DERAILMENT
  Now and then, the players throw you a curve by making a choice that takes their characters 
  beyond anything you planned. Perhaps they ignore the clue you thought would be obvious. 
  Perhaps they decide to change their relationship to an important Storyteller character without 
  warning, or to each other. Maybe one of the players has a brainstorm and guesses the central 
  mystery of your plot long before you thought anyone could — or maybe the players come 
  up with a completely wrong theory and refuse to accept any evidence of what’s really going 
  on. Maybe a freakishly lucky draw lets them kill a character who was supposed to remain an 
  adversary for the next several stories.
  Such situations have no easy or consistent answer. When the characters’ choices take the 
  chronicle in an unexpected direction, you should probably let them follow the new story 
  while watching for chances to nudge them back to the plot you had planned. Since you did 
  all that preparatory work to invent the details of your World of Darkness and your Storyteller 
  characters, you should be able to improvise something to keep the characters occupied.
  Changing your plot in mid-story so the characters can’t jump to the resolution pleases some 
  players and angers others. Some players don’t really want to short-circuit the sturm und drang of 
  their characters’ unlives. As long as you provide a gripping story, they don’t care if you cheat. 
  Other players want the Storyteller to act as a strictly neutral arbiter of an objectively deﬁ ned 
  world. If they anticipate the plot, they want their characters to proﬁ t by their lucky guess, 
  even if it means ending the story on an anticlimax. Likewise, if they blunder or completely 
  miss what’s really going on, they want their characters to suffer the consequences of their 
  mistake, even if it means their characters completely fail.
  The same goes for draws and game mechanics. Some players don’t mind if you fudge the me-
  chanics to keep the plot moving, whether it’s to save the unlife of an adversary not yet scheduled 
  to die or to help the characters ﬁ nd an important clue. They simply don’t want systematic fudging 
  to thwart or help their characters. Other players ﬁ nd such fudging outrageous and insulting.
  Talk to your players about rule-fudging and plot-shifting before you start the chronicle. 
  Give them a story they consider both fair and entertaining. If you ever feel you absolutely 
  must violate the standards they want for your chronicle for the sake of their entertainment… 
  make sure they don’t catch you at it. Even if the players don’t mind you cheating now and 
  then, make sure you exercise this privilege as seldom as possible. If you use it too often, the 
  players will soon feel that their characters can never really accomplish anything because suc-
  cess or failure was foreordained.
  THE COMMANDMENTS
  Like any artistic endeavor, Storytelling is a process and a skill you develop with practice. 
  At ﬁ rst, the task can seem overwhelming. The main elements to remember, however, break 
  down into these ten commandments:
  • Involve the Players Whenever Possible: Work their ideas and their character back-
  grounds into your city and chronicle. Not only does this reduce the amount of work you 
  have to do to build your World of Darkness, it gives the players a greater sense of involve-
  ment in the story.
  • Work with the Players’ Expectations: Remember that it’s their game too. Try to get some 
  idea of what sort of game your players want before you throw them into your chronicle.
  • Work Things out in Advance: The better you know your setting and characters before 
  game time, the more attention you can pay to telling the story and presenting interesting charac-
  ters. When the players throw you a curve, you’ll be better prepared to respond if you’ve already 
  worked through your story’s twists and turns and pondered possible alternate events.
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  • Story First, Rules Second: The rules are there to help you tell the story, not to get in 
  the way or to turn the game into a tactical exercise. Use the rules you need, when you need 
  them. When you can get by with narration, cooperation and common sense, do so. It saves 
  time that you can spend on more interesting things.
  • Design, Stagecraft and Action: Bring your world to life with as much careful stagecraft 
  execution as you give to your plot design. Craft immersive environments that make your 
  players really feel as though they’re somewhere else (or at least remove elements that remind 
  them they’re not). Experiment with lighting, music, sound. Make your Narrator characters 
  memorable with interesting mannerisms, histories, costumes, props, accents and makeup. 
  Keep something happening at all times, and give the characters important choices to make. 
  Make sure there’s something to keep everyone involved, and check on things throughout the 
  night to get the pulse of the game.
  • Avoid Stereotypes: An endless parade of identical, cardboard characters can drain the 
  interest from your chronicle.
  • Keep the Focus on the Players: Don’t let your Storyteller characters take over the plot, 
  leaving the players’ characters with nothing important to do. Remember that the players’ 
  characters probably aren’t the most powerful or important characters in the world, but they 
  must be the most important characters in their own story.
  • Don’t Forget the Payoff: If the players work hard and make smart decisions, their char-
  acters can overcome challenges and achieve something. If the characters’ success is not in 
  proportion to their effort and the challenges they faced, the players will feel cheated.
  • Don’t Tell Them Everything: One of the biggest “hooks” in a story is actually for the 
  players, not the characters. They want to discover what’s going on! Part of the fun of any 
  story is the suspense of not knowing how it will turn out. Make the characters work to ﬁ gure 
  out who’s really doing what.
  • Don’t Abuse Your Power: As the ﬁ nal arbiter of events, your word is law in your chronicle. 
  Don’t use this power to beat the characters into doing what you want, though. You’re playing 
  a game, it’s for fun and everyone wins if they have a scary, good time, whether they follow 
  your script or not. If the players pull the rug out from under your story, call a break to col-
  lect your thoughts. This may happen a lot at ﬁ rst, but with practice, you can handle every 
  surprise they throw at you.
  CHARACTERIZATION
  There are few things as truly terrifying as the idea of encountering an actual vampire. Strip 
  away the romance and aura of mystery that springs from movies and books, and what you 
  have is a monster of the Old World.  It is a shark, cruising through dimly lit waters, searching 
  for a meal. The vampire catches you unaware, moving along with the crowd, blending in to 
  the background. As you idly wander home after a hard day’s work, they mark you as prey and 
  begin stalking. Oblivious to the danger, you ponder what’s on television that night, what bills 
  have to be paid or what you are going to make for dinner. All the while, there are eyes on you 
  that see you as one thing — food. What you carry in your veins is fuel for a body that has lived 
  past its time. It has already judged its own existence to be substantially more important than 
  yours, if it considers your life at all. In a snap, suddenly it’s next to you. A cold hand holds 
  you by the neck and lifts you off the ground. Its eyes shine in the dark, but it has no mercy. 
  You babble, maybe you plead, you forget all about television or food. Suddenly its mouth is 
  at your throat, and as you slip away, you are left praying that it’s all just a bad dream.
  What sort of creature lives only by taking life from others? Does it even remember what life 
  was like? Has it existed so long past it’s lifetime that it’s forgotten all the sensations of being 
  alive? Have all of its emotions died along with its long stilled heart?
  
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  In The Requiem, these questions aren’t academic — they’re the essence of what the char-
  acters are really all about. Exploring this alien mindset is a challenge, but the reward allows 
  a player to move beyond the limits of conceptions like “pale superheroes” or “Goths with 
  problems” and really understand what the Danse Macabre is all about. This section includes 
  some discussions aimed at helping players get more into the mindset of the Kindred, as well 
  as some practical tips for bringing vampire characters to (un)life in live-action play.
  THE MIND OF A PREDATOR
  Every vampire must learn to adapt to the passage of time. If one cannot, then the sheer 
  weight of years will wear him down until he can only end his unlife in despair. The weak are 
  quickly removed from the playing ﬁ eld, leaving those strong enough to seize what they will. 
  Learning to roleplay this predatory (and often alien) nature is all part of personal horror that 
  is at the heart of The Requiem.
  NEONATE
  Younger Kindred have to adapt quickly to their new state of being. Once they are brought 
  into the community of the undead, they have precious little time to adjust (and possibly no 
  time at all to make real mistakes). Once they learn the basics of their unnatural existence, 
  however, they attempt to deﬁ ne themselves as individuals, just as they did in life. They cannot 
  see themselves simply as slavering monsters, so they ﬁ nd some purpose or identity to keep 
  from succumbing to the Beast. Many seek comfort in what they know — holding on to the 
  practices of their mortal lives. They might ﬁ nd a seat at the diner, go to the movies, watch 
  some television — anything it takes to allow them to reconnect with their previous life. As 
  much as people complain about the banality of modern living, they often become very upset 
  when it is disrupted because there is comfort in routine. Now, with all they once knew fad-
  ing with their memories of the sun, younger Kindred often seek to embrace the little things 
  that once made them human.
  Others ﬁ nd solace in their newfound powers and seeming invulnerability. After all, they can 
  now muster abilities that were only ﬁ ction to them in their breathing years. The beasts of the earth 
  can be theirs to command. They can impose their will on complete strangers. They can shrug 
  off grievous wounds that would have been deadly to their mortal selves. Now they are vampires, 
  and even the most reluctant Kindred eventually revels in his power sooner or later, though it 
  might ﬁ ll him with shame down the road. This heady rush often leads to certain cockiness in 
  the younger vampires. They take risks and ﬂ aunt their power. They make use of their abilities 
  at a moment’s notice. After all, if you were suddenly gifted with a range of supernatural powers 
  and the ability to heal back the damage from all but the worst mistakes, what would you do?
  Although the nature of the Beast means such efforts almost always end in tragedy, neonates 
  haven’t learned this lesson yet. They might try to ﬁ ght for their Humanity, stopping petty 
  crimes, feeding only on criminals and trying to do right when they can. They might even try 
  to restore order to their old lives by doing the things they could not before. They might think 
  they can walk into a local street gang’s territory with impunity. After all, the worst they have 
  is guns, right? Why should one of the walking dead be afraid? Many try to do good things 
  with their new state. But more often than not, this attitude leads only to disaster.
  ANCILLAE
  Older undead are a different matter. The ancillae (singular: ancilla) are the middle children 
  of the vampire community. They know the Traditions and understand what it takes to make 
  sure the Masquerade remains intact. They have been accepted into undead society, but it’s 
  still acknowledged that they do not have the weight of years behind them. They often have 
  characterization • the mind of a predator
  
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  an easier time adapting to the changes in mortal society, but their trade-off is that they do not 
  have their elders’ power. These creatures have typically found their comfortable niche in the 
  society of the Damned (at least as much as any position among their fellow Kindred might 
  be considered comfortable). They hold ofﬁ ces of responsibility and most likely have done so 
  for years or decades. They have made connections and set down roots in a given domain, or 
  (failing that) learned how to travel in relative safety.
  These Kindred are still plagued by memories of their former lives. While the world has 
  likely changed drastically at this point, much of what they knew from life still exists, if in 
  a slightly worn state. Yet, while they do not often try to recapture their breathing days as 
  neonates do, it is uncommon for an ancilla not to have at least a few attachments to places, 
  items or fashions from their mortal years. 
  By this point, most ancillae have entered torpor on at least one occasion. They understand 
  the level of extremes that is the nature of their existence. They are unchanging, yet they’re 
  starting to recognize that all that they have built up can be torn down and restructured while 
  they sleep. The idea of the inevitability of the long sleep that comes with age (if not before) 
  is still too far off to seem like a real concern to most ancillae, however.
  Most ancillae have at least the beginnings of the consuming paranoia that plagues the elder 
  vampires. They fear making too many waves in consolidating their power. When the situation 
  warrants it, though, they are still young enough to take the kind of calculated risks that many 
  elders are incapable of accepting. They are fearful of losing all they have gained, so they begin 
  to formulate longer-reaching plans. These plans often involve manipulated neonate vampires 
  doing the dirty work or taking the fall for the ancilla when the deed is done. They have only 
  begun to see the patterns of the plans the elders have laid in the years gone by, however.
  ELDERS
  The elder Kindred are frightening monsters. They are no longer thrilled by the supernatural 
  abilities they have long possessed, seeing them merely as tools in their considerable arsenal. 
  They have seen enough of the world to know that their power comes at a heavy price and that 
  their Disciplines alone cannot protect them against clever and intangible threats. As there are 
  typically too strong to be confronted directly, their opponents move around them instead, 
  using mortal ties, Kindred allies and political pull to circumvent a physical attack whenever 
  possible. As such, most elders become quite paranoid, seeing any shift in their world as a sure 
  sign of their enemies preparing to act against them. Indeed, it’s quite puzzling to many younger 
  Kindred that most elders will choose to ﬂ ee direct physical confrontations, whereas younger 
  vampires with much less raw power will typically rush in with fangs bared. This behavior stems 
  from the fact that elders have endured long enough to value their undead existence and are 
  unwilling to take rash chances with it, even against an apparently minor foe. After all, elder 
  Kindred are canny creatures, and apart from the inherent uncertainty of armed conﬂ ict, they 
  also realize that things are seldom what they seem in the Danse Macabre. What might seem 
  like an easy victory is just as likely to be a disastrous trap. After all, it’s the kind of thing they 
  would do in the same position.
  Yet whether it’s a physical ﬁ ght or a political struggle, an elder who’s forced into a con-
  frontation will end it with all the power and swiftness at his command. Unlike neonates and 
  many ancillae, who often retain enough Humanity that they still hold some human notions 
  of “fair play” or “compromise,” elders will not leave an enemy in any shape to confront them 
  again. This does not mean elders always kill their enemies, especially when it comes to other 
  undead, though few hesitate to do so if they must. Aside from attracting too much unfavorable 
  attention, such simplistic solutions waste potential resources, after all. Having achieved the 
  true perspective of immortality, most elders are content to wait for good openings rather than 
  
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  trying to force their will on an unsuitable moment. They choose their battles carefully, but 
  when they do ﬁ nally make a move, their actions are so brutal, efﬁ cient and all-encompassing 
  that enemies seldom know what hit them. 
  Indeed, the key to portraying an elder is often found in one word: observation. Since 
  elders tend to be cautious and abundantly prepared, it beneﬁ ts the player to act accordingly. 
  Don’t always dive right into the thick of things, whether it’s a heated debate in Elysium or a 
  ﬁ reﬁ ght on the edge of town. Hang back, take in what you can and make the move that will 
  net you the most gain. Note the persistent use of the singular in that sentence. While elders 
  certainly won’t abandon their social groups needlessly, these Kindred understand better 
  than any others that the only way to play the games of the undead is to play for yourself ﬁ rst. 
  Anything else is cruel self-deception or dangerous foolishness.
  Of course, elder status has its own drawbacks as well. These older Kindred often have a 
  difﬁ cult time dealing with the nuances of modern culture, whereas those who have not yet 
  outlasted their own natural life span will be able to better understand the pulse of the mortal 
  world. That doesn’t mean that older vampires are easily taken advantage of, however. While 
  they might not fully understand the modern lingo and most technology just ﬁ lls them with 
  dread, all but the dimmest elders have learned to recognize basic patterns over time. Mortals 
  are very fond of saying that some things never change, and being static creatures themselves, 
  the undead certainly agree. In any age there is greed to be exploited, lust to be slated and 
  hunger to be satisﬁ ed. This is true of vampires and mortals alike, from the dusty streets of 
  ancient Rome to the dirty alleys of modern Los Angeles. Elder undead understand and cling 
  to these simple themes that run through the mortal world, using them to make sense of what 
  is in front of them. This is why so many of them take mortal or ghoul assistants — not only 
  as protection but to help them translate what the world is saying to them. Many younger 
  vampires who seek to move against the “fossils” that hold rank over them ﬁ nd themselves 
  surprised when they are outmaneuvered in the simplest manner possible.
  Last but not least, all elders have a touch of desperation to their actions, because they 
  know that the long sleep of torpor draws closer all the time. The thought of awakening in 
  a new world, less powerful than they were before and with all they’ve carefully worked for 
  potentially lying in ruins around them, haunts the minds of elders around the world. Most 
  spend at least as much time developing strategies, alliances and contingency plans to cover 
  their impending torpor as they do on controlling events in the present, which is perhaps the 
  single largest reason that elder Kindred do not control undead society to the same degree 
  they might otherwise. Even if all goes as planned, they will be like unto neonates in many 
  ways upon their awakening. While they recognize on a simple level that their supernatural 
  potency will decrease, elders also recognize that emerging from torpor means re-learning a 
  whole new world and facing the new Kindred who are in control. That last thought alone is 
  enough to ﬁ ll the hearts of elders with unease, and send them hurrying to cement the plans 
  necessary to ensure their existence eternally.
  HUNGER
  Some truths about being one of the Damned cannot be ignored. There is the hunger that 
  is ever present in the back of one’s mind, and that hunger can be satisﬁ ed only by taking 
  something vital from another person. Eventually it must be done, or the vampire risks los-
  ing all semblance of control over himself. Even those vampires who have established feeding 
  methods know that they are slaves to their hunger. It’s only a matter of time before they must 
  strike again, and if any Kindred claims to have existed for centuries without committing some 
  atrocity in the name of feeding, one can be certain that he is lying. This need taints every social 
  interaction a Kindred has to one degree or another — no matter how innocent its intent.
  the mind of a predator
  
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  When portraying one of the Kindred a key element in capturing their nature is gaining 
  an understanding of this need for blood. In becoming a vampire, the character is seemingly 
  rendered immortal. As long as he takes care to avoid certain physical difﬁ culties and ﬁ nds 
  ways to distract his mind from some of the realities of his existence, he can exist for quite 
  some time. This survival hinges on maintaining his supply of blood, however — just as we 
  need food to keep ourselves alive. But while all we have to do for food is call the local pizza 
  delivery place or walk to the corner store, the undead don’t have it that simple. In order to 
  gain his sustenance, the vampire must place its own existence in jeopardy. 
  Imagine that every time you needed to eat you had to risk your own well-being in some 
  way — maybe by crossing a very dangerous highway. That risk might be calculated and you 
  might have taken steps to prevent things from going wrong, but you could still be run over 
  by a car. Feeding is never a sure thing. Yet the other option is to sit and starve, which is no 
  option at all. And if they wait too long between feedings the Kindred increase the risk that 
  they will be unprepared if something goes wrong.
  This is what the curse of their hunger means to the Kindred.
  SOCIALIZATION
  Unless they actively go to lengths to avoid it, human beings enjoy a certain natural level of 
  socialization. We’re social animals in the most literal sense. We tend to form social groups 
  almost despite ourselves, based on a variety of factors ranging from geographic location to 
  shared hobbies and everything in between. There are some true lone wolves, but for the 
  most part, we look to others to share our lives. Doing so allows us to receive validation for 
  the many joys and triumphs that life holds for us and to ﬁ nd help when we are in pain or in 
  need. One of the most jarring results of the Embrace — and one of the most underestimated 
  — is that the new vampire suddenly ﬁ nds himself completely disconnected from that social 
  herd. He can’t risk being too close to anyone he once cared about, for fear his hunger will 
  make him do something he will regret. Even if he tries, his innate predatory nature makes 
  it impossible for most people to be at ease around him, especially as his Humanity begins 
  the slow, inevitable decline. Cut off from the thousand tiny things that human beings do to 
  recognize and reassure each other on a daily basis, the vampire feels truly alone in a way he 
  never did as a mortal. This is why younger vampires often seek out coteries or other groups. 
  It’s a way to ease the creeping, pervasive loneliness that the undead feel.
  Of course, it doesn’t take long for most Kindred to realize that there is no true comfort 
  to be found among their own kind — only usurpers, tyrants, rivals and spies. Alliances are 
  momentary, but grudges span centuries. Elders hunt the blood of the young for their own 
  survival, but they also fear the prey they feed on, since the thirst for power leads many young 
  Kindred to hunt the eldest for the might of their Vitae. For as much as young vampires style 
  themselves so, vampires can never be wolves in a pack; they are sharks swimming alone in 
  an endless sea of night. They lend their ﬁ delity to one group or another, but most vampires 
  realize they can only truly rely on themselves. Experienced Kindred know that even trusted 
  coterie members might betray them to win a position of power and favor in the domain, and 
  the savagery of the Beast can turn ordinary disputes into savage, bloody conﬂ icts.
  As vicious as it sounds, however, most vampires cling to the perverse society of the Danse 
  Macabre with unnatural ferocity. As horrifying as it is, the only alternative is the utter loneli-
  ness they ran away from upon the Embrace. At least among their own kind they can ﬁ nd some 
  measure of power and social acceptance, as tenuous and transient as it is. Playing the petty games 
  of the Danse Macabre provides some diversion from the endless nights stretching out ahead 
  of them. Therefore, all but a rare handful of vampires eventually accept their disconnection 
  from the social herd and comfort themselves with only their alien kind for company.
  
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  COSTUMING
  In the Mind’s Eye Theatre session, what you see is usually what you get. While there are 
  always methods of presenting an illusion of a thing, not to mention a certain suspension of 
  disbelief that is commonly held in a roleplaying game, people often assess things visually. 
  A ﬁ rst look at a person or even a scene can set the tone for all future interactions. This is 
  important to keep in mind when preparing to dress as one of the undead. 
  There are certain practical ﬁ nancial factors that obviously affect the nature of costuming selec-
  tion. Character portrayal doesn’t have to be a strain on one’s wallet, however, if one is smart in 
  seeking out costume requirements. As discussed in Mind’s Eye Theatre, local thrift stores are 
  excellent places to hunt around for that shirt or ﬁ nd a bargain on a pair of shoes that would 
  serve perfectly for a character concept. Items in such stores are varied and can be bought with a 
  minimum of expense. And since costumes purchased at the thrift store are not very expensive, 
  it’s no great loss if they need to be modiﬁ ed to accommodate a character concept. 
  For example, a pair of blue jeans can be torn or washed repeatedly to give them a more 
  faded look, such as for a Gangrel who has little use for such social concerns as propriety. 
  Although they might not be the height of fashion, business suits can also be found at these 
  locations to help represent those well-to-do persons of high society — maybe even those 
  vampires who still attempt to hold onto the control they have of mortal institutions. After 
  all, while the speciﬁ cs of clothing have changed, the severe blacks and whites of formal wear 
  haven’t changed radically.
  But how does one dress a creature who’s newly risen from the grave, especially when that 
  vampire last saw the world several centuries ago? Begin by avoiding the clichés of wearing 
  nothing but black, accompanied by some sort of long cape. Darker colors can give the uncon-
  scious impression of being sinister, but monochromatic clothing makes the character stand 
  out without giving the eye anything to catch on. If a character has just awakened from a long 
  sleep, avoid the trappings of modern clothing, such as blue jeans, sneakers or T-shirts. Elder 
  vampires would feel more comfortable in more formal clothing anyway — as is only proper 
  given the way their world was when they last entered torpor.
  A close group of players can look inward for costuming. If a player is having poor luck 
  with ﬁ nding robes to serve his concept of an old monk who became a Nosferatu, perhaps he 
  should be polling the group for suggestions. Maybe someone else in the game has something 
  perfect for his needs? An electronic message board or an email list can serve as a valuable 
  resource to your game in this regard.
  It’s a fact that with such secretive characters as the Kindred, many players will doubtless 
  desire to give off an impression of mystery. Shoddy scarves wrapped around the lower half 
  of the face and multi-pocketed vests can be donned for those more mysterious characters. 
  The attempt at concealing one’s identity or appearance is sometimes enough to get the point 
  across that you are a possessor of secrets. Dark ﬂ owing clothing can alter the usual shape of 
  one’s body, concealing your movements and adding to your sense of misdirection. As a rule, 
  the more clothing you have on, or at least appear to have on, the better the chances are that 
  you could be hiding something. It’s hard to look mysterious in a T-shirt and shorts, but it 
  becomes a lot easier with a long coat, vest and trousers.  
  Remember also that many predators who survive in the wild invoke some kind of camou-
  ﬂ age. This simple rule applies to the older undead as well. Many have been forced to adapt 
  to a constantly changing world, lest they ﬁ nd that their disguises do them no good. And after 
  a good number of lifetimes these creatures can accumulate a staggering number of enemies. 
  As such, advertising that you are an elder vampire by dressing in the regalia of times long 
  ago is just putting a target on your chest. If an elder can buy himself even a split second of 
  the mind of a predator • costuming
  
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  confusion or underestimation by “dressing younger,” then he’s have won himself a victory. 
  Using preconceived notions against one’s opponents becomes just another way to assert 
  dominance and maintain an edge.
  This isn’t to say that your players’ vampires can’t enjoy some extra costuming ﬂ ourishes now 
  and again, especially in their private sanctuaries far from prying mortal eyes. If Elysium is held 
  in closed quarters away from mortal eyes, the fashions of the modern era can certainly give 
  way to what Kindred knew in lifetimes past. Just because the mortal world demands certain 
  concessions from them, that doesn’t mean the Kindred won’t ﬁ nd their own way to express 
  themselves in the styles they once adored. If part of the vampiric experience for your players 
  is having the occasional session where they can wear archaic clothing, so be it.
  VOICE
  Many vampires are walking relics from times and places long past, but how does a someone 
  portray a creature of great age without resorting to the clichés of ﬁ lm narratives? There are 
  a few simple tricks to convey the weight of years. For example, a player can speak slowly and 
  precisely, leaving out all colloquialisms and modern phrasing. While this might leave a person’s 
  speech somewhat bland, it can be balanced by not taking every opportunity to speak.
  It is important to realize that while accents can often betray the origin of a person, many 
  vampires in the World of Darkness have existed for half a dozen mortal lifetimes or longer. 
  Even an ordinary person who moves to the other side of a country can return home with a 
  noticeable accent change. Now imagine a person having lived in several different places over 
  the course of many years. The vampires can often be so far removed from whatever their 
  homeland might have been that their former speech patterns have been obliterated in the 
  process of constantly gaining and losing accents and languages. This allows players to portray 
  elders from different times and places without feeling obligated to construct entirely consistent 
  or encompassing accents to do so. 
  Other options can include simply throwing in a few words from the character’s native lan-
  guage in their dialogue. Sometimes certain ideas can only be expressed in the language that 
  a person ﬁ rst learned them. Instead of attempting an accent for the full run of a chronicle, 
  a player may prefer to simply learn a few choice phrases in a separate language and use them 
  from time to time — especially in moments of great stress.
  BODY LANGUAGE
  Getting the message across that your character is something other than human doesn’t just 
  stop at speech patterns and costuming. How a person moves and acts can also deliver a powerful 
  performance of its own. Remember that vampires are no longer human, sometimes not even 
  outwardly. Aside from basic sensory features and the muscular/skeletal use of their limbs, they 
  no longer have true biological functions, but have been mystically animated into a semblance of 
  life. It stands to reason that some of their casual movements can be made to seem inhuman.
  Players seeking models to base their movements on might ﬁ nd it very instructive to study 
  the movements of animals — either in real life or on television nature programs. Ordinary 
  people move and act much differently than animals. We tend to be sloppier and make a lot 
  of unnecessary movements, while animals rarely move unless they have to. Even at times of 
  play, animals are often learning survival skills necessary to keep themselves alive. Likewise, 
  vampires are devoid of most casual motions. Unless they choose to mimic them to put their 
  prey at ease, they don’t need to breathe, blink or perform many other automatic functions 
  that living things do all the time.
  Likewise, animals that live in social groups often seek to secure their location among their 
  peers through the use of body language and posturing, strengthening their position while 
  
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  subjugating those below them in station. Vampires can be much the same way. Speak to oth-
  ers from a position of superior height. Stare down those who seek to challenge you without 
  ﬂ inching. Keep your back straight, your chin level and your arms close to your body without 
  covering it. Don’t close up your body language, as that suggests weakness or timidity, but 
  don’t overextend it either, as that looks brash and draws attention. Do not waste energy on 
  movement that is not required, unless it’s part of your camouﬂ age among the mortals. And 
  when you do move, waste no energy. The name of the game here is subtly. Most vampires 
  learn to mask their nature, but some things slip through the façade. That doesn’t mean that 
  you necessarily have to be an extra in a ballet or a black belt in karate to acquire the right 
  kind of smooth predatory grace, but there are a few things that you can do even to display 
  otherworldly attributes without a depth of experience in how the human body can move.
  Also, while using some of your character’s vampiric Disciplines and other supernatural 
  powers, use your body to explain what process you are going through. Don’t simply state that 
  you are using Vitae to heal your character, roleplay it with your body movements. When using 
  healing, ﬂ ex that part of the body that requires it. Close your eyes and grimace as the Vitae 
  works over your character’s arm and unnaturally pulls the skin and muscles back together. 
  While you should never break the Only Rules That Matter to do so — don’t actually run 
  around to simulate Celerity or throw your back out lifting an object to indicate Vigor — an 
  extra bit of action can make for a much more dynamic and intense performance.  
  MAKEUP
  Highlighting a character’s undead nature through the use of make-up and other cosmetic 
  products is an excellent method for players to add a very personal touch to the chronicle. 
  After all, make-up is usually reserved for special occasions or formal environments in most 
  cases. This is another subtle way to make your game sessions special in the minds of your 
  players. There are generally two schools of thought on the subject of makeup. On one hand 
  are those who want to go all out for characters, skillfully applying their powder and cream to 
  get just the right shade of pale. They seek to create just the right look for a gaunt creature of 
  the night. On the other hand are those players who just can’t be bothered with makeup at all 
  and don’t take kindly to being forced to do so for the sake of a game they play for fun. 
  There are arguments to support each stance. After all, vampires are creatures who are adept 
  at passing for ordinary people when they need to hide their presence. Some vampires and 
  their servants intentionally do all they can to look human to the casual observer, whether 
  with raw application of their Vitae or more nuanced Disciplines. If a player doesn’t see the 
  need for makeup, this could be an excellent reason why they are not as pale as the rest of 
  their community. On the other hand this is a game where the main characters are monsters 
  attempting to pass their long years in the shadows of society. But no matter how they might 
  try to disguise themselves, they are still just not human. Some of these creatures of the night 
  are so far removed from their humanity that their otherworldly nature is evident even in a 
  dark room. And honestly, sometimes simply tacking a card to a player’s chest proclaiming 
  the character’s undead appearance just doesn’t do it justice.
  As a Storyteller it’s a good idea to bring up the topic of makeup to your player base before 
  your ﬁ rst session. If you are concerned with the overall look of your chronicle you might 
  want to work out some kind of uniformly agreeable position on the subject. If cosmetics are 
  going to be allowed, then you should set ground rules for how much or how little should 
  be used. If and your players are unconcerned about half of your characters being pale as the 
  grave and the others having a nice rosy skin tone, then allow each player to decide how he 
  will approach the subject.
  voice • body language • makeup
  
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  Whenever using makeup always give yourself plenty of time to ﬁ nish your work. As a Sto-
  ryteller nothing is worse than attempting to set the mood for the opening of a game session 
  while a gaggle of players are still crowded around the bathroom mirror applying those ﬁ nal 
  touches. A really elaborate effect with makeup can easily take up to 30 minutes to apply. If 
  you are going for the dramatic cosmetic effects, have the courtesy to the staff and your fellow 
  players to not hold up the start of the game while you ﬁ nish powdering your face. Simple 
  tips for makeup use include starting with the lighter colors ﬁ rst, and then accenting with 
  darker colors and shading. Feel free to ask fellow players or cast members on their advice or 
  for their assistance in applying cosmetics to hard to reach locations. It’s all for the good of 
  the game after all. 
  If you are going for total body cosmetic effects, do your best not to miss exposed areas of 
  skin. Spending hours on a pale facial look can be lost if your neck, arms and hands are all 
  your usual skin tone. If you apply a powder to keep the make-up in place, then you shouldn’t 
  have too many problems with leaving traces of yourself all over. If you don’t feel like extending 
  your make-up to all parts of the body, however, adjust your wardrobe accordingly. Add a pair 
  of gloves to cover your hands, or a high-collared shirt to cover that tan neck. 
  Acrylic paint can provide some easy makeup effects for use in your chronicle. It’s cheap, it’s 
  effective, and unless you have a serious allergy to it, it comes off with the simple application 
  of soap and water. It is important not to apply the paint too thickly, though, because the skin 
  cannot breathe well through it. A way to prevent ﬂ aking or cracking is to mix in a little hand 
  moisturizer with the paint. And again, always check the labels and test out anything that you 
  are going to apply directly to your skin. Grease makeup can also be used to lighten up a ruddier 
  skin tone and is also a relatively cheap resource. Powder should be applied carefully, however, 
  to prevent smearing or rubbing off onto everything. And again, the key here is to go with a 
  subtle look. No player wants to be trapped in a world populated by bloodthirsty mimes. 
  To achieve a gaunt appearance, you can apply black or dark gray makeup around the eyes 
  (leaving them looking sunken in), accented by some pale coloring on the highlighted areas 
  of the face. For an alternate look, however, skip the usual black and use a darker shade of 
  
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  your own skin tone, or even a deeper red. Once again, less is often more, and subtle effects 
  are often the ones that give the greater effect.
  For scar tissue, there are a few methods to use. The cheap but effective method is to apply 
  some white glue or rubber cement to the skin, which can then be properly colored through 
  the use of over-the-counter cosmetics. Theatre supply stores and costume shops sometimes 
  sell liquid latex, however, which can effectively be molded to give the appearance of gruesome 
  wounds. This material can be used in greater quantity for burn effects as well, but if used too 
  much it can ﬂ ake off over the course of a night.
  Sometimes a character just needs to look a little roughed up. Halloween outlet stores and 
  shops often sell makeup kits speciﬁ cally designed to handle bruises. They come with palettes 
  with a vast array of colors including greens, yellows, blues, purples and reds. If these kits 
  are beyond the means you are willing to spend on a chronicle, a cheaper alternative is to 
  carefully apply women’s cosmetics. Dark lipsticks, blush and eyeliners can be combined into 
  convincingly real bruising effects in a pinch. Experiment a little and ﬁ nd a method that you 
  think works best for your story needs.
  Regardless, whenever your game session is going to be viewed by the public it’s best to do 
  the bare minimum of make-up, if you’re even using it at all. Avoiding wearing makeup in 
  public spares your game sessions the inevitable intrusions from curious bystanders that are 
  in no way related to your chronicle.
  Fangs
  There are a few thoughts to consider when equipping oneself with a pair of actual fangs. 
  First is affordability. Modern dentistry can do some marvelous work in creating fake fangs ﬁ tted 
  precisely to your teeth, but professional-looking fangs can prove somewhat expensive. Most 
  players will look to costume shops instead, which can provide much cheaper alternatives. The 
  tradeoff here is that they might fall out after an evening of chatting it up with fellow players. 
  While some fangs simply snap over the teeth and can be inserted or removed quickly, many 
  other fangs require an adhesive to apply and stay in for a certain amount of time once it has 
  set. And it’s worth noting that most fake fangs are made perfectly white, so unless you have 
  that exact shade of white teeth, they’ll seem out of place in your mouth.
  Given that the heart of live-action play is social interaction, the other consideration when 
  wearing actual fangs is how it will effect your conversational ability. Though some fangs do 
  not interfere with speech, many can give you a pronounced lisp or even a spitting problem. 
  Players should make sure to try out their fangs before the chapter begins. After all, a Kindred’s 
  fangs are normally retractable, so they can naturally conduct eloquent conversations without 
  tripping over their own teeth. Unless you’re a hideous Nosferatu whose fangs are a permanent 
  feature or a similarly disadvantaged Kindred, the fangs only really come out when a vampire 
  is trying to scare off an enemy or feed. If you are costuming yourself with fangs, however, they 
  are most likely going to stay in for the rest of the evening once they are in. And while this 
  might suit dreadful Nosferatu, having these long teeth in your mouth can sometimes have 
  the opposite effect of what you were trying to achieve.
  And what happens if you then have only one or maybe two vampires in your player base with fangs. 
  What about the others? Do you restrict the use of fangs for the sake of character consistency, or do 
  you simply allow players to costume as they like in regards to fangs? It is quite possible to portray a 
  domain full of vampires without actually having any players wear fangs at all. As stated previously, 
  it’s not often that most Kindred bare their fangs. Consider these options and talk them over with 
  your player base to see how they feel on the issue. Some like fangs for the same reason they like 
  pale makeup. Even though Kindred can retract their fangs and ﬂ ush their skin with Vitae, to them 
  it’s more “vampiric” to see a roomful of pale players sporting fangs than it is to have everyone with 
  makeup
  
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  normal skin tones and no fangs. Others go the opposite direction, feeling fangs interfere more than 
  they help. As a Storyteller, ultimately it’s your call to make. If you decide you don’t want them, it’s 
  your prerogative to ask players to refrain from using them in your chronicle.
  As a side note, the treatment of representing claws is similar to fangs in that they can be 
  an excellent accessory to costuming if a player is willing to put up with the inconvenience of 
  wearing them. A Nosferatu character can use gloves with ﬁ nger extensions that seem to give 
  him have eerily long ﬁ ngers as part of his unsettling appearance, or a savage Gangrel can sport 
  a set of jagged costume claws. Press-on nails and fake ﬁ ngernails can be carefully whittled to 
  blunted points with a razor and then applied to the actual ﬁ ngernail with adhesive. With the 
  addition of some makeup and ﬁ ngernail polish, the new nails will blend in with the rest of 
  the hand. It should be noted that these nails should never be altered to highly sharp points. 
  There are simply too many ways that an accident can happen. As with using fangs, use your 
  discretion before allowing these into your game.
  Another slightly safer alternative is to use rubber or plastic “costume hands” available at 
  many costume shops, and which come in a variety of styles ranging from rotting undead to 
  feral beast and beyond. The down side of these gloves is that they make ﬁ ne manipulation 
  almost impossible — which sometimes simulates the difﬁ culty of using of claws anyway — and 
  that they can look a bit too cartoonish or over-the-top for some troupes.
  Blood
  As Vitae is such a crucial part of the Kindred experience, fake prop blood will come up 
  sooner or later in Requiem games. The science of making the best fake blood is almost like 
  the art of making the perfect omelet — everyone who does it is convinced they have the 
  best method. Various websites specialize in this kind of theatrical effect offering different 
  recipes for realistic blood, including recipes that are used on actual movie sets. Many of 
  these recipes are quite complicated, but offer a great deal of realism as well. It should be 
  noted, however, that most of these are not edible. Indeed, it bears repeating that no player 
  should ever actually consume any kind of prop blood unless they are fully aware of exactly 
  what ingredients are involved in making it. Even with normally edible recipes, some players 
  might have allergies to ingredients that others are not aware of, and the safety of players 
  should always be a major concern.
  Also, great care should always be taken when utilizing any kind of fake blood around cos-
  tuming, props, furniture or carpeted ﬂ oors. Most formulas for fake blood stain fabrics and 
  other surfaces, and are very difﬁ cult (if not outright impossible) to remove. Last but certainly 
  not least, remember that outsiders might not realize that a game is being played, and over-
  react accordingly. Therefore, Storytellers should take care that the use of realistic fake blood 
  is strongly limited, and only used in private sessions away from the casual view of bystanders. 
  It should never be used when sessions are held in public locations.
  With those cautions and caveats out of the way, here is a simple formula for creating edible, 
  non-toxic prop blood suitable for most uses: one part dark corn syrup, one part chocolate 
  syrup, red food dye and a few drops of green food dye. (Never use more than six drops of 
  green food dye unless you’re making over a gallon.) Since it’s mostly just sugar and chocolate, 
  players might actually be able to enjoy the taste somewhat, though it’s still not likely to be 
  a beverage of choice any time soon. Be advised, however, that the blood created with this 
  formula can stain things that it touches.
  Note that at some times, you may wish to increase the subtle horror of an event by hav-
  ing the Kindred drinking Vitae “refreshments” during the chapter, whether its from wine 
  glasses offered at an Invictus soiree to a chalice passed around at a Circle of the Crone rite 
  and beyond. This seldom calls for actual fake blood, but Storytellers may simply offer a few 
  
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  varieties of red-colored beverages. (Sodas, sports drinks, vegetable juices and even fortiﬁ ed 
  water all can be found in different shades of red.) If suitably colored beverages can’t be found 
  or some players wish to drink other beverages, red glasses or bottles can give a liquid a more 
  Vitae-like appearance, or at least distract from the fact that the player isn’t actually drinking 
  something resembling Vitae.
  PROPS
  There are a variety of different props appropriate to a Mind’s Eye Theatre session. Many 
  of the common props have been covered in other volumes, but you might want to look 
  toward more speciﬁ c items for a Requiem chronicle. While a few items can be substituted 
  with items cards and imagination, the more a Storyteller can do to bring the story to life for 
  the players, the greater of the sense of immersion you can expect from your game. And for 
  players, props are tools to further express their character concepts beyond the game traits. 
  By whatever means you use them, props can add an essential element to your chronicle and 
  really make it a memorable experience for all those involved.
  Once again, thrift stores and goodwill stations are invaluable in searching for personal 
  props. Costume jewelry and odds and ends can be found for relatively low prices. Antiques 
  stores can also provide a potential player with items to highlight their character’s background, 
  though the prices range a bit higher. Another option is checking online stores and trading 
  posts. Speciﬁ c items can be located through the Internet, though prices can vary greatly.
  Game props should only really be used if an appropriate physical representation can be 
  found. Cliché or cheesy items should be avoided if at all possible. Halloween costumes pieces 
  and party store plastic props should be left behind if at all possible. If it can’t be done right, 
  simply using item cards and descriptions instead. As a Storyteller, feel free to require a certain 
  standard for props from your players.
  While searching for props for a Requiem game, you should keep in mind the themes that 
  underlay your chronicle. Vampires are creatures of frozen passion. They are left cold and 
  timeless, watching the world drift past them without really having solid roots in it. They 
  are removed from the natural rhythm of the world. Clocks and old pocket watches are an 
  excellent example of props that drive home the importance of passing time. Old photos and 
  paintings are captured images that do not change — much like the characters themselves. 
  Candles often give off warming light to hold back the darkness, but they’re also sources of 
  ﬂ ame that can harm them — much like the societies of the Kindred themselves. Using simple 
  props like these can add deeper meaning to your stories. Consider carefully the symbolism 
  that surrounds certain objects before making them focal points of your game.
  makeup • props • designing and using antagonists
  Designing and Using Antagonists
  When creating antagonists for a Requiem chronicle, it’s best to keep a few key principles in 
  mind. This section explores those points. It’s important to know why we recommend certain 
  practices, as well as how to implement them. Also remember that you will need to make some 
  adjustments of your own, based on your troupe’s style of play, your chronicle’s theme and other 
  concerns. If your troupe likes action-oriented stories and your chronicle’s theme is “violence is its 
  own vicious cycle,” creating an antagonist who never leaves his Edwardian mansion and prefers to 
  ﬁ ght by stealing his foes’ assets out from under them will likely leave your players frustrated.
  And that’s as good a place to start as any.
  
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  Suit Antagonists to the Chronicle
  Antagonists need to be a vital part of the story in which they appear. They should help 
  tell that story, not work at cross-purposes to it. A story about back-room deals needs to have 
  a suitable back-room dealer as one of its antagonists. A chronicle that emphasizes the age 
  differences between different groups of Kindred should have an antagonist who’s notably 
  older (or younger) than the players’ characters. The antagonist is the vehicle by which a story’s 
  conﬂ ict occurs, and conﬂ ict is what makes the story exciting. Mismatching an antagonist with 
  the type of story only weakens the signiﬁ cance of both.
  Vary Antagonists’ Methods
  Only a fool tries the same methodologies time after time, especially if they fail. Allow your 
  antagonists to learn from their mistakes. If the players’ characters soundly thwart your an-
  tagonists in one scene, have those opponents wait in ambush the next time. Have them hire 
  additional muscle. Have the antagonists lead with a ruse, hoping the characters move to foil 
  it — and then have them make a well-prepared counter-move. These tactics need not apply 
  only in physical combats. An effective ruse can be a political feint made before Prince and 
  Primogen that the antagonist really wants to fail, but that tricks the characters into wasting 
  their efforts. An ambush can be a high-politics situation in which the antagonist reveals he 
  has more support than the characters thought, and he wins the vote.
  Vampires are Rare
  While enough Kindred exist to necessitate a society in which they operate, and to facilitate 
  the formation of various factions, not every antagonist in a Requiem chronicle needs to 
  be one of the undead. In fact, it’s generally better if they’re not. It takes a conscious act of 
  will to create a Kindred, so most sires have chosen childer who have something to offer the 
  world of the Damned. While your main antagonists are probably vampiric, there’s little need 
  for a gun-wielding thug to be Kindred. “Extras” probably shouldn’t be Kindred. Rare is the 
  vampire who has so many Willpower dots to spare that he surrounds himself with undead 
  cannon fodder. Ghouls, vampire-hunters, mortal vigilantes and regular people who are in 
  the wrong place at the wrong time can all run afoul of vampires, as can other supernatural 
  creatures with whom the Kindred share the shadows. The more the condition of vampirism 
  remains mysterious and rare, the more special players feel as their characters are members of 
  that exclusive culture. No one should ever be “just another vampire.”
  The Value of Undeath
  Antagonists want to improve their lot in unlife. That’s why they’re antagonists. Their efforts 
  to do so intrude upon the protagonists’ own desires. Such being the case, not every conﬂ ict 
  with an antagonist should result in a showdown to the death. Vampires almost certainly 
  want to survive until another night — they potentially have forever in front of them. Likewise, 
  minions don’t necessarily put their lives or unlives on the line for the master. Even the most 
  devoted ghoul who is willing to die for his regnant knows the difference between dying when 
  it wouldn’t help the situation, and dying in an effort of helpful sacriﬁ ce. Attackers can make 
  tactical retreats. Political enemies can withdraw from the arena for a while to secretly cultivate 
  inﬂ uence and return to threaten the characters again. Generic guardians and other extras 
  probably aren’t paid well enough to take a bullet for some cruel or aloof employer.
  Do the Math
  Make sure that you take the protagonists’ abilities into account when assigning traits to 
  antagonists. Antagonists shouldn’t necessarily mop the ﬂ oor when they come in conﬂ ict with 
  the players’ characters, but neither should they be pushovers. It’s ﬁ ne for an antagonist to 
  exceed the characters’ abilities (as challenge makes for interesting stories), but she shouldn’t 
  be unassailable on all fronts. In her realm of expertise, a good antagonist is probably more 
  
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  capable than two or three of the players’ characters combined, but when other members of 
  the coterie come into play, the odds even out or possibly favor the players. Such is the value 
  of teamwork — which lets you mine the inherent untrustworthiness of the Kindred to add 
  tension to the story.
  Beware Incongruous Antagonists
  Incongruous characters serve a few purposes, some of which are bad while others are 
  good. Regarding the poor use of incongruous characters, they’re either thrown in at the 
  last minute to create some sort of conﬂ ict where none existed before, or they’re “swerve” 
  characters, whose only purpose is for the Storyteller to lord over the players by saying, “Aha! 
  You fell for the red herring!” Incongruous characters can ﬁ t into a story if their alien status 
  helps the story along or illustrates some aspect of the chronicle by way of contrast. Consider 
  an antagonist sent by a greater rival to confound the characters. The rival knows the charac-
  ters and attacks them where they’re weak. The incongruous character initially seems out of 
  place, but some relevant characteristic makes him very apropos. An apolitical character in 
  a very political chronicle might seem out of place, but his defeat at the hands of the better-
  connected characters reinforces the theme that politics are important, and those who exist 
  outside them will be overrun.
  designing and using antagonists • sample antagonists • animals
  Sample Antagonists
  The following sections contain proﬁ les of a number of Storyteller characters that you can 
  drop into your stories as you need them, or as models for creating your own characters. As 
  with the antagonists in Mind’s Eye Theatre, non-combatant characters are individuals who 
  ﬁ ll minor or “walk-on” roles. They serve as contacts, they sell secrets and they become vessels. 
  They have a basic description, Storytelling hints to help you convey them as distinct characters, 
  and a basic description of their pertinent abilities. Combatant characters are individuals who 
  could pose a threat to the main characters of the story. They can be all sorts of physical threats. 
  In addition to a basic description and roleplaying hints, they also have a much more detailed 
  breakdown of their relevant abilities. Note that combatant characters do not always have to 
  be involved in combat. The encounter might have a nonviolent resolution, or the contact 
  between characters might result in some resolution other than bullets and fangs.
  These antagonists complement those in Mind’s Eye Theatre. The antagonists found there 
  help round out a cast of enemies whom characters can encounter during the course of a 
  chronicle. Remember, however, that meaningful interactions between characters make for 
  satisfying dramatic situations. These antagonists and those in Mind’s Eye Theatre aren’t meant 
  to be the central foes in a game, or even major ﬁ gures. They’re just here when you need an 
  archetype quickly and on the spot. A wise Storyteller builds his chronicle’s central antagonists 
  long before play begins, custom-tailoring them to the chronicle he wants to tell.
  ANIMALS
  The following examples list some animals found in urban or rural environments. Note: 
  Unlike humans, Defense for animals is determined by selecting whichever is highest between 
  Dexterity and Wits. 
  Specialties are listed in parentheses following their associated Skills. Add one extra die to 
  a test pool whenever a Specialty applies. Each animal’s attack is listed with a total test pool 
  (including natural weapon modiﬁ ers) for the Storyteller’s convenience.
  
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  HELL HOUND
  Description: Hell hounds originate as normal dogs who gain supernatural prowess over 
  the course of their lives. In most cases, this is due to being fed Vitae (thus turning them into 
  ghouls), but in other cases, certain magics of the undead twist them into these brutish beasts. 
  Hell hounds have far shorter tempers than their normal counterparts, except toward their 
  masters. Hell hounds are fanatically loyal, even more so than most canine companions.
  The Attributes listed here represent a large guard dog (80-100 pounds) as the base stock 
  from which the beast is created.
  Attributes: Intelligence 1, Wits 4, Resolve 4, Strength 4, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3, Presence 4, 
  Manipulation 1, Composure 3
  Skills: Athletics (Running) 4, Brawl 3, Intimidation 3, Stealth 1, Survival (Tracking) 3 
  Willpower: 7
  Initiative: 6
  Defense: 4
  Running Speed: 14 (species factor 7)
  Size: 4
  Disciplines: Vigor 2
  Vitae/per Turn: 2/1 (this is just Vitae usable for a creature’s Discipline; it does not represent 
  the entirety of the blood within a hell hound’s body)
  Weapons/Attacks: 
  Type 
  Damage 
   Test Pool
  Bite 
  2 (L) 
  9
  Health: 7
  HOMUNCULUS
  Description: A homunculus is a magically conjured servant that might be found in the 
  service of a Acolyte or some other sorcerous type. Its appearance varies. In some cases, 
  homunculi are stunted, impish likenesses of their masters. In other cases, they’re animal “fa-
  miliars” with an outstanding degree of intelligence or loyalty. In still other cases, homunculi 
  are wholly freakish things — disembodied hands that scramble about doing their masters’ 
  business, small tentacled horrors that scuttle from sight when the lights come on, or even 
  things less describable with words.
  Homunculi can take simple orders and even communicate on a limited basis with their masters. 
  They’re not capable of meaningful communication with other intelligent creatures, however.
  The following Attributes are typical for a small homunculus, perhaps 10 pounds or so. 
  Storytellers should come up with physical descriptions for exactly what each homunculus 
  looks like. For animal “familiars,” Storytellers may wish to consult the Mind’s Eye Theatre 
  book and use the animals presented there instead of an artiﬁ cial description.
  Non-animal homunculi are not designed for heavy-duty tasks. They have a -1 dot penalty 
  to their Health.
  Attributes: Intelligence 1, Wits 2, Resolve 1, Strength 1, Dexterity 5, Stamina 3, Presence 2, 
  Manipulation 1, Composure 2
  Skills: Athletics 2, Crafts 1, Investigation 3, Stealth 3
  Willpower: 3
  Initiative: 7
  Defense: 5
  Running Speed: 10 (species factor 2)
  Size: 2
  
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  Weapons/Attacks: 
  Type 
  Damage 
   Test Pool
  Bite or Claw 
  2 (L) 
  2
  Throttle or Strangle 
  2 (B) 
  2
  Health: 4
  GARGOYLE
  Description: Gargoyles are large, man-shaped creatures that look like their namesake ar-
  chitectural features. They have minimal intelligence, being mostly designed for the purposes 
  of serving a master or sorcerer. Indeed, some gargoyles truly are architectural features, perch-
  ing atop their masters’ havens and coming down only when beckoned or when they’ve seen 
  something about which a master might wish to know. Gargoyles are unliving automatons, 
  crafted from stone or some other substance.
  Gargoyles are dense, heavy creatures, with rocky skin and features. A gargoyle might weigh 
  anywhere from 250 to 1,000 pounds. This entry assumes a man-sized gargoyle, weighing 
  about 450 pounds.
  Not being truly alive, gargoyles are immune to being knocked out, bleeding to death, disease 
  and wound penalties caused by damage.
  Attributes: Intelligence 1, Wits 3, Resolve 2, Strength 5, Dexterity 2, Stamina 5, Presence 3, 
  Manipulation 1, Composure 2
  Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 3, Intimidation 3, Occult 1, Stealth 1, Weaponry 1
  Merits: Danger Sense
  Willpower: 4
  Initiative: 4
  Defense: 3
  Running Speed: 10 (species factor 3)
  Size: 5
  Weapons/Attacks: 
  Type 
  Damage 
   Test Pool
  Slam 
  2 (B)* 
  10
  * Special: Knockdown (See Mind’s Eye Theatre, p. 230.)
  Certain gargoyles can also use weapons, whether by design or their masters’ instruction.
  Health: 10
  NON-COMBATANTS
  The following are examples of non-combatant characters commonly encountered over the 
  course of a typical story.
  BLOOD DOLL
  Quote: “Why do you only call me when you need something? Wait — don’t get mad. I need 
  you. Do you hear me? I need you!”
  Background: Some people know about vampires without truly knowing about the Kindred. 
  Of these, some actually yield up their blood to those who would drink it, craving either the 
  thrill of the taboo or genuinely experiencing pleasure from the act. People like these who are 
  subsequently drawn into the vampire scene are known as blood dolls, and they unknowingly 
  walk a dangerous line. As close to real vampires as they are, they are only ever a Prince’s decree 
  away from destruction as a possible Masquerade breach.
  Description: Blood dolls can have any appearance, but many ﬁ nd themselves among those 
  subcultures traditionally associated with vampires, such as goths, punks, rivetheads and the 
   animals • non-combatants
  
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  like. Among these, many wear heavy makeup to accentuate the deathly pallor that their lack 
  of blood produces.
  Quick Costume: Black clothes (Goth optional), fake blood on hands. 
  Storytelling Hints: Although they represent great boons to vampires who are in dire straits 
  for sustenance, few vampires truly like to hang around blood dolls. Most don’t like the notion of 
  consorting with their food too closely, while others ﬁ nd blood dolls whiny and effete. Not surpris-
  ing, given that many dolls are addicted to the feeling they receive from the Kiss. Many also become 
  codependent, feeling that they share a bond with “their” vampires, at which the Kindred usually 
  sneer. And yet, a vampire who drinks from the same vessel frequently might genuinely have an 
  affection for her — or the vessel might be part of a certain vampire’s preferred feeding stock. Given 
  that many vampires hide their blood-drinking activities with acts of passion, some degree of “pillow 
  talk” occasionally happens, and another Kindred’s secrets might not be as safe as he thinks, even 
  if the one who holds the secrets doesn’t know that her paramour is a vampire.
  Abilities: 
  Expression (test pool 6) — Many blood dolls come from performing arts backgrounds, or 
  are otherwise “creative types” with whom the Kindred can stoke their feelings of vitality.
  Occult (test pool 4) — Some blood dolls dabble in “black magic,” pagan faiths or other 
  sources of eldritch lore, often bunkum, but occasionally valid.
  Socialize (test pool 5) — Blood dolls are often well read, very experienced or have special-
  ized knowledge that makes for good conversation. Many of the subcultures from which blood 
  dolls hail have Byzantine social structures and pecking orders not unlike the Kindred’s own, 
  giving them an edge, or at least a bit of practical understanding.
  DOTING THRALL (GHOUL)
  Quote: “Whatever you want, my love… whatever you want.”
  Background: The Vinculum wreaks havoc on those subjected to it. In the case of ghouls, 
  they have little choice, given that they rely on the same domitor to provide them with Vitae. 
  They don’t know that their love is artiﬁ cial — and even if they do, many don’t care. Doting 
  thralls are almost like lapdogs to a master, hanging on his every word and doing their best 
  to please him in the weird, codependent, surrogate-sexuality submission fantasies their lives 
  have become. Still, their love has limits. The doting thrall is presented as a non-combatant 
  because, even though her love for her regnant is extreme, she won’t throw herself at impossible 
  odds if she believes she can run away and help her master from afar. Master doesn’t want her 
  dead, after all. He wants her… he needs her alive.
  Description: Thralls come from all walks of life, but almost all have weak wills (the bet-
  ter to be suborned by the Kindred). More than anything else, a doting thrall’s appearance 
  suits her purpose. A perverted domitor who simply wants a ghoul to provide sustenance 
  might make a thrall of a kidnapper. A reﬁ ned Ventrue who uses his thrall as an aide and 
  chamberlain might deck his ghoul in tailored suits. A thrall can appear as anything or 
  anyone, and often does.
  Quick Costume: Similar clothing to their domitors, but slightly faded or worn.
  Storytelling Hints: As might be expected, many ghouls know more than their share of 
  secrets regarding their domitors. In fact, many Kindred regard their ghouls affectionately and 
  possibly even lovingly. As such, thralls make for excellent moles (almost always unwittingly) 
  or hostages.
  Abilities:
  Investigation (test pool 5) — Ghouls seek to look out for their masters and protect them 
  from harm.
  
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  Socialize (test pool 5) — Those Kindred who bring their servants to Kindred functions ﬁ nd 
  that their ghouls are eager to learn about the ways of Kindred society, and often pick up the 
  nuances of its relationships rather quickly.
  RACK VISITOR
  Quote: “Buy me a drink?”
  Background: Rack visitors are those nightlifers who prowl the hip, trendy bars, or who 
  while away their lives in the less glitzy but no less popular drinking joints.
  Description: Rack visitors ﬁ t a wide range of descriptions depending on the local culture 
  and the kind of establishments they frequent. They can range in age and appearance from 
  teenagers with fake IDs to salty old drunks, from glamorous club-wear to blue-collar shirts 
  and denims.
  Quick Costume: Stylish clothes, nice jewelry, drinking glass in hand. 
  Storytelling Hints: Rack visitors aren’t in it for deep conversation or epiphanies of enlight-
  enment. Most of them go out primarily to socialize or to booze themselves numb. Still, much 
  “networking” goes on in bars throughout the Rack, and gossip is the nightlife scene’s stock 
  in trade, whether among countercultures or in mainstream whiskey bars. Secrets and leads 
  might issue from Rack visitors’ mouths as little more than idle chatter, and enough of them 
  are looking to hook up that the scene is practically a buffet for Kindred looking to feed.
  Abilities: 
  Carousing (test pool 5) — Rack regulars know how to party, and most are well versed in 
  the art of drinking the night away. These characters are adept at dragging others along on 
  their club-hopping escapades, often to the detriment of hangers-on.
  STREET PREACHER
  Quote: “I look, and here before me stands a pale horse! Its rider is named Death, and Hell 
  follows close behind in his wake!”
  Background: Among the ranks of the homeless, some ﬁ nd salvation from their desperate 
  lot by turning to religion. Granted, their notions of religion don’t necessarily correspond to 
  those of any organized denomination, but as long as it gives them a bulwark for their humanity, 
  few of these street-corner prophets care about the regularity of their “congregations.” Heavy 
  on doom, brimstone, ﬁ re and damnation, many preachers rant about the imminent end of 
  the world. Others preach a neo-Gnosticism, ranting against the evils of material things and 
  the soulless fools who pursue them.
  Description: Wild-eyed and ﬁ lthy, the street preacher has a windburned face. He might 
  wear a sandwich board proclaiming that the apocalypse is nigh, or he might clutch a tattered 
  Bible close to his chest.
  Quick Costume: Once nice but now ragged clothes, Bible, wild hair. 
  Storytelling Hints: Because they’re homeless and often insane, street preachers frequently ﬁ nd 
  themselves ignored. Therefore, they might be witness to certain events to which those witnessed 
  don’t even consider a prophet a credible witness. When a street preacher speaks about “darkened 
  angels who have fallen to walk among the living,” there might just be something to it.
  Abilities:
  Survival (test pool 4) — Many homeless people have learned to be acutely aware of their 
  environment, quick to take advantage of whatever opportunities fate tosses their way.
  Occult (test pool 3) — The homeless witness some strange stuff amid the streets, and the 
  preacher is attuned to weirdness and events of Biblical signiﬁ cance. His skewed insight might 
  be just what’s needed to gain a fresh perspective on a problem for which the jaded Kindred 
  think they already have all the answers.
  non-combatants
  
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  Streetwise (test pool 5) — Homeless people develop an intimate knowledge of who and what 
  goes on in their territory, mostly as a matter of personal survival. With the right incentive, 
  they can be persuaded to share what they’ve observed.
  COMBATANTS
  The following are examples of combatants whom your principal characters might come up 
  against at one time or another during a story.
  ROGUE GHOUL
  Quote: “You can give me what I need or I can take it from you. It’s your choice.”
  Background: The rogue ghoul knows what it’s like to serve a vampiric regnant as a thrall 
  — and she’s had enough. Somehow, she escaped thralldom to her master and made it out on 
  her own. The problem is, she’s addicted to or dependent on what being a ghoul does to her. 
  As such, she’s taken to a lonely path. She seeks out vampires, either to slay them or barter 
  with them, but always to take their Vitae for her own use. She’s savvy and quick and more 
  than a little paranoid, but that’s what her path demands.
  Description: The rogue has a haunted, hunted look about her. She might go days without 
  a shower, or even longer without access to a mirror. She spends her life hunting vampires, 
  but knows she is weaker than her prey, and she looks it. While she’s not frail by any means, 
  she’s no match for a vampire in a fair ﬁ ght, so she skulks about the shadows and dresses 
  the part.
  Quick Costume: Durable clothing, equipment, fatigued makeup. 
  Storytelling Hints: The rogue ghoul’s story hooks are as broad as one might expect 
  a soldier of fortune’s to be. She’s probably under Lextalionis in at least one domain, so 
  helping her probably means courting disaster in more ways than one. Still, she probably 
  knows a great deal about individual Kindred and travels more than most vampires do, 
  so she might have news of outside territories and domains. Is her information worth the 
  danger, though?
  Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 3, Resolve 4, Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 4, Presence 2, 
  Manipulation 2, Composure 2
  Skills: Brawl 2, Crafts 3, Drive 2, Investigation 1, Larceny 1, Persuasion 2, Stealth 3, Streetwise 
  1, Survival 2, Weaponry 2
  Merits: Resources 2
  Willpower: 6
  Morality: 6
  Virtue: Prudence
  Vice: Pride
  Initiative: 4
  Defense: 2
  Speed: 9
  Vitae/per Turn: 4/1 (this is just Vitae usable for the ghoul’s Disciplines; it does not represent 
  the entirety of the blood in her body)
  Weapons/Attacks: 
  Type 
  Damage 
  Size 
  Special 
  Test Pool
  Stake 
  1 (L) 
  1 
  Must target heart 
  1
  Armor: None
  Health: 9
  Disciplines: Auspex 1, Vigor 3
  
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  353
  BELIAL’S BROOD FANATIC
  Quote: “Burn, motherfucker!”
  Background: Members of the demonic undead faction known as Belial’s Brood despise 
  the established social order and do whatever they want, the Prince’s will be damned. Their 
  methods vary from the subtle to the blatant, but their recklessness never wavers. While a few 
  members of Belial’s Brood will speak with more “civilized” Kindred, no peaceful resolution 
  between the two groups has ever been corroborated. Sooner or later, any interaction between 
  these disparate vampires turns bloody.
  Description: Because they are on such poor terms with the other covenants, the vampires 
  of Belial’s Brood are almost always seen dressed for a ﬁ ght. Their demeanor varies from fur-
  tive to aggressively hostile, but they’re always ready for a conﬂ ict to begin. On the other hand, 
  members of Belial’s Brood rarely carry modern weapons, because they rarely have the con-
  nections to procure such things. Whether this is a matter of personal preference or because 
  melee weapons tend to harm the Kindred severely is a matter of academics.
  Quick Costume: Black clothes, numerous weapon item cards. 
  Storytelling Hints: While Belial’s Brood might be a numerical minority, its activities are 
  not so easily overlooked. This group lends itself to a search-and-destroy type of Storytelling, 
  one in which an obvious enemy ﬁ ts the bill rather than the more shades-of-gray intricacies of 
  most vampire stories. Belial’s Brood members serve as excellent enemies, or as the impetus 
  to forge alliances with previously rival groups in the face of a common enemy.
  Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 3, Resolve 3, Strength 3, Dexterity 2, Stamina 3, Presence 4, 
  Manipulation 2, Composure 2
  Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 3, Drive 1, Larceny 2, Stealth 1, Streetwise 2, Weaponry 3 
  Merits: Allies (Satanic Cult) 3
  Willpower: 5
  Humanity: 5
  Virtue: Fortitude
  Vice: Wrath
  Initiative: 4
  Defense: 2
  Running Speed: 10
  Blood Potency: 2
  Vitae/per Turn: 11/1
  Weapons/Attacks: 
  Type 
  Damage 
  Size 
  Special 
  Test Pool
  Machete 
  2 (L) 
  2 
   
  8
  Stake 
  1 (L) 
  1 
  Must target heart 
  3
  Armor:
  Type 
  Rating 
  Defense Penalty
  Reinforced/thick clothing 
  1/0 
  0
  Health: 8
  Disciplines: Celerity 2, Resilience 2, Vigor 1
  TROUBLESHOOTING
  This section discusses some common problems and concerns that can arise before or during 
  the course of a Requiem chronicle, as well as how to deal with them. When handling these 
  topics, troupes are encouraged to stress communication and understanding by all parties 
  involved. In the end, The Requiem is just a game, and while certain matters demand atten-
  combatants • troubleshooting
  
  mind’s eye theatre: requiem
  354
  chapter four:  storytelling
  354
  tion to avoid upsetting other players or bringing the game to a halt, it’s seldom justiﬁ ed to 
  publicly dress down a player. Handle these matters quietly and politely but ﬁ rmly, and don’t 
  let them ruin the game for the other players. 
  UNDEAD DENIAL:
  “I’M NOT A VAMPIRE, I’M A SUPERHERO WITH AN ALLERGY TO SUNLIGHT.”
  There are some players — not characters, but players — who do everything to downplay the 
  fact that their character is a vampire, making him as human as possible and otherwise ignor-
  ing the facts of vampiric existence in favor of being a pale superhero. They breeze over slight 
  inconveniences like having to feed on human blood and their lack of true emotion. They rel-
  egate these things to simple game mechanics and get back to focusing on the powers available 
  to them. While it’s fun to have a vampire character in denial of his bestial side — some famous 
  literary and television vampires come to mind — it’s quite another to have a player mechanically 
  minimize every monstrous aspect of the Kindred experience. Remember, even the Ordo Dracul 
  isn’t trying to become human, it’s simply trying to transcend ordinary Kindred limits to become 
  better vampires. Don’t let players create a character who’s essentially completely human with a 
  slightly different appetite and an allergy to sunlight. That’s not the point of the game.
  Rather, players should remember that this is a game about playing monsters. Sure, some are 
  more in control of themselves, but even the most “noble” Kindred are still monsters with an 
  unnatural thirst for the blood of the living. They’re forever a mere sliver of sunlight or lick 
  of ﬂ ame away from a horrifying burst of frenzied violence. If a player really wants to play a 
  human with some of the powers of vampirism that badly, well, they can play a ghoul. Kindred 
  characters have fantastic abilities, but everything they have comes with a price — and a steep, 
  terrifying one at that. It’s rarely a good thing that a character was made into a vampire. Even 
  if he’s secured a relatively nice position, he’s still given up much to do so, from family and 
  loved ones to real emotions and the feel of the sun. Most Kindred don’t ask to be what they 
  are — they just try to deal with it as best they can.
  If a player starts to just gloss over the more personal aspects of the game, talk to them 
  about it. Politely ask why they are missing out on this part of playing their character. No one 
  should be forced to play a part that makes him uncomfortable out of game, but at the same 
  time, you can point out that that playing up a character’s faults often leads to some of the 
  best roleplaying. If the problem persists, maybe that player isn’t quite suited to the mood of 
  the game you intended.
  POLITICAL BURNOUT:
  “I CAN’T TAKE ALL THE BACKSTABBING IN THIS GAME!”
  Vampires are not nice. Most of them were not nice people even when they were alive, and 
  even the best of them acquire savage predatory instincts and an eternal, unholy hunger upon 
  the Embrace. Kindred society and the basic psychology of the Damned promotes a certain 
  amount of paranoia and treachery in characters. Characters are encouraged to use politics 
  and dirty deeds to survive in the harsh world of the undead. If treated with maturity on the 
  part of all parties involved, these mature attitudes and tactics can actually be a large part of 
  the fun of playing a Requiem game. 
  That doesn’t mean that certain characters can’t seek out something better for themselves 
  — or that honest loyalties between vampires can’t be established. But for the most part, players 
  and Storytellers can be prepared for some knock-down, drag-out nastiness once the politics 
  of a game get moving. For some people though, this treachery can be a source of frustration 
  rather than roleplaying. While most of them can still enjoy the game by playing less politi-
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
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  355
  cally minded characters, some of them grow frustrated upon ﬁ nding themselves on the short 
  end of the stick following one particularly nasty intrigue. Or it might be that they don’t feel 
  comfortable exploring the nature of characters of questionable morals. Some players might 
  not be able to easily distinguish the line between what the characters are doing and what the 
  players intend, and start taking out-of-game offense at in-game plots and tricks. 
  If your chronicle prominently features political and social scenarios that pit group against 
  group, character against character, your players should be warned about the underlying social 
  drama and cutthroat attitudes of the game. Players should be encouraged to have a healthy 
  attitude toward this from the get go. Promote an attitude of more cheerful thoughts that 
  separate character and player attitudes (“Good move — your character got mine this time, 
  but she’ll be back!”) as opposed to more negative ones or attitudes that don’t draw any clear 
  distinction between the two. While you might not be able to expect complete good will at 
  all times, a clear line should always be drawn between what characters do, and what players’ 
  feelings are. As long as players remember that distinction, they can have more fun and focus 
  on building a great story as opposed to personal vendettas.
  If one or two players have problems with this aspect of the game later in the chronicle, 
  talk to them about it. Maybe they have a legitimate reason to be concerned, like they feel an 
  in-game incident was actually based on some out-of-game hard feelings and don’t know what 
  to do about it. Or perhaps the majority of your players ﬁ nd too much intrigue distasteful, 
  and your game isn’t suiting their preferences overall and might need to change direction. 
  Discuss such concerns with your players, and see if a compromise can be reached. It’s only a 
  game after all, and it’s designed for the enjoyment of everyone involved.
  Chronicles that involve players who normally do not get to socialize often out of game are par-
  ticularly prone to these kinds of feelings, simply because the players don’t know each other well 
  enough to separate in-character behavior from out-of-character intentions. In such chronicles, 
  it might be a worthy investment to arrange for occasional social gatherings or group activities 
  outside of the game itself, so that the players can get to know one another. Even a troupe of 
  friends can beneﬁ t from this kind of “collective decompression” from time to time, as The 
  Requiem can stir up some very ﬁ erce, competitive feelings that might need to be bled off.
  BLOODLINE MANIA:
  “EVERYONE HERE BELONGS TO A DIFFERENT BLOODLINE!”
  The bloodlines are intended to allow players a certain degree of variety when creating 
  their characters, but these types of characters are meant to be fairly rare. Bloodlines are not 
  highly populous, and they often have to struggle to ﬁ nd their place in Kindred society. Yet 
  sometimes you and the rest of your Storytelling staff will be approached by players who all 
  want their characters to be from different bloodlines. If you grant them all your approval, 
  almost no one will be left from the regular parent clans.
  Before you say yes to anyone, however, it’s generally best to ﬁ nd out exactly why the players 
  want to play bloodlines in the ﬁ rst place. Sometimes several players want to play something 
  they feel is outside the norm and the easiest way they see to accomplish this is to play some-
  thing unique. Alternatively, they might want to avoid stereotypes or want their character to 
  be viewed as “special.” It must be understood, however, that these bloodlines are rare and 
  have little power on their own.
  Encourage players to seek their roleplaying from the established clans; by contrast, blood-
  lines are best used in the hands of experienced players who can be trusted to handle the 
  increased roleplaying demands of these unique Kindred families. Players should not need 
  a bloodline to make a character complete. In the end, characters are not deﬁ ned purely by 
  troubleshooting
  
  mind’s eye theatre: requiem
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  chapter four:  storytelling
  356
  their clan afﬁ liation or by what covenant they own loyalty to, but by their personalities and 
  histories. A character can ﬁ ll a unique niche in a game and still be part of one of the larger 
  clans. Bloodlines should be reserved for those concepts that would heighten the drama and 
  enjoyment of your game, not serve the whim of a player who just wants to try something new. 
  Use bloodlines and other exotic lineages for the spice in the soup, not the stock.
  POWER BLOCS:
  “THIS IS AN INVICTUS DOMAIN. OTHER KINDRED NEED NOT APPLY.”
  The Status systems in The Requiem encourages clans and covenants to gather and secure 
  power for their own protection, and that should remain a strong element of the game in or-
  der to give politics real value. Never let the game get to the point, though, where players who 
  aren’t part of the dominant parties can’t ﬁ nd any point in playing. It might come to pass that 
  a certain single group or afﬁ liation holds full sway over a city setting. Maybe chance provided 
  that opportunity, or maybe the group earned it through hard work and dedication to achiev-
  ing the prize. Regardless, it now ﬁ nds itself ﬁ rmly in control. But what happens to everyone 
  else? Some players might begin to question why they even bother showing up, particularly if 
  the group in power begins throwing its weight around in petty or vicious ways.
  Players on both sides should remember that even those groups who do not have a dominant 
  role in a city setting are still important to the political atmosphere. While vampires of different 
  groups might not fully trust or support each other, they realize that each clan and covenant 
  has certain advantages. It is very possible to have a city setting controlled by one group, which 
  still allows other groups to ﬂ ourish there. There are things that other groups have access to 
  that beneﬁ t a city as a whole, even if Kindred from opposing factions don’t like to admit it. 
  Once power is secured within, a city can still be in peril from without. And protecting one’s 
  holdings from all takers requires every advantage a city full of Kindred can muster.
  Of course, the Storytelling staff should also make sure there isn’t some out-of-game truth 
  to reports to gloating, mockery and other player abuse. While it can sometimes be hard for 
  players to separate in-character rants from out-of-game attitudes, few things can kill the fun of 
  the Status system faster than having a group of players use in-game authority as justiﬁ cation 
  for making everyone else miserable out of game. It’s quite possible to have fun and enjoy the 
  game without acting superior to the other players just because of a matter of in-game faction 
  supremacy. It’s only a game, after all. Momentarily achieving some sort of position of power 
  might indicate some cleverness and dedication, but it doesn’t entitle those players to rub 
  their opponents’ noses in it out of game.
  Lastly, players should also remember that dominant factions are often a part of the Kindred 
  experience, even when the optional Standing rules aren’t in effect. To a certain degree, they 
  should accept the behavior of the characters in power as part of the Danse Macabre, and not 
  take out-of-game offense at it. If a certain group has so much control of the game that other 
  players feel paralyzed and helpless, encourage the minority to seek out other strategies. Have 
  those players use other resources to materialize their goals. Show them that their characters 
  still have an important role in the story even if their clan or political group is not in the ma-
  jority. After all, if the majority group is really being vicious and petty at every turn, it’s likely 
  that lesser factions will have a lot of allies ready to help them unseat these tyrants.
  MINDLESS REVOLUTION:
  “THE PRINCE MUST DIE! WHY? WELL...”
  Some players generally dislike authority. For whatever reason, these players always seek to 
  have their characters undermine the established power in a game setting. Even if that power 
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  357
  357
  is all that is holding back the savage hordes at the gates, certain players can’t overlook the 
  chance to take down the establishment. It can be very difﬁ cult for players born and raised 
  in free democratic societies founded on individual freedoms to get into the very neofeudal 
  mindset of the Danse Macabre. Most players are not used to being given orders or expected 
  to show deference to someone they don’t like, and it becomes even harder when the person 
  playing the character giving orders is just another one of the gang out of game. While there 
  are certainly rebellious and insubordinate characters, most of the time it’s relatively easy to 
  tell the difference between when the character is rebelling against an unjust order and when 
  it’s simply the player out to cause trouble. 
  While many Princes and Kindred rulers are complete bastards, this is by no means the rule. 
  And even if they are, often their best interests are tied into the best interests of those other 
  vampires in their city. Given the choice, most Kindred would rather have a strong Prince who 
  rules with a heavy hand but keeps the domain paciﬁ ed and the territories clearly deﬁ ned, 
  as opposed to a Prince who’s everybody’s friend if he cannot keep the peace or protect the 
  borders. Therefore, keeping a strong Prince in power might require characters to swallow their 
  pride from time to time or endure what they consider to be petty commands. Some players 
  still might not see the wisdom in this. They will look toward political leaders as sources of 
  antagonism. They do not understand that Kindred society is not the democracy that so many 
  people enjoy. It is an Old World rule, where might makes right. This offends the sensibilities 
  of some players who will use it as an excuse to challenge authority at every turn. 
  Remember to inform your players that outright murder and open treachery in vampire society 
  comes with a harsh punishment, especially if the accused is a known troublemaker and rabble-
  rouser. Princes are in their positions because they earned them, usually by ﬁ ghting off all other 
  takers (one way or another). Point out to them that sometimes working within the system is much 
  more productive for vampires than constantly moving upstream. The Prince has a target painted 
  on his chest, so why not just let a Prince stand out there and take the bullets of public opinion 
  and assassination attempts, while the disgruntled characters work in the shadows to complete their 
  goal? After all, the Prince’s eyes can’t be everywhere at once. If a character makes himself a nuisance 
  — or worse, loudly marks himself a threat — then that Prince’s attention will focus squarely upon 
  him. It’s often better just to keep a low proﬁ le in Kindred society. You don’t get the perks that 
  come with ofﬁ ces, but you don’t attract the same attention, and you can often accomplish quite a 
  bit that way. If players continue to insist on mindlessly attacking the establishment, then feel free 
  to allow them to get what’s coming to them as the reward for their character’s rash actions. 
  Although it has received relatively little attention so far, it should be noted that sometimes 
  players whose characters mindlessly attack the establishment really do have a legitimate gripe. 
  Namely that they feel some players are abusing their in-game powers to ruin other players’ 
  fun. This is worth checking out, in the interest of fairness if nothing else. Remind everyone 
  that while Kindred society is not designed to be fair, that doesn’t mean those players have free 
  reign to take their power out of game and otherwise treat fellow players badly. It also doesn’t 
  mean that a character should start taking actions just because the player feels another player 
  needs to be taught a lesson. All actions taken in game should be based on roleplaying and a 
  character’s goals and motivations.
  For more on titles, Status systems and positions, see Appendix Two: The Danse Macabre.
  CLANS AS CONCEPTS:
  “WHAT DO YOU MEAN, WHAT DO I DO? I SAID I’M A DAEVA.”
  The Requiem’s mythos allows for an incredibly wide variety of characters for a player to 
  portray. There are many choices to be found amongst the clans, bloodlines and covenants 
  troubleshooting
  
  mind’s eye theatre: requiem
  358
  chapter four:  storytelling
  358
  associated with the Kindred. Pretty much any kind of concept you can think of can be some-
  how translated into this Mind’s Eye Theatre system. And while established stereotypes give 
  your players a starting point for how to grasp some parts of the world, don’t feel the need 
  to be locked into those molds. Clans and covenants are starting points for generating good 
  character concepts, not destinations that indicate the journey is over. 
  Some players deﬁ ne their characters by what group or clan they belong to. A player might 
  make the mistake of reading a description of a certain group and decide that this is what their 
  character needs to be. This is often the case with inexperienced players who are still looking 
  to get a handle on what The Requiem is all about.
  Yet not all vampires are the similar just because they happen to belong to the same certain 
  clan. Very few had a choice of which clan Embraced them, relying instead on their choice 
  of covenant (or no covenant at all) to deﬁ ne their identity among the Damned. At the same 
  time, each clan and covenant brings members into the fold for various reasons. Most real-
  ize that by favoring diversity they can take opponents by surprise and open up avenues of 
  advancement that were previously closed. While it’s true that a group can have an image of 
  being a certain way that can be summed up in a few sentences, your players should realize 
  that the world just isn’t that black and white.
  As a Storyteller, don’t feel the need to restrict your players by enforcing the examples pre-
  sented in this book. There is no “right” way to play a Nosferatu. There is no “correct” method 
  of being a member of the Circle of the Crone. Encourage your players to explore new ground 
  by throwing some surprises in the mix and breaking with the stereotype associated with a 
  concept. A clan label does not completely deﬁ ne a character’s nature. It is the personality 
  and mannerisms of a person that makes up what a character is. 
  LOSING TOUCH:
  “I AM A VAMPIRE.”
  Some players can get so wrapped up in the romance of the undead nightlife they actually 
  start lose themselves in the fantasy of it. They begin to identify a little too much with the 
  character they are playing, and may begin to take the character’s setbacks as their own. While 
  it is important to give some kind emotional investment into your character, there is also a 
  need for a certain emotional distance from that character. Some players might develop too 
  much of an attachment to their characters. Certain people are looking for something missing 
  in their own lives and think they can ﬁ nd it in a story involving mature themes.
  If there is an occurrence of this in your own game, or even a suspicion that some players 
  might be getting a little too wrapped up in what’s going on, deal with it quietly but ﬁ rmly, 
  and preferably as soon as possible. Yet don’t go in with metaphorical guns blazing and assume 
  the worst — drastic action is seldom necessary. It might be that a player didn’t realize he was 
  making that kind of impression (particularly if it’s a new player who isn’t familiar to the rest 
  of the group), or even just that a player needs to “tone it down a little.” If there is a problem, 
  however, don’t hesitate to be ﬁ rm with the players in question; humoring the fantasy even a 
  little generally does more harm than good.
  NEVER ENOUGH:
  “AS SOON AS I GET MY OWN BLOODLINE AND
  SOME MORE OUT-OF-CLAN DISCIPLINES, I’LL BE ALL SET!”
  Some players think that in order to create a good character, they need to be a master of 
  whatever niche they are seeking to ﬁ ll. In deciding their characters must be unassailably 
  powerful, these players feel they are required to have their character gain the most power as 
  
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  359
  troubleshooting
  
  mind’s eye theatre: requiem
  360
  chapter four:  storytelling
  360
  quickly as possible. Their characters quickly become little more than the sum of their parts 
  — or in this case the sum of the dots on their character sheet. If players start equating power 
  with character success and good roleplaying, you might need to take a look at the direction 
  your game is heading. Collecting vampiric abilities and Disciplines can become an arms race 
  among your players. Once one person gains a capability or strength that others lack, those 
  players might feel that they need to make that kind of investment in order to “keep up” and 
  the race is on. They start to abandon all other concerns and stockpile dots until soon the 
  game has devolved into He Who Has The Most Powers Wins.
  If this becomes an issue simply ask players, “Why?” Why do they really need more power? Why 
  not just use the powers they have more efﬁ ciently? Point out to them that emotional investment 
  and a dedication to making a better story is really what brings a character to life. The game is about 
  exploring the nightly existence of these beings called the Kindred, not about having the ability to 
  obliterate all that stands in one’s way. While it can be argued that vampires can grow paranoid 
  when it comes to matters of personal protection, the wise ones understand that power takes many 
  forms. While raw physical might can be handy, it’s a last resort at best. After all, if your enemies 
  have gotten so close that you need your physical powers, you’re in deep trouble already.
  If players are turning to their vampire Disciplines for character fulﬁ llment, address the direc-
  tion your chronicle is taking. Has it become the type of an environment where this is somehow 
  necessary? Perhaps you need to include more scenarios where roleplaying and politics is more 
  important to solving the issue at hand. You might want to consult your Narrators to establish 
  a few goals and scenarios where the players’ vampire Disciplines serve no real use, or at least 
  do not offer instant solutions to the problems coming their way. After all, the ability to turn 
  into a bat does a character little good when the Elysium has been purchased by a company 
  that is sending a mortal wrecking crew over on a sunny Tuesday afternoon.
  Indeed, Storytellers should be aware of one critical component in preventing an arms race 
  of Disciplines and combat Skills — their role in making that characters do not need these 
  traits to survive and prosper. If the players know that combat characters can simply walk up 
  to them and destroy them no matter what amount of political power or social inﬂ uence they 
  have, then there’s no reason for them to build those connections in the ﬁ rst place. If you 
  want politics, rumors and intrigue to be the primary ways the Kindred strike at each other, 
  you have to do your best to make sure that physical power can seldom be used to bully or 
  destroy characters. By presenting an alternative system to strike at other characters and build 
  their own power, and highlighting the strict in-game penalties for Kindred who engage in 
  violence, diablerie and wanton destruction, you can craft a game where characters approach 
  conﬂ ict with precious information, dirty secrets and political pull.
  This is not to say that making a physical- or combat-oriented Kindred character is automati-
  cally a useless concept, much less an automatic mark of bad roleplaying. Someone has to be 
  the Hound, for one thing, and among such apolitical or nomadic vampires as the unbound, 
  the social graces that other Kindred rely on often don’t mean much compared to the raw abil-
  ity to survive. Likewise, many vampires spend time studying the nuances of the Disciplines, 
  whether with a scholarly mind intent on plumbing the secrets of how they function or simply 
  seeking to push the limits of their new existence. And let’s not forget the many other threats 
  to the Damned that might require swift and brutal action, such as mortal witch-hunters, 
  foreign Kindred or marauding Lupines. Physical power is not useless in The Requiem, nor 
  should it be completely discouraged. After all, any traits can be part of a good character, if 
  the player develops a strong personality and history. 
  All that having been said, however, players who are used to the combat-oriented reality that 
  exists in many other roleplaying games should take note that in The Requiem, the primary 
  
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  361
  troubleshooting
  focus is on social interaction and political maneuvering. What’s more, the Kindred have many 
  strict and serious rules about attacking each other, which combine to make it the worst possible 
  choice to simply enter a room and open ﬁ re as a means of getting things done. Characters 
  who rely on brute force can easily ﬁ nd themselves permanently banished from a domain or 
  even executed outright, regardless of whether it is a ﬁ rst offense or not. Make no mistake, 
  violence still has a role in the world of the Kindred (and always will), but unless a Kindred is 
  so powerful she fears no form of reprisal, force must be applied quietly and selectively. Even 
  the best Kindred bruisers and assassins also act with the understanding that being caught can 
  spell their doom. It also means that physical powerhouses are more likely to use the threat of 
  violence rather than violence itself if that will achieve their goals. 
  So unless the troupe would like a more action-adventure feel for the chronicle, The Re-
  quiem has been designed to move bullies and bruisers to the shadows and let politics and 
  intrigue take center stage. Not only does it better suit the rhythms of the Danse Macabre, but 
  it also ﬁ ts the highly social and roleplaying intensive world of live-action gaming. Troupes are 
  highly encouraged to remember this when they create chronicles and characters, so that no 
  player feels useless in the political reality of The Requiem. In the end, it’s not a bad idea to 
  have some physical power, but if that’s where your character is trying to achieve dominance 
  in the domain, she’s almost certainly in for some rude surprises. One of them might even 
  be her very last mistake.
  
  mind’s eye theatre: requiem
  362
  appendix: bloodlines
  362
  
  chapter one: society of the damned
  363
  363
  Appendix:
  Bloodlines
  It was, he said, 
  a constitutional 
  and a family evil, 
  and one for which 
  he despaired to ﬁ nd a remedy.
  —Edgar Allen Poe, 
  The Fall Of The House Of Usher
  
  mind’s eye theatre: requiem
  364
  appendix: bloodlines
  364
  While every vampire belongs at least ancestrally to one of the ﬁ ve great clans, some Kindred 
  diverge from those lineages into their own unique bloodlines. Also, Disciplines favored by 
  those ﬁ ve clans don’t exhaust the possibilities of Kindred power.
  Some bloodlines exist as purely social divisions. Certain Kindred prefer to identify them-
  selves as descendants of some esteemed vampire from centuries past, instead of being just an 
  ordinary Mekhet, Nosferatu, Gangrel or whatever. Other bloodlines come about because of 
  shame. A Kindred suffers some disgrace in the eyes of clanmates, and that disgrace passes to 
  his childer and their childer in turn. An elder who joins a covenant that isn’t usual for his 
  clan, and draws his childer in likewise, might also cause other Kindred to call his descendants a 
  bloodline. Although the social consequences of hailing from these lineages can be substantial, 
  such “bloodlines” have no consequence in terms of game mechanics.
  When most Kindred talk about bloodlines, they mean a lineage whose nature or inclina-
  tion genuinely differs from that of its parent clan. True bloodlines stand out because their 
  members favor at least one different Discipline than their parent clans, they suffer an ad-
  ditional different blood-borne weakness, or both. Most remarkably of all, some bloodlines 
  practice Disciplines known to few other Kindred. Some bloodlines actually introduce new 
  Disciplines that have never been seen before.
  Using new bloodlines and Disciplines is a way to customize your World of Darkness. The 
  ﬁ ve clans and their Disciplines portray vampires more or less as they appear in ﬁ ction and 
  pop culture: the sinister aristocrat, the sensual predator, the deformed monster and so on. 
  Bloodlines can embody narrower or more exotic images of the vampire, whether inspired by 
  folklore, ﬁ ction or your own imagination. Most importantly, new bloodlines and Disciplines 
  add mystery to your World of Darkness. Even players who read every supplement cannot 
  assume they know it all.
  PLAYING A BLOODLINE MEMBER
  Being part of a bloodline allows a character access to that lineage’s Discipline (which 
  thereafter counts as a fourth “clan Discipline”). It also adds that bloodline’s weakness, 
  which complements a character’s existing clan weakness. If a Discipline is speciﬁ c and 
  unique to that bloodline, only its members and their ghouls may ever access it. If a 
  ghoul is embraced into a different clan or bloodline, he loses access to any bloodline-
  speciﬁ c Discipline dots he may already have. Similarly, a ghoul may only access one 
  unique Discipline at any given time, the powers inherent to his Regnant’s blood.
  For more information, see p. 372.
  Story Functions of Bloodlines 
  and Disciplines
  Bloodlines fulﬁ ll a number of story functions within a chronicle. Most simply, they expand 
  the range of options for players. Five clans might not be enough for some troupes. Perhaps a 
  character concept just doesn’t ﬁ t speciﬁ cally enough within one of the standard clans. Bloodlines 
  offer a chance to play “something different,” as well as a way in which players and Storytellers 
  can customize the setting to their own tastes. Each clan focuses on a particular aspect of vampire 
  
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  mythology — vampire as secret master, as tragic counterculture icon, as bestial predator and 
  so on. With a bloodline, you can create an undead subculture that explores other aspects of 
  vampirism, or you can just create an interesting new Kindred group to add to your chronicle.
  Bloodlines can also specialize in narrower aspects of a clan’s basic concept, throwing them 
  into sharp relief. 
  New Disciplines can play a similar role. Some players like to give their characters unusual 
  powers. Sometimes they do so to give their characters some edge over other characters. 
  Sometimes they use powers as a substitute for personality. Those are not reasons to forbid 
  new Disciplines, though. As Storyteller, you can help players use bloodlines and Disciplines 
  to make their characters individual and unusual while retaining play balance.
  Bloodlines and Disciplines make the World of Darkness more mysterious. Kindred who 
  think they know it all are in for a shock when a new vampire in town leaves pestilence in his 
  wake, or he confronts them with the ghosts of their parents.
  This is especially true for bloodlines from distant lands. Since vampires do not travel 
  much, the clans often striate into bloodlines. Just as each city has its own political structure 
  of covenants and personalities, so each region of the world might have a special bloodline or 
  two. Regional bloodlines can highlight cultural or historical elements. 
  As you create new bloodlines, think about where they come from and what regional quirks 
  they can embody. If you like, read up on a region’s vampire legends. Every part of the world 
  has its own stories about blood-drinking witches, ghosts and demons that can help inspire new 
  bloodlines. Other parts of the world, such as Africa and Asia, almost certainly include different 
  covenants. When characters encounter Kindred from other parts of the world, with strange 
  customs and powers, they realize just how little they know about their World of Darkness. 
  New Disciplines, like new bloodlines, expand the range of stories you can tell. Each Disci-
  pline enables vampires to perform certain feats; a new Discipline results in a character who 
  does things that no one else can. Such a character can set events in motion that no one else 
  could, provide novel mysteries and challenges for other characters, and generally shake up 
  a chronicle. What happens when one character can talk to the dead? Kindred high and low 
  realize that secrets they thought were lost and scandals they thought were buried have become 
  accessible again. You could build an entire story arc around learning what a new Discipline 
  can do and how it shakes up a city’s Kindred.
  Clan and bloodline weaknesses, on the other hand, supply a challenge to players’ ingenuity 
  and roleplaying. A different weakness imposes different challenges for players and Storytell-
  ers to explore.  
  Storytellers can feel the same temptation as players to use bloodlines and Disciplines as 
  substitutes for personalities. Keep in mind that you don’t need to invent a whole new blood-
  line to justify one unusual character. Many Kindred simply don’t act the way other vampires 
  expect from members of their clan, and vampires can learn unusual Disciplines without 
  belonging to a bloodline.
  Watch out for “super-bloodlines,” too. You might feel tempted to create a bloodline with 
  the most ass-kicking kick-ass set of Disciplines you can devise. This temptation can become 
  especially strong if you intend for the members of a bloodline to serve as adversaries to the 
  characters. Resist this temptation. The Requiem presumes that all undead lineages are equally 
  worthy for players’ characters. No vampire lineage in this book or any supplement receives a 
  black hat and an “Enemy — Do Not Play” stamp along with the Embrace. We recommend that 
  you stick to this rule as well. If one bloodline possesses clear advantages over other lineages, 
  however, a character from that bloodline holds an intrinsic advantage over other players’ 
  characters. That might seem fun for one player, but the other players will probably object.
  story functions of bloodlines and disciplines
  
  mind’s eye theatre: requiem
  366
  appendix: bloodlines
  366
  Creating a Bloodline
  Designing a bloodline has two parts. The ﬁ rst consists of the “story” aspects of the lineage: 
  the clan from which it emerged (even if characters could not know this aspect of its history), 
  how the bloodline came to be, its distinctive culture and its interaction with other Kindred. 
  The second part consists of the “game” aspects: the Disciplines favored by the bloodline and 
  the special weakness that all members of the line inherit from their sires.
  Players might want to invent bloodlines. Not only might a player want to play a character 
  from a bloodline she created, a character can establish a bloodline in the course of the 
  chronicle. As always, the Storyteller has ﬁ nal say on whether to allow a bloodline. Founding 
  a lineage is one of the greatest feats a Kindred can achieve, however, so we do not recommend 
  that Storytellers forbid this deed. Instead, work with the player to make the new bloodline 
  interesting and balanced with the standard Kindred clans.
  JOINING OR REALIZING A BLOODLINE
  A character’s ability to join a bloodline or create one of her own depends on several 
  factors, including her clan, speciﬁ c lineage and Blood Potency.
  JOINING THE SIRE’S BLOODLINE
  At Blood Potency 2, a character may “activate” his sire’s bloodline, becoming a part 
  of it. Doing so allows him access to that bloodline’s Discipline (which thereafter counts 
  as a fourth “clan Discipline”) but also saddles him with that bloodline’s weakness 
  (which also complements his existing clan weakness).
  Joining a sire’s bloodline requires the expenditure of a Willpower dot.
  JOINING ANOTHER BLOODLINE
  At Blood Potency 4, a character may align himself with an existing bloodline to 
  which his sire doesn’t belong. The character must belong to the bloodline’s parent 
  clan, however. 
  Normally, a character needs the permission and patronage of a vampire who is 
  already a member of that bloodline to join it. This patron is known as the Avus (from 
  the Latin for “grandfather”). When the Kindred seeks to join the bloodline, she must 
  drink at least one Vitae from the Avus (though drinking at least one Vitae from any 
  member of the bloodline will sufﬁ ce, including acts of diablerie…), so that she knows 
  what mystic form she must force her blood to take. Cruel, domineering or overly careful 
  Avuses occasionally subject their proxy “childer” to Vinculums, just to be sure that no 
  later treachery occurs. At no time does the Avus directly become a blood-relation to 
  the Kindred in question (unless he already is…). The Avus is not subject to blood ties 
  or blood sympathy as described on p. 228 (again, unless he already is). Without the 
  support of an Avus, it is almost impossible for a Kindred to join a bloodline to which 
  she is not directly connected or that she creates on her own.
  Becoming part of the Avus’ bloodline allows a character access to that bloodline’s 
  Discipline (which thereafter counts as a fourth “clan Discipline”) and also bestows upon 
  her that bloodline’s weakness (which complements her existing clan weakness).
  Joining the Avus’ bloodline requires the expenditure of a Willpower dot on the 
  character’s part, and the expenditure of a Willpower point and at least one Vitae on 
  the Avus’ part.
  CREATING A NEW BLOODLINE
  If a player does not “activate” a sire’s bloodline or join another clan bloodline, she 
  may create a bloodline for her character at Blood Potency 6. Many bloodlines have a 
  unique Discipline, and all have a unique weakness. As with activating prior bloodlines, 
  
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  367
  the Discipline becomes a fourth clan Discipline and the weakness layers on top of the 
  existing clan weakness.
  Creation of a new bloodline costs a Willpower dot.
  UNIVERSAL CONCERNS
  A character can engage only one of these options: become a member of his sire’s 
  bloodline, join another clan bloodline or diverge into his own unique bloodline. He 
  cannot do two or all three.
  Any time after a character achieves Blood Potency 2, he may “activate” his sire’s 
  bloodline. That is, if a character has Blood Potency 6 and hasn’t started his own 
  bloodline or joined another, he may then join his sire’s latent bloodline. Any time after 
  a character reaches Blood Potency 4, he may join a clan bloodline (provided he has 
  the proper patronage or is willing to commit diablerie). For example, if a character 
  has Blood Potency 6 and hasn’t started his own bloodline or joined his sire’s, he may 
  join a clan bloodline. The same holds true with regard to starting a character’s own 
  bloodline and Blood Potency 6.
  Joining or creating a bloodline doesn’t “just happen.” The character actually 
  forces her Blood to take on new characteristics or to conform to the characteristics 
  of another. Needless to say, effecting a change like this in the static Kindred takes 
  time, to say nothing of entreating an Avus for the distinction of joining his bloodline. 
  Creating a new bloodline or joining an existing one isn’t something that should happen 
  overnight. Storytellers are recommended to allow players’ characters to transition to 
  new bloodlines between chapters of a chronicle, not simply between scenes, or even in 
  the same game session (unless some unconventional pacing takes place). Alternatively, 
  a Storyteller may allow characters to begin play as members of existing bloodlines, so 
  long as those characters have the requisite Blood Potency of 2 or more.
  A character who has met bloodline requirements and whose Blood Potency later 
  drops due to torpor does not lose those bloodline privileges. For example, a vampire 
  who creates a bloodline at Blood Potency 6 and later drops to Blood Potency 5 does 
  not have his bloodline, Discipline, et cetera suddenly vanish. He has already forced 
  his Blood to take on the bloodline characteristics, so even if his Blood later loses some 
  of its inherent power, the deed has already been done. At the Storyteller’s discretion, 
  it may be difﬁ cult for a character to learn further levels of the bloodline Discipline 
  when Blood Potency drops, but this is usually suitable only if the Discipline isn’t yet 
  known completely or has yet to be codiﬁ ed.
  HOW BLOODLINES APPEAR
  Bloodlines do not appear from nowhere. Someone has to start them, and that someone can 
  shape the entire identity and culture of the lineage. New bloodlines can appear in a number 
  of different ways. Storytellers can devise any number of variations on these basic stories and 
  combine them to form a unique and interesting background for a line.
  DELIBERATE INTENT
  Any Kindred can work a change in her Vitae once she achieves sufﬁ cient age and power. In 
  game terms, any vampire can start a bloodline once her Blood Potency reaches 6 or higher. 
  The process does not require any special ritual, but it does cost the character a dot of Will-
  power and some amount of time during which her Blood takes on the new characteristics. 
  A new weakness also arises, adding to that of her original clan. Any childer the character 
  sires after that point have the potential to inherit her new weakness and new set of favored 
  Disciplines.
  A Kindred might change herself to reﬂ ect some special interest. The founder might prefer 
  some Discipline outside the roster of her in-clan capabilities. By changing herself, she makes 
  that Discipline easier to learn. Her childer may then inherit the altered set of bloodline Dis-
  ciplines. A founder also suffers some special ﬂ aw in addition to the normal weakness of her 
  creating a bloodline • how bloodlines appear
  
  mind’s eye theatre: requiem
  368
  appendix: bloodlines
  368
  clan, and she passes that weakness on to her childer when they “activate” the line.
  The Bruja (a Gangrel bloodline) provide an example of a deliberately created bloodline. 
  The founder of the lineage wanted to remain true to his outlaw biker gang roots, not serve 
  as a pawn in some other Kindred’s maneuverings in the Danse Macabre. The line acquired 
  Vigor, a Discipline considered most applicable to a pack of blood-drinking, hell-raising, ass-
  kicking outlaws who had little to depend on other than their own capabilities. The creator’s 
  choices deﬁ ned the strengths of his new bloodline.
  Exactly how “deliberately” a lineage’s founder changes the Blood varies from character to 
  character. One might change her Blood in a calculated attempt to secure greater advantages 
  for herself or her childer. Another might act unconsciously, her Blood responding to her 
  obsessions. Kindred scholars suspect that the Toreador split from the Daeva through an un-
  conscious but undeniable sense of self-esteem. The bloodline’s founder developed closer ties 
  to the society to which he found himself drawn while honing his tastes and predilections to 
  a level of indulgence that exceeded the main clan’s predilection for vice. In some cases, more 
  than one member of a clan decides to change her Vitae and begin a bloodline. A number of 
  bloodlines began as cults or secret societies within a clan.
  ACCIDENTAL BLOODLINES?
  You might wonder how a Kindred could exert an act of will so great that we 
  represent it by the loss of a Willpower dot, yet not know it. Please remember that 
  Kindred do not have access to their character sheets. Game mechanics might suggest 
  that a character has a Willpower dot one minute and does not the next. The change 
  must take place during downtime, when we do not track time minute by minute. 
  During downtime, it’s quite possible for an action that we represent with a single 
  draw or a quick pencil-stroke on a character sheet to actually take several nights. A 
  character can therefore engage in the prodigious effort of will needed to change her 
  Blood a little at a time, and no one can say — not even the character herself — exactly 
  when the change took place.
  CURSES
  A vampire might change because someone else changed him through magic. Kindred refer 
  to this as “cursing,” no matter how the magical alteration occurred.
  Sometimes the change happens because of an actual curse. At its highest levels of mastery, 
  accessible only to Kindred of the most potent blood, Theban Sorcery includes curse-rituals that 
  can impose ﬂ aws on a Kindred and all her descendants, even childer who have already been 
  sired. The most powerful mortal mages might also be able to curse Kindred in this manner.
  Curses can also happen because a bloodline’s founder meddled with the powers of other 
  supernatural beings. Wise Kindred warn their fellows to avoid the blood of Lupines, mortal 
  mages and the stranger creatures that stalk the World of Darkness. Some Kindred develop new 
  powers through contact with such beings, but that power usually comes with an unexpected 
  price in the form of some new ﬂ aw that adds to the character’s existing clan weakness. 
  Any character can suffer the effects of a curse, no matter how high his Blood Potency, and 
  the curse can be passed to any childer. If the character achieves a Blood Potency of 6, he 
  might be able to throw off the curse… or maybe not. At least, he can mitigate and select the 
  effects on himself and his childer.
  TAINTED EMBRACE
  Some mortals are touched by the supernatural before their Embrace. No mortal mages are 
  known to have suffered the Embrace, but some reputed “witches” or other aberrations of the 
  
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  369
  supernatural world have founded bloodlines 
  from the moment they became undead. 
  Mediums and possessors of other spiritual 
  gifts can also join the Kindred with Blood 
  differing from their sires’. All such instances 
  are quite rare, though. More often, a mortal 
  mystic simply becomes a Kindred with an 
  unusual talent.
  VERY OLD BLOODLINES
  In some cases, a bloodline has existed so 
  long that no one remembers how it began. 
  A bloodline’s derivation might be a matter 
  of pure guesswork based on a characteristic 
  weakness, the Disciplines that its members fa-
  vor, or just an indeﬁ nable similarity between 
  cultures. That, in itself, is an important fac-
  tor in the bloodline’s history and character. 
  In its home region, Kindred might consider 
  the bloodline equal to any clan, especially if 
  its numbers are large. Storytellers should pay 
  special attention to how the bloodline selects 
  and trains childer, so as to explain why its 
  culture has lasted so long.
  Indeed, the clans themselves might be 
  nothing more than “bloodlines” of ubiquity. 
  In the extreme case, perhaps a bloodline isn’t 
  really a bloodline at all. Perhaps it is a fading 
  clan, once numerous and widespread but 
  now shrunken and conﬁ ned to a particular 
  locale. A supposed “clan of origin” might 
  actually be an offshoot that grew to supplant 
  an older lineage. The ancient history of the 
  Kindred hints at many such mysteries that 
  undead scholars despair of ever solving.
  THE FOUNDER
  Design the founder of a bloodline with as 
  much care as you would any other character 
  in your chronicle. Even if the founder is 
  destroyed or in torpor, he remains the most 
  important ﬁ gure in the bloodline’s history.
  Work out why someone Embraced the 
  founder in the ﬁ rst place. What attracted 
  his sire’s notice? What did his sire want from 
  him? Is the founder a player’s character?
  How did the founder feel about his parent 
  clan? If he felt out of place, that supplies a 
  motive to split from the clan.
  how bloodlines appear • the founder
  
  mind’s eye theatre: requiem
  370
  appendix: bloodlines
  370
  What circumstances led this Kindred to found his bloodline? Was it deliberate, accidental, 
  completely unasked for? Did any other Kindred react to the event in any notable way?
  Why did the founder sire childer? What does he want from them? What demands did he 
  place? How did his childer react?
  Does the founder still exist? Does he still wield any inﬂ uence over the rest of his bloodline? 
  If he’s been destroyed, how did it happen, and how did it affect the bloodline?
  Not only do the answers to such questions help you make the bloodline’s background 
  seem more real, you probably ﬁ nd story hooks popping up. To give the simplest example, 
  a surviving bloodline founder might take an interest in the remarkable achievements of a 
  descendant — a player’s character. The founder might become a mentor, a patron, a jealous 
  enemy or anything in between.
  Of course, the founder becomes especially important if she is a player’s character. In this case, 
  the bloodline’s origin is an ongoing subplot within the chronicle. Storytellers can build stories 
  around the circumstances that lead to a character’s change, the reaction of other Kindred 
  (especially those in the character’s clan) and the choice whether to sire a childe or not.
  RECOGNITION OF A BLOODLINE
  Any Kindred might say that he founded a bloodline, but do other Kindred believe him or 
  care? Bloodline founders can receive a fair bit of prestige in Kindred culture. It takes more 
  than an odd power — or a signature weakness — to win respect.
  A Kindred must prove that her special aptitudes pass to her childer, and to their childer in 
  turn. Kindred tradition holds that no change in the Blood can be certain until two generations 
  pass. One generation of childer might learn a new set of Disciplines because their sire drove 
  them to make a special effort. If a second generation shows similar aptitude, the Blood has 
  surely changed. Inherited weaknesses can be even harder to detect, especially if they produce 
  no overt mark such as the Nosferatu’s palpable otherness.
  If they want, the Kindred can consult a sorcerer to establish whether a self-proclaimed 
  founder has truly changed her Blood and that of her childer. Hiring a blood magician to 
  perform occult tests means owing that sorcerer a boon, however, and prudent Kindred do not 
  promise favors lightly. Anyway, what if someone bribed the sorcerer to lie? Prudent Kindred 
  do not take another vampire’s word for anything.
  More simply, Kindred can taste the Vitae of an alleged founder’s childe and compare it 
  to the parent clan. (See “Blood Ties” on p. 228 for more about this.) Vampires who drink 
  the blood of fellow Kindred risk addiction and take the ﬁ rst step to a Vinculum, however, 
  so wise Kindred would not perform this test themselves. In another few decades, the matter 
  will sort itself out.
  A bloodline’s founder also needs to amass enough power that other Kindred fear and 
  respect — or at least acknowledge — her. Two generations of childer who retain some con-
  nection to their forebear form an impressive reserve of power all by themselves. A would-be 
  founder can also establish her power through the normal means available to vampires, such 
  as wealth, mortal minions and high ofﬁ ce among a city’s Kindred. Garcilaso de Castillejo 
  possessed more than a fourth Discipline and a few childer to back up his assumption of a 
  founder’s rank. He also “possessed” a unique subculture that grew around him, and inspired 
  an esprit de corps that was fervent enough for his lineage to claim its own under penalty of 
  crushing social retribution.
  Mere time also plays a role. The undead see many small upsets in their long existence. 
  They do not waste much attention on the short term. So what if a Kindred wants to say he’s 
  founded a bloodline? Will he still make that claim in a hundred years? Will he still exist in 
  
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  371
  a hundred years? A new bloodline must persist for decades, if not centuries, before other 
  Kindred consider it worth serious attention. The slow pace of communication among Kin-
  dred of different cities also makes sure that word of a new bloodline takes centuries to reach 
  vampires who dwell far away. 
  For much of their history, the Kindred did not especially care about bloodlines in distant 
  lands. Foreign vampires could not affect them, so most Kindred did not bother learning 
  about them. Modern travel and communications have changed that to some degree. Travel 
  remains difﬁ cult for Kindred, but a journey across continents is not much harder than a trip 
  of a few hundred miles. As a result, rare Kindred visitors to a city might include members of 
  bloodlines formerly limited to distant regions, such as the Burakumin. Some elders now want 
  very much to know who or what might come to their city, so that they can exploit, avoid or 
  destroy an intruding member of a foreign bloodline.
  Therefore, when you design a bloodline, give thought to how much other Kindred know 
  about it. Do they consider it a minor, idiosyncratic group within an existing clan, or do they 
  recognize it as a distinct lineage? How many Kindred even know that the bloodline exists? 
  Has word of the bloodline spread very far? If so, how? The Kindred react in different ways to 
  an envoy from a known bloodline than to a wholly mysterious vampire threat.
  Just as importantly, how much information on a bloodline is accurate? Rumor might ascribe 
  any sort of strange powers and horrible customs to an obscure and distant line. Consider 
  that 500 years ago, educated Europeans seriously believed that central Asia held one-eyed 
  giants, dog-headed cannibals and pygmies who lived off the smell of apples. The Kindred 
  travel less than their mortal ancestors did 500 years ago. Any “foreign” Kindred might be 
  suspected of diablerie, sanguinary sacriﬁ ce to strange gods or any other foul practice, just 
  because someone’s great-grandsire said it was the custom of Kindred in that part of the world 
  or among that bloodline.
  SIZE AND POPULATION
  Approximately how many members does a bloodline have? The Tradition of Progeny keeps 
  Kindred from siring childer very often, so a bloodline’s numbers probably do not grow quickly. 
  A bloodline might take centuries to build up respectable numbers. 
  Cultural factors and historical events can slow a bloodline’s growth even further, or actu-
  ally reduce its numbers. The bloodline’s founder might not want to sire many childer, or he 
  might forbid progeny to his childer in reverence of the Traditions. A bloodline’s members 
  might think that very few mortals deserve the Embrace. Conﬂ icts with other Kindred, other 
  supernatural beings or with mortal witch-hunters might result in the destruction of many 
  members of a line. For example, the Toreador Embrace only those who ﬁ t into their social 
  clique, and they limit their numbers to maintain a sense of rarity and therefore signiﬁ cance 
  and uniqueness.
  Storytellers should not say exactly how many members a bloodline has unless it’s so small 
  and localized that every member can appear in a particular story arc. Rough estimates, such 
  as “a pittance,” “a few dozen” or “maybe a hundred,” preserve the setting’s sense of mystery 
  and the unknown.
  Age and population also tend to correlate with how far a bloodline has spread. Since vam-
  pires seldom travel, a bloodline could take decades to spread from the domain in which it 
  began, and centuries to reach other nations or continents. A populous, old bloodline might 
  have spread through several countries, and the odds are better that some member takes the 
  risky step of moving far away to the young cities of the New World.
  recognition of a bloodline • size and population
  
  mind’s eye theatre: requiem
  372
  appendix: bloodlines
  372
  THE RULES STUFF
  At some point, you must deﬁ ne a bloodline’s favored Disciplines and inherited weakness. 
  This is usually the easiest part of designing a bloodline, and it’s very often the point of inspi-
  ration. Storytellers shouldn’t let a Discipline be the only inspiration, though.
  BLOODLINE DISCIPLINES
  A bloodline favors at least the same Disciplines as the parent clan. In case it doesn’t, a 
  bloodline may replace one or two favored Disciplines, and one of them is usually a some-
  what similar Discipline. For instance, the three “physical” Disciplines of Celerity, Resilience 
  and Vigor easily substitute for each other. So do the “psychic” Disciplines of Animalism, 
  Auspex, Dominate, Majesty, Nightmare and Obfuscate, which all affect the mind in some 
  way. The Bruja, for instance, seem to have decided that they’d like to wield brute strength 
  in addition to the supernal hardiness of their parent clan.
  A bloodline has four favored Disciplines. Of them, three almost always remain the same 
  as the parent clan’s. The fourth is either unique to the bloodline — unable to be learned by 
  Kindred who are not of the bloodline — or is one of the “common” Disciplines practiced 
  by vampires across clan lines. Ghouls can never access more than one unique Discipline 
  at the same time: if their Regnant changes, they lose access to any unique Discipline dots 
  they may have learned under his tutelage. If embraced, such a ghoul would only be able to 
  access a unique Discipline if they joined that speciﬁ c bloodline.
  Theban Sorcery, Crúac and the pseudo-Discipline of the Coils of the Dragon may never 
  be a bloodline’s fourth Discipline.
  The change to a bloodline never replaces all three clan Disciplines. The Blood just doesn’t 
  change to that degree, no matter what inﬂ uence works upon it. If you design a bloodline 
  and ﬁ nd that you want to replace all three of the parent clan’s Disciplines, re-examine your 
  reasons for choosing that particular clan. Some other clan is probably more appropriate.
  This goes for players, too. A player whose character has developed all three clan Disciplines 
  to the limit set by his Blood Potency might want to move the character onto a bloodline 
  so that the character gets an experience-point break when learning another Discipline. We 
  recommend that Storytellers not allow this because it’s cheap and tacky point-mongering, 
  instead of serious character development.
  We also recommend that you do not allow any bloodline to favor more than one unique 
  Discipline. This is a point of story design, not an innate property of the Blood. Special 
  Disciplines should relate to the core idea of a bloodline — its very reason for existence 
  as part of your chronicle. More than one exotic Discipline suggests a lack of focus in the 
  concept of the line… or an attempt to create a “super-bloodline” or a simple desire to be 
  strange for the sake of strangeness.
  Under no circumstances can a character have more than four bloodline Disciplines. 
  Changing the Blood to favor a new Discipline always means honing one’s afﬁ nity for one 
  other Discipline. No power in the World of Darkness can change this iron law.
  BLOODLINE WEAKNESS
  A bloodline may keep the same weakness as its parent clan. Additionally, bloodlines develop 
  new ﬂ aws or focus the clan’s existing weakness. The Morbus, for instance, have very speciﬁ c 
  tastes while the Malkovians suffer from a reﬁ ned madness even more crippling than that of 
  members of their parent clan. Storytellers should examine proposed weaknesses closely, to 
  make sure that they actually handicap a character. Compare the new weakness to the standard 
  clan weakness. Does the new weakness limit or hinder the character just as much? 
  
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  We recommend that any new weakness include some aspect that you can objectively rep-
  resent through a draw or some other game mechanic. Good players roleplay their characters’ 
  weaknesses, but a well-designed weakness does not depend entirely on the player’s willing-
  ness to roleplay or the Storyteller’s ﬁ at for when it affects the character. Arguing slows down 
  your story and usually isn’t much fun. Make sure that player and Storyteller agree when the 
  weakness affects the character, how it affects the character and what the character can do to 
  resist or compensate for its effects. 
  creating a discipline
  Creating a Discipline
  New Disciplines, like bloodlines, don’t appear from nowhere for no reason. Just as with 
  bloodlines, give thought to both the origin of the Discipline and what role you want it to 
  play in your chronicle. Sure, every exotic Discipline is a mystery, an opportunity and a threat 
  to all the Kindred who don’t have it and who don’t know what it can do. What sort of an 
  opportunity or threat do you want the Discipline to present?
  When you invent a new Discipline, however, try to think of different ways to apply its powers 
  and what implications it holds for other Kindred and your chronicle. What at ﬁ rst seems like 
  just a cool trick might actually prompt many Kindred to change their nightly unlife. 
  PROPRIETARY KNOWLEDGE
  Unique Disciplines are impossible for anyone to learn unless they belong to the 
  bloodlines that created them. 
  In some cases, similar Disciplines arise among different bloodlines. Even the 
  “common” Disciplines might manifest a similarity among certain bloodlines. A snake-
  themed lineage might speak with a forked tongue whenever it uses its powers of 
  Dominate, for example, while members of a bloodline renowned for divinatory abilities 
  might lapse into an oracular, trance-like state when they put their Auspex powers to 
  use. Players should feel free to make a certain aspect of the “common” Disciplines a 
  signature of their own bloodlines, if they so wish.
  NOT-REALLY-NEW DISCIPLINES
  Some “new” Disciplines are not really new or unique to a bloodline. A Discipline 
  might have existed for millennia but remained little known because no surviving 
  lineage carried it. When a bloodline that favors the Discipline grows in number, 
  however, other Kindred have a better chance of seeing the Discipline. By the same 
  token, not every new Discipline needs a bloodline to practice it. If you think that a 
  particular Discipline would improve your game and your stories, bring whispers of it 
  into your chronicle. You don’t have to invent a bloodline if you don’t want to — let 
  the tales of the Discipline carry the mystery. You can invent the bloodline later as 
  rumors of the Discipline circulate, or you can use them as very effective red herrings. 
  Don’t overdo it, though. Too much abuse of rumor without enough to substantiate 
  it can make players feel misled, and it smacks of smoke and mirrors rather than 
  good plot design.
  ORIGIN STORIES
  New Disciplines appear along with new bloodlines, so the stories of their origins usually bear 
  some connection. A curse or contamination from some other supernatural race can provide 
  the stimulus for a new Discipline as well as a bloodline. The effort to invent a Discipline might 
  
  mind’s eye theatre: requiem
  374
  appendix: bloodlines
  374
  change a Kindred’s very being, thus resulting in a bloodline, rather than stemming from it. 
  Two broad patterns turn up again and again, with many possible variations. You could work 
  either of these patterns into the history of a bloodline.
  VARIATIONS ON A THEME
  A rare or new Discipline might be a variation on a more familiar Kindred art. Such a 
  variation could appear because a Kindred wanted to use the original Discipline for some 
  unusual or specialized purpose. He might even develop unique Devotions or six-dot+ powers, 
  so the Discipline would perform more of the feats he really wanted. Such a Kindred might 
  ﬁ nd that his childer learn his idiosyncratic variations instead of the more common version, 
  creating a new Discipline. 
  CROSSOVER CONTAMINATION
  Kindred can also develop new Disciplines based on the powers of other supernatural 
  beings, such as Lupines, mages or ghosts. A vampire who sets out to do so deliberately cer-
  tainly needs to study the other supernatural race — a precarious activity, to say the least. His 
  research subjects surely object, since Kindred tradition holds that one must drink another 
  being’s blood to claim its power, as with diablerie. Still, a Kindred manages to pull it off now 
  and then and manifests a Discipline, the effects of which resemble one of the magical gifts 
  of another supernatural creature.
  Such “crossover” Disciplines can also appear spontaneously. Embraced mortal magicians 
  might manifest novel Disciplines based on the sorcery they practiced in life. More dubious 
  rumors speak of exotic creatures of legend giving rise to novel Disciplines. In rare cases, Kindred 
  can also manifest strange powers if they repeatedly feed upon other supernatural creatures or 
  survive deadly encounters with their powers. When different supernatural powers clash and 
  end in death, anything might happen.
  WHO INVENTED IT?
  When you work out the back story for a Discipline, give some thought to who 
  invented it, or at least who made it more widely known. This is usually the founder 
  of the bloodline that uses the Discipline. Not only does this character set the style for 
  the bloodline, he might still exist. Quite possibly, a character who wants to master 
  the last one or two powers in the Discipline needs to learn them from the inventor 
  himself. This requirement might lead to a travel story as the character searches for 
  his bloodline’s founder, with all the difﬁ culties and dangers that travel always holds 
  for the Kindred. Once he ﬁ nds the Discipline’s inventor, the character still faces the 
  challenge of persuading him to share his secret. What compensation, threat, bribe 
  or plea can be offered?
  SELECT A THEME
  Creating a Discipline is rather more complicated from the point of view of a player or 
  Storyteller. First, give thought to what the Discipline is about. Every Discipline sticks closely 
  to a theme or effect, such as “strength” or “fear” or “concealment.” Be careful that you don’t 
  just create a grab bag of cool powers, even if they would all be useful for a certain purpose. 
  Remember that a Discipline is really just one linear progression of power that a character 
  learns to use better and in different ways.
  Not every theme or effect is really appropriate for the Kindred. Can you tie a Discipline 
  to some aspect of the undead condition? Is it something a vampire could really use? The 
  Kindred are undeniably powerful, but they aren’t superheroes. Think about creepy, moody, 
  
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  gothic ways that the secret lords of the night 
  could use a proposed Discipline to maintain 
  their power, not how the Discipline would 
  work in a ﬂ ashy monster smackdown.
  Very few Disciplines directly cause dam-
  age to an opponent. Of the “old standards,” 
  only Protean, Vigor and one speciﬁ c power 
  of Nightmare increase a character’s capac-
  ity to deal physical damage. Vampires can 
  already harm each other (or mortals) using 
  their claws and fangs… or plain old guns 
  and knives. They don’t need much more. 
  Instead, most of the standard Disciplines 
  enable the Kindred to inﬂ uence the actions 
  of other creatures (Animalism, Dominate, 
  Majesty, Nightmare), gain information 
  (Animalism, Auspex), enhance their own 
  physical capacity (Celerity, Protean, Re-
  silience, Vigor) or hide themselves from 
  threats (Obfuscate, Protean).
  Don’t feel too constrained by existing 
  legends and ﬁ ction about vampires. Like 
  bloodlines, Disciplines offer a chance to 
  extend the vampire myth. Your new Disci-
  pline might affect some common aspect of 
  Kindred experience. For instance, vampires 
  are creatures of darkness, barred from the 
  light of day. A new Discipline for a member 
  of the Mekhet bloodline might help a vam-
  pire thrive in darkness and master it. Other 
  Disciplines might show a more symbolic 
  link to undeath. Vampires exist in a state 
  between life and death. 
  New Disciplines should probably be less 
  powerful than the familiar Disciplines. 
  The “old favorites” became the standards 
  because they were especially useful. The 
  Kindred spent thousands of years learning 
  how to use them to great effect. A new or 
  obscure Discipline has not received such 
  unilateral reﬁ nement. From a story point 
  of view, a rare Discipline’s value lies in its 
  ability to surprise other characters, not in 
  its raw power. A character with a new Disci-
  pline is a mystery to other Kindred. Perhaps 
  she’s a resource to exploit or a menace to 
  destroy, but no matter what, she’s someone 
  to watch.
  origin stories • select a theme
  
  mind’s eye theatre: requiem
  376
  appendix: bloodlines
  376
  Although novel Disciplines might be more specialized than the “old favorites,” don’t let 
  them be too specialized. Think of how many ways you can use increased strength, inﬂ uence 
  over people’s emotions, or communication with animals. Since discovering clever uses for a 
  Discipline is part of the fun of having them, a Discipline that’s too narrowly focused might 
  be boring.
  Make sure new Disciplines do not have levels that render earlier powers useless and/or 
  redundant. For example, if a ﬁ ctitious Discipline creates a small bank of fog at one dot, you 
  shouldn’t have it create a much larger bank of otherwise identical fog at four dots. That 
  makes the initial dot effectively pointless and weakens the Discipline’s utility overall besides. 
  Instead, allow earlier powers to get better as the character improves, and introduce new effects 
  or variations as the Discipline advances. For example, if one dot creates ordinary fog, four 
  dots might create a smaller area of mystically impenetrable fog that renders even supernatural 
  senses useless.
  While it may appear that the ﬁ rst dot is now obsolete, in truth both dots still have utility 
  — the fourth dot may render supernatural enemies relatively helpless, but it covers less ground 
  and also immediately alerts foes that there is a supernatural enemy nearby. What’s more, if the 
  character is known locally as the only wielder of fog-based powers (and new Disciplines are often 
  easy to track), any survivors of the attack are sure to seek her out for revenge. By contrast, the 
  ﬁ rst dot not only covers more territory (and is still quite effective against mortals and others 
  without supernatural senses), but since the fog registers as nothing more than ordinary weather, 
  if used cleverly enemies might not immediately connect its presence to the character either.
  Another good tip is not to invent a whole Discipline if one or two new Devotions would 
  work just as well. A lot of players start off with a couple of good ideas for new vampiric pow-
  ers, but can’t quite get a whole Discipline concept out of them, and wind up padding the rest 
  of their Discipline’s ranks with redundant or unrelated powers. Rather than going to that 
  all trouble, consider abandoning the levels that don’t work and just creating a new Devotion 
  or two that accomplish the same things instead. This is particularly true if the powers of the 
  proposed new Discipline could theoretically be derived from existing ones without stretching 
  the imagination too far in the process.  
  Another temptation to avoid with Disciplines is designing one centered around the idea 
  of making Kindred seem more human again, or similarly one that is speciﬁ cally designed 
  to help them retain their Humanity and suppress the Beast. Vampiric powers may draw on, 
  exaggerate or play off of different aspects of life, but they can never truly allow a Kindred to 
  get closer to it even temporarily. Even the evolutionary advances of the Coils of the Dragon 
  are designed to make vampires better at their role as predators, not return them to their 
  humanity. If all it took was developing a Discipline to allow a Kindred to really conquer the 
  Beast or even come close to approximating true humanity once again, these powers would 
  have been created by penitent vampires long ago. Characters who wish to return to their 
  mortal life or ﬁ nd victory over the Beast can look to Golconda or any other spiritual truth 
  they like, but new Disciplines will never provide the answers they seek.
  On the other hand, watch out for Discipline arms races. New Disciplines might come from 
  a desire to build characters who are more powerful than anyone else’s. If a player succeeds, 
  other players could want to play characters of the same bloodline or create their own super-
  characters with even more powerful Disciplines. Such escalation can ruin your chronicle.
  Alas, Storytellers can fall into this trap just as easily as players. You can feel a great tempta-
  tion to create a bloodline of Kindred that is tougher than the standard clans, especially if you 
  intend a member to oppose the players’ characters. This falls into the category of adversarial 
  Storytelling, which gives you reason enough not to do it.
  
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  KILLER DISCIPLINES?
  One form of specialized Discipline presents a special danger. You might feel tempted to 
  create a Discipline geared toward combat, which enables its possessor to slaughter all opposi-
  tion. Resist this temptation. This goes for Storytellers as well as players!
  “Killer Disciplines” really aren’t as much fun as they sound. For one thing, they usually 
  aren’t good for anything but killing enemies. They don’t offer many opportunities for the 
  devious cunning and intrigue that forms so great a part of Kindred existence.
  Slaughtering your enemies is also not a great strategy for characters. A Kindred who racks 
  up a body count of other vampires — or even mortals — will almost certainly frighten his 
  elders enough that they plot his elimination. Elders have lots of ways to destroy a loose can-
  non without getting into a ﬁ ght.
  Most importantly, The Requiem is a Storytelling game. Combat has its place, but it’s 
  fundamentally a game about making choices, not about how many foes one kills before be-
  ing destroyed.
  SELECT THE POWERS
  Assuming your Storyteller likes the concept of your Discipline, you can move on to deﬁ ning 
  the speciﬁ c powers gained with each dot. Your Storyteller might not let you design the whole 
  Discipline. She might want to leave some of the powers a surprise for your character.
  The ﬁ rst power is always the weakest, though it can be very useful. Look at the initial 
  powers in the standard Disciplines. Extra-keen senses (with occasional psychic ﬂ ashes) or 
  issuing one-word commands does not crush all opposition and establish one as a blood god 
  of the night. They can be awfully handy, though, and give your character a crucial edge in 
  her endeavors.
  The ﬁ rst power in a Discipline tends to be subtle. These capabilities add a drop of the 
  supernatural to some natural ability, or at least to some feature common to all Kindred. For 
  instance, the ﬁ rst dot of Majesty makes its user seem very interesting and attractive… but 
  some people are that way naturally. A single dot of Celerity lets a Kindred be frighteningly 
  quick, but anyone can try to be quick. It’s simply difﬁ cult for those who aren’t inherently 
  inclined toward it. 
  As a Kindred masters a Discipline, its applications often become ﬂ ashier and more explicitly 
  supernatural, as well as more powerful. No one could mistake the effects of Sovereignty for 
  anything less than a magical effect, while no mortal could ever achieve the blinding speed 
  of ﬁ ve dots of Celerity. Ordinary people certainly don’t summon waves of plague or conjure 
  legions of walking corpses, either.
  The fourth and ﬁ fth powers are, naturally, the most formidable. At this point, a Discipline 
  should grant some crushing advantage over mere mortals. Kindred who possess four dots 
  in a Discipline are deadly ﬁ ends whom mortals defeat with difﬁ culty. This potency does not 
  need to involve combat, either. A Kindred with four dots of Auspex, for example, can learn a 
  mortal’s secrets and goals by listening to his thoughts — very useful for extortion, temptation 
  or for getting the hell out of the way before the mortal attacks. 
  Try to avoid overlap with existing Disciplines unless you explicitly design your new Disci-
  pline as a variation on one of the old standards. If a Discipline leaves players thinking, “I’ve 
  seen that before,” it just doesn’t seem very exciting.
  In particular, don’t make your new Discipline better at something that a standard Discipline 
  already does, especially at the same level. If your new Discipline is better at concealment than 
  Obfuscate, why would anyone learn Obfuscate? If it permits greater changes of form than 
  Protean, who needs Protean?
  select a theme • select the powers
  
  mind’s eye theatre: requiem
  378
  appendix: bloodlines
  378
  Watch out for redundant powers within a Discipline, too. Unless you run an “elders” 
  chronicle, you have to deﬁ ne the Discipline with just ﬁ ve powers. That’s not many. If one 
  power is merely a stronger or more complete version of an earlier effect, players might feel 
  that the lesser power is a waste of experience points.
  GAME MECHANICS
  After you work out the general effect of each Discipline level, work out the details by as-
  signing game mechanics.
  • Does the power require a test pool? Not all of them do. Some Discipline powers have 
  ﬁ xed effects. Vigor, for instance, simply adds points to Strength-based test pools, Speed and 
  jumping distances.
  • If the power does require a draw, what traits go into the pool? A Discipline’s powers 
  usually all stem from the same Attribute category, be it Mental, Physical or Social. Attribute + 
  Skill + Discipline dots is the basic combination. You should have a strong and cogent reason 
  for ever using Resolve, Composure or Stamina proactively as part of the user’s invocation 
  draw, though it can happen.
  Note that most Disciplines use the same category of Attributes throughout. Mental Disci-
  plines use Mental Attributes, social Disciplines use Social Attributes. If you break with this 
  custom, address the fact and give a sensible reason other than, “My character has lots of dots 
  in that Attribute.”
  • What modiﬁ ers apply? As noted previously for many Discipline powers, you add or 
  subtract a modiﬁ er from the test pool to reﬂ ect how some Kindred (or other supernatural 
  creatures) might be harder to affect than others, situational distractions, how much informa-
  tion is sought, or other concerns. The power might receive other modiﬁ ers, increasing or 
  decreasing the test pool, to reﬂ ect special circumstances. Is the power affected by the presence 
  of blood ties (see p. 228) between user and subject?
  • Does the number of successes drawn have any inﬂ uence on the power’s effect? Some 
  Disciplines have all-or-nothing effects or effects in which the difference between a single 
  success and  many successes is merely a matter of degree. Others can unpredictably produce 
  greater or lesser effects on a target. One success, as always, indicates a weak, marginal effect 
  on the target. Three successes indicate a more pronounced effect. Five or more successes 
  represent an  amazing success with greater than normal effect.  Failures on a chance draw 
  always results in something bad happening to the character if any potential for it exists. 
  Resistance Attributes usually modify the activation draw based on the Discipline’s function 
  as a Mental, Physical or Social power, or they serve as the basis for a defensive test pool in 
  a contested draw. (Unless some overwhelming circumstance applies, any draw to resist a 
  power should be reﬂ exive).
  For example, a power that uses Intelligence as the invoker’s base Attribute is modiﬁ ed by 
  Resolve. This means the subject’s Resolve is subtracted from the user’s test pool or is drawn 
  as a contested test pool. The rule of thumb is that if a power has gradations of effect, in which 
  each success individually accounts for increasing results, the subject’s Resistance trait is sub-
  tracted from the user’s test pool. If the power has an all-or-nothing effect, the subject’s player 
  gets a draw of his own that is compared to the user’s activation draw. See p. 25 of Mind’s Eye 
  Theatre for more on this design principle. (Note that mortals typically have limited capacity to 
  resist the supernatural abilities of the undead, as the living are traditional victims of Kindred 
  power. It’s part of their job in the chronicle. At the very least, they have no Blood Potency 
  to bolster contested draws. Even if they are entitled to a contested draw, it’s probably a test 
  pool of a single trait because their Blood Potency is effectively zero.)
  
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  • What subjects does a power affect? Some Disciplines, such as Celerity, Resilience and 
  Vigor, affect the user herself. Others affect a single person, a number of people or everyone in 
  an area. Still others might change a Kindred’s surroundings in some way. See the following for 
  a set of standard tables that relate a Discipline’s effect to the number of successes drawn.
  • Does the power cost Vitae? Many powers of the standard Disciplines do not cost Vitae 
  to use, or one Vitae fuels the power for a full scene. Disciplines that only one faction favors, 
  such as Crúac or unique bloodline Disciplines, generally cost Vitae to use. The powers of a 
  novel Discipline should probably cost Vitae, too, to reﬂ ect their lack of development. Only 
  the most lethal or efﬁ cacious powers, or powers that never fail to have full effect should cost 
  Willpower points.
  STANDARD MODELS FOR DISCIPLINES
  As a convenience, we offer some of the more common design models for Discipline pow-
  ers. These tables can help a new Discipline stay roughly equal to the “old standards.” The 
  successes drawn indicate a character’s degree of success. 
  The effects of a power can vary in several ways. Most simply, they can cause damage in 
  proportion to successes drawn, just like a mundane attack. Discipline powers can also vary 
  in duration, the number of targets they affect, and their area of effect.
  DIRECT, SINGLE-TARGET ATTACKS
  Discipline powers that inﬂ ict actual points of damage work just like mundane combat. The player 
  draws for the character to strike the target, which determines the amount of damage dealt.
  Disciplines, however, can employ traits other than the Strength or Dexterity used in 
  mundane combat, and can call upon various traits for the subject’s protection. For instance, 
  a “psychic attack” power might use Intelligence + Skill + Discipline dots for the “attack” or 
  invocation draw, with the target’s Resolve for the Resistance modiﬁ er. The invocation draw 
  may succeed, fail or yield disaster, with appropriate effects.
  Failure: The power doesn’t activate, or it doesn’t affect the target.
  Success: The power causes damage normally.
  If the attack succeeds, each success indicates one point of damage.
  The ability to inﬂ ict aggravated damage should never be less than a three-dot power.
  You can also use this system for attacks that reduce a target’s combat abilities in some way 
  other than Health. A power might reduce one of a character’s Attributes for a time or strike 
  him blind. Dominate and Majesty are examples of “attacks” that do not cause harm at all 
  — they just change the target’s thoughts or emotions.
  DURATION
  Duration can be a factor for a power in one of two ways. The invocation draw of a power 
  might indicate a duration. Alternatively, the player can modify an invocation draw. Attempt-
  ing a longer duration than normal means subtracting from the pool. Sacriﬁ cing duration 
  may add to the pool.
  game mechanics • standard models for disciplines
  A.1 — TYPICAL DISCIPLINE EFFECT DURATIONS
  Successes 
  Normal Duration 
  Subtle Duration
  1   
  two turns   
  two turns
  2   
  ﬁ ve turns   
  one hour or scene
  3   
  ﬁ ve minutes   
  one chapter
  4   
  10 minutes   
  one month
  5+ 
  one hour or scene   
  one month
  
  mind’s eye theatre: requiem
  380
  appendix: bloodlines
  380
  An attack might have a ﬁ xed effect on the target, regardless of successes drawn — for instance, 
  a power to strike a foe blind. You can’t make someone more blind, so successes on an effect 
  draw indicate a duration instead of a degree of damage.
  Powers that affect the target in particularly subtle or non-damaging ways may last much 
  longer.
  No handicap is ever permanent — at least not for vampires. If nothing else, a victim can restore 
  lost traits with experience points. A vampire can remove many other indirectly damaging ef-
  fects if she is willing to suffer lethal damage. A Kindred could cure his blindness by putting 
  out his eyes and re-growing them, for example.
  If a character wants to try for an extra-long duration for a power, the player subtracts 
  one from the effect draw for every step up the duration table that he wants. If a character 
  wants to try to blind a foe for a full minute (two steps up the duration table), the player 
  subtracts two from the activation test pool. If he succeeds at all, he’s sure the blindness 
  lasts at least one minute.
  MULTIPLE-TARGET EFFECTS
  Some powers affect a number of people or other targets — potentially as many as are within 
  range. The power’s effect is otherwise ﬁ xed. See the Majesty power of Awe for an example. 
  The player can draw for the power’s effect and hope that many targets succumb, or the player 
  can subtract points and hope for an all-or-nothing effect on the desired number of people. 
  Additionally, affecting more than three vampires or six mortals ought to incur additional 
  penalties: subtract one from your test pool for every additional subject to be affected. 
  Successes 
  Targets Affected
  1 success 
  one person/other target
  2 successes 
  two targets, or a quarter of targets
  3 successes 
  six targets, or half the targets
  4 successes 
  20 targets, or almost all targets
  DOUBLY VARIABLE EFFECTS
  In certain rare cases in which a power’s effect can vary in two ways — number of targets 
  and degree of effect — Storytellers may choose to use an invocation draw and an effect 
  draw. Doing so breaks with custom, so it shouldn’t be used frequently, but it can make for 
  some interesting and dramatic powers, and is especially suitable to those at high levels. One 
  factor modiﬁ es the invocation draw, and the effect draw describes the second factor. For 
  instance, a power could blind multiple people for a varying length of time. The Storyteller 
  could apply a penalty to the invocation draw based on the number of targets the character 
  wants to affect. Say, -1 for two targets, -2 for six targets, and so on. If the attack succeeds, 
  the effect draw could use the duration table to determine how long the targets remain 
  blind. In other cases, the Storyteller might prefer to modify the invocation draw based on 
  the severity of the desired effect, and let the effect draw determine how many people suc-
  cumb to the power.
  DESIGNING DEVOTIONS
  Devotions are combinations of Disciplines that yield unique effects based on the inter-
  actions of those powers. Unlike regular Disciplines, Devotions do not progress — they’re 
  single-purpose capabilities that stand by themselves. For more on Devotions, see p. 210.
  Designing a Devotion works much like designing a Discipline and is subject to Storyteller 
  approval. The guidelines for designing other Disciplines in this section can help you with 
  Devotions, at least as far as power and function are concerned. The ﬁ rst step is to decide 
  
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  what a Devotion does. The second step is to decide which Disciplines are necessary to create 
  the effect. The ﬁ nal step is translating the Devotion into the rules and deciding its costs.
  You don’t need any help in satisfying step one. If you want to create a Devotion, you need 
  an idea for its function. Where this transitions to step two is in deciding how to break the 
  Devotion down into two or more Discipline inﬂ uences. Use the Disciplines themselves as 
  guidelines. A Devotion that involves preternatural senses probably requires some degree 
  of Auspex, while a Devotion that invokes the power of personality likely requires Majesty 
  or Nightmare, depending on what the power is designed to do.
  This process is imprecise, more art than science. Because Disciplines generate linear, static 
  effects, sometimes a bit of guesswork has to be done. Take Auspex, for example. If your 
  Devotion focuses on supernatural perception, how much Auspex is necessary? If perception 
  is the focus of the power, one or two dots worth of Auspex probably sufﬁ ce, based on the 
  ﬁ rst two dots of that Discipline’s powers. If projection of the senses or consciousness is 
  required, three or more dots are likely required. A simple but uncanny projection of senses 
  is probably three dots, an overt application of sense or awareness is probably four dots, and 
  a full, revelatory condition probably requires ﬁ ve dots. Again, you have a lot of leeway here. 
  Devotions are very much instinctual, so go with what you both determine to “feel right.”
  Most Devotions are combinations of only two Disciplines, but that precedent shouldn’t 
  limit you. It’s not unheard of for vampires to have Devotions that require knowledge of 
  three or even four Disciplines. More than that, however, and the power becomes so obtuse 
  or speciﬁ c that it’s probably outside the Kindred realm of potential.
  As with creation of Disciplines, be wary of players attempting to design Devotions just 
  to create “killer combos,” or that allow them to circumvent major restrictions placed on an 
  existing power or even an entire Discipline. A Devotion that allows the Kindred to telepathi-
  cally issue Animalism commands to any ghouled beasts under his control over a range of 
  several miles is probably acceptable. While a highly potent trick, its restrictive usage require-
  ments means it must be carefully planned, and it does not usurp the role of Animalism in 
  general. On the other hand, a Devotion that eliminates the need to make eye contact to 
  use Dominate powers is not acceptable. It takes away a signature element of the Discipline, 
  which also happens to be one of the major balancing factors surrounding its use.
  As a rule, any Discipline restrictions removed by the use of a Devotion should be replaced 
  in some fashion. For example, the Perfect Stranger Devotion allows the Kindred to circum-
  vent the usual restriction of the Obfuscate power The Familiar Stranger and impersonate 
  a speciﬁ c individual. However, it also loses some of that power’s utility with props and 
  other objects in the process. While it offers a new capability, it does not make The Familiar 
  Stranger obsolete by any means. Devotions should be logical extensions of how different 
  Disciplines might combine to solve a problem, not simply ways for players to patch together 
  unstoppable power combinations to defeat their enemies.  
  Devotions always have an activation cost, usually one Vitae unless their effects are 
  particularly grandiose for their ease of learning.
  The experience-point cost to learn a Devotion is roughly three times the total number of 
  Discipline dots among its prerequisites. A Devotion that requires Dominate 2 and Vigor 3 
  of its would-be possessor costs about 15 experience points. Particularly powerful Devotions 
  might cost as much as three experience points more, while particularly limited or speciﬁ c 
  Devotions might cost as many as three experience points less. As always, the Storyteller 
  must be consulted throughout this process 
  Also, Devotions that require activation draws use the power’s highest-rated prerequisite 
  Discipline as the basis for those draws, depending on what the power is designed to do. 
  doubly variable effects • designing devotions
  
  mind’s eye theatre: requiem
  382
  appendix: bloodlines
  382
  That Discipline is the most advanced needed to master the Devotion’s intricacies. So, the 
  aforementioned power that requires Dominate 2 and Vigor 3 probably calls for Strength in 
  its test pool. If the Dominate aspect of the power were higher than the Vigor requirement, 
  it would likely call for Intelligence or Wits. If the highest requisite Disciplines are the same, 
  decide which is most important to the Devotion’s function and choose that one.
  
  INDEX AND TABLES
  LIST OF TABLES
  Vampire Template Quick Reference 
  120-121
  Experience Point Costs 
  121
  2.1 - Favored Attributed by Clan 
  116
  2.2 - Effect of Blood Potency 
  128
  2.3 - Optional Modiﬁ ers for Animalism 
  154
  2.4 - Aura Signiﬁ ers (Auspex ••) 
  161
  2.5 - Spirit’s Touch  Modiﬁ ers (Auspex •••) 
  163
  2.6 - Telepathy Modiﬁ ers (Auspex ••••) 
  165
  2.7 - Forgetful Mind Modiﬁ ers (Dominate •••) 172
  2.8 - Awe Modiﬁ ers (Majesty •) 
  177
  2.9 - Revelation Modiﬁ ers (Majesty ••) 
  177
  2.10 - Entrancement Modiﬁ ers (Majesty •••) 178
  2.11 - Sovereignty Modiﬁ ers (Majesty •••••) 181
  2.12 - Touch of Shadow Modiﬁ ers  
     (Obfuscate •) 
  187
  2.13 - Cloak of Night Modiﬁ ers  
     (Obfuscate •••) 
  188
  2.14 - Familiar Stranger Modiﬁ ers  
     (Obfuscate ••••) 
  191
  2.15 - Cloak the Gathering Modiﬁ ers  
     (Obfuscate •••••) 
  192
  2.16 - Crúac Modiﬁ ers 
  199
  2.17 - Theban Sorcery Modiﬁ ers 
  204
  3.1 - Feeding Modiﬁ ers 
  231
  3.2 - Predator’s Taint Modiﬁ ers 
  238
  3.3 - Fire Damage for Kindred 
  243
  3.4 - Damage from Sunlight 
  244
  3.5 - Torpor Duration 
  249
  3.6 - Anger Frenzy Triggers 
  255
  3.7 - Wassail Triggers 
  256
  3.8 - Rötschreck Triggers 
  256
  3.9 - Humanity and Sins 
  260
  3.10 - Effective City Status when Traveling 
  283
  3.11 - Praiseworthy Deeds for
     Clan or Covenant 
  284
  3.12 - Sins Against Clan or Covenant 
  285
  3.13 - Sins Against the City 
  289
  3.14 - Praiseworthy Deed for the City 
  290
  3.15 - Eminent/Ascendant Bonus
     to City Status 
  291
  A.1 - Typical Discipline Effect Durations
  INDEX
  For deﬁ nitions, see lexicon, pp. 105-109.
  Acknowledged  
  282
  Acolyte  
  see Circle of the Crone
  activity (for Status purposes)  
  288
  addiction see blood addiction, diablerie addiction
  Admired  
  282
  Advantages  
  117
  aggravated damage  
  242-243,  
   
   
   
  see also sunlight, ﬁ re
   
  healing  
  245
   
  Mekhet clan weakness  
  143
   
  Resilience  
  196
  Allies and Circle of the Crone ascendancy 
  291
  Amanuensis 
  31
  Amaranth (Third Tradition)  
  see diablerie
  ancilla 
  335-336
  animal form  
  194
  Animalism  
  154-158
   
  • Feral Whispers  
  155
   
  •• Obedience  
  155-156
   
  ••• Call of the Wild  
  156-157
   
  •••• Subsume the Lesser Spirit  
  157-158
   
  ••••• Leashing the Beast  
  158
   
  animated corpses as targets  
  207
   
  during frenzy  
  158
   
  Gangrel eminence  
  293
   
  handing off downtime action  
  156
   
  optional modiﬁ ers  
  154
   
  shapechangers as targets  
  154
  animals
   
  ghoul  
  236
   
  possessing and controlling  
  see Animalism
   
  sample traits  
  347-349
  anointing  
  70
  antagonists  
  345-353
  Arcane Sight (Auspex/Crúac Devotion)  
  212
  Archbishop  
  70
  Archon 
  33
  armor and Celerity 
  166
  ascendancy  
  290-294 
   
  beneﬁ ts  
  291-292 
   
  bonus  
  290-291 
   
  calculating  
  290 
   
  contender beneﬁ ts
  Aspect of the Predator (Protean •)  
  192
  Assassin 
  33
  attacks
   
  Celerity targets  
  166
   
  mist form targets  
  195
   
  sovereign targets  
  181
   
  under Cloak of Night  
  188 
   
  using Vigor  
  196
  Attribute  
  116
   
  maximums  
  128
  augmenting physical pools with Vitae  
  219-220
  Aura Perception (Auspex ••)  
  160-162
   
  colors & signiﬁ ers  
  161
   
  diablerie veins  
  223
   
  Mask of Tranquility and  
  187
  Auspex  
  158-166
   
  • Heightened Senses  
  159-160
   
  •• Aura Perception  
  160-162
   
  ••• The Spirit’s Touch  
  162-164
   
  •••• Telepathy  
  164-165
   
  ••••• Twilight Projection   
  165-166
   
  detecting lies  
  162
   
  Initiative bonus  
  162
   
  risk of sensory overload  
  158-159
   
  seeing in darkness  
  160
   
  seeing Twilight Projection  
  165
   
  showing successes  
  159
   
  surprise draws  
  160
   
  vs. Obfuscate  
  159
  Avus  
  366
  Awe (Majesty •)  
  176-177
  banishment  
  28
  Barrens  
  100
  bashing damage  
  242
  
   
  government model  
  28
   
  history  
  47
  Celerity  
  166-167
  Chain (Carthian observance)  
  50
  Chamberlain 
  31
  character creation  
  112-127
   
  summary  
  112
   
  vampire template 
  114-116
  Chastise the Beast (1st Coil of the Beast)  
  210
  chemicals  
  246
  Cheval (Crúac ••)  
  200
  childe  
  see also blood ties
   
  domain and housing  
  22
   
  release and tutelage 
  94
  Chorus  
  56
  chronicle  
  311-316
  Circle of the Crone  
  17, 52-56, see also Crúac
   
  ascendancy beneﬁ ts  
  291-292
   
  beliefs on Kindred origins  
  88-89
   
  history  
  47
  Circle 
  32
  cities  
  18, 19
   
  regions of  
  100-101
   
  Storytelling considerations  
  303-306
  City Status  
  131-133, 282-290
   
  calculating eminence/ascendancy  
  290
   
  changes with time  
  287-289
   
  determining another’s  
  283
   
  effect of blood hunts  
  287
   
  effective  
  283-284
   
  eminence/ascendancy bonus  
  291
   
  Harpy’s powers  
  287
   
  limits on high levels  
  286
   
  new domains  
  282
   
  points  
  286-288
   
  Prince’s powers  
  287
   
  Priscus’s powers  
  287
   
  raising and lowering  
  286-290
   
  starting ratings  
  282
   
  travel and  
  283-284
  clan  
  12, 13
   
  choice in character creation  
  114-115
   
  Daeva  
  136-138
   
  determining through taste  
  229
   
  eminence  
  290-294
   
  favored Attributes  
  116
   
  Gangrel  
  139-141
   
  Mekhet  
  142-144
   
  Nosferatu  
  145-147
   
  restrictions in domains  
  29
   
  rival clan status  
  294
   
  Storytelling advice  
  357-358
   
  Ventrue  
  148-150
  Clan Status  
  133, 283-285
   
  changing  
  284-285
   
  determining another’s  
  283
   
  travel and  
  283-284
  Clash of Wills  
  159
  Claws of the Wild (Protean •••)  
   193-194
  Cloak of Night (Obfuscate •••)  
  188
  Cloak the Gathering (Obfuscate •••••)  
  191-192
  Coils of the Dragon  
  76, 116, 208-210,  
   
   
   
  see also Ordo Dracul
   
  Coil of Banes  
  210
   
  Coil of Blood  
  209
   
  Coil of the Beast  
  210
   
  healing  
  244-245
  bat form  
  194
  Beast, the 
  258
  Belial’s Brood  
  84, 353
  Bishop  
  70
  bite damage  
  232, see also Feeding the Crone
  Blandishment of Sin (Theban Sorcery •••)  
  206
  blood  
  see Vitae
  blood addiction  
  43, 220-221
   
  during sorcery  
  221
   
  during the Embrace  
  221
   
  elders and  
  221 
   
  Willful Vitae and  
  202
  blood baths  
  70
  Blood Blight (Crúac •••••)  
  202
  blood doll  
  43, 349-350
  blood hunt  
  95, 97-98
   
  effects on City Status  
  288
  Blood of Beasts (2nd Coil of Blood)  
  209
  Blood Potency  
  127-128
   
  bloodlines and  
  366-367
   
  changes over time  
  128
   
  diablerie and  
  223
   
  effects table  
  128
   
  loss in torpor  
  252
   
  Majesty and  
  175
   
  resistance vs. supernaturals  
  153-154
   
  revival from torpor  
  252
   
  spending Merit point  
  116
   
  torpor duration and  
  249
  Blood Price (Crúac ••••)  
  201
  Blood Scourge (Theban Sorcery •)  
  204-205
  Blood Seeps Slowly (1st Coil of Blood)  
  209
  blood supply  
  232-233
  blood sympathy  
  230
  blood tasting  
  229
  blood ties  
  228-230
   
  bonus  
  228
   
  determining through taste  
  229
   
  psychic awareness through  
  230
  bloodlines  
  13, 364-382
   
  Disciplines  
  372-380
   
  creation  
  366- 369
   
  determining through taste  
  229
   
  diablerie  
  223
   
  founder  
  369-370
   
  joining  
  366-367
   
  recognition  
  370-371
   
  restrictions in domains  
  29
   
  size and population  
  371
   
  Storytelling  
  355-356, 364-365
   
  weaknesses  
  372-373
  blush of life  
  219
  Board 
  32
  Body of Spirit (Protean •••••)  
  195
  Body of Will (Resilience/Vigor Devotion)  212-213
  boons  
  294-295
   
  unaligned ascendancy and  
  292
  bulimia  
  270
  Call of the Wild (Animalism •••)  
  156-157
  Camarilla  
  45, 47
  Cardinal  
  71
  Carthian Movement  
  17, 48-51
   
  ascendancy beneﬁ ts  
  291
   
  beliefs on Kindred origins  
  88
   
  experience cost reduction  
  116
  
   
  purchasing  
  209
   
  system  
  209
  Command (Dominate •)  
  169
  Conditioning (Dominate ••••)  
  172-174
  Conquer the Red Fear (1st Coil of Banes)  
  210
  Constable 
  33
  contender covenant status  
  294
  conversion to the Lancea Sanctum  
  68
  costuming  
  339-340
  coterie  
  15-16, 320-322
  covenant  
  17, 44-45
   
  ascendancy  
  290-294
   
  attitude toward Golconda  
  276-277
   
  attitudes to the Vinculum  
  225-224
   
  Belial’s Brood  
  84
   
  Carthian Movement  
  48-51
   
  choice in character creation 
  115-116
   
  Circle of the Crone  
  52-56
   
  contender covenant status 
  294
   
  expulsion  
  285
   
  global standing  
  45
   
  Invictus  
  57-63
   
  Lancea Sanctum  
  64-71
   
  Ordo Dracul  
  72-79
   
  restrictions in domains  
  29
   
  Storytelling advice 
  356
   
  system beneﬁ ts  
  116, 134
   
  true membership  
  135
   
  unaligned  
  80-83
   
  VII  
  85-86
  Covenant Status  
  133, 283-285
   
  covenant beneﬁ ts  
  133
   
  determining another’s  
  283
   
  limiting sorcery Disciplines  
  202-203
   
  travel and  
  283-284
  creating bloodlines 
  366-367
  creating Devotions  
  380-383
  creation rite  
  69
  Crone  
  see Circle of the Crone
  Crone’s Liturgy  
  54
  Crúac  
  55, 116, 197-202,  
   
   
   
  see also Circle of the Crone
   
  • Pangs of Proserpina  
  199
   
  • Rigor Mortis  
  199
   
  •• Cheval  
  200
   
  •• The Hydra’s Vitae  
  200-201
   
  ••• Deﬂ ection of Wooden Doom  
  201
   
  ••• Touch of the Morrigan  
  201
   
  •••• Blood Price  
  201
   
  •••• Willful Vitae  
  202
   
  ••••• Blood Blight  
  202
   
  ••••• Feeding the Crone  
  202
   
  blood addiction and 
  221
   
  Covenant Status and 
  202-203
   
  gaining rituals  
  198
   
  Humanity and 
  198
   
  system  
  197-199
  Cruciﬁ xion  
  38, 64
  Curse of Babel (Theban Sorcery ••)  
  205
  Daeva  
  13, 136-138
   
  eminence beneﬁ ts  
  292-293
  damage  
  241-248
   
  aggravated  
  242-243
   
  bashing  
  242
   
  chemicals  
  246
   
  Discipline standards  
  379
   
  disease  
  248
   
  drugs  
  246
   
  electricity  
  246-247
   
  ﬁ re  
  243
   
  ﬁ rearms  
  242
   
  from being fed from  
  232
   
  lethal  
  242
   
  poisons  
  246
   
  pressure  
  247
   
  Resilience  
  196
   
  sunlight  
  243-244
   
  temperature  
  247
   
  vampire bite  
  232
  Danse Macabre  
  11-12, 38-39, 281-295
  Dark Ages  
  38
  darkness, seeing in  
  160
  daytime activity  
  264-265
   
  Coil of Banes and 
  210
   
  during Twilight Projection  
  166
   
   while using Possession  
  175
  Defense and Celerity 
  166
  deference  
  95-96, see also presentation
  Deﬂ ection of Wooden Doom (Crúac •••)  
  201
  degeneration  
  259-263, see also Humanity
  delusion obsession  
  270-271
  dependent domains  
  24
  dependent personality disorder  
  271
  derangement 
  268-276
   
  bulimia  
  270
   
  curing  
  269
   
  delusion obsession  
  270-271
   
  dependent personality disorder  
  271
   
  from blood addiction  
  220
   
  from degeneration  
  263
   
  from failure  
  268
   
  from frustration  
  268
   
  from pain  
  268
   
  from terror  
  268
   
  from torpor  
  268
   
  from Vinculums  
  269
   
  ghouls  
  234
   
  hysteria  
  271-272
   
  manic-depression  
  272
   
  megalomania  
  272
   
  multiple personality 
  272-273
   
  obsessive compulsion 
  273
   
  paranoia 
  273-274
   
  phobia  
  271
   
  power fetish obsession  
  274-275
   
  sanguinary animism  
  275
   
  schizophrenia  
  275-276
  detecting lies with Auspex  
  162
  Devotions 
  210-215
   
  Arcane Sight  
  212
   
  Body of Will  
  212-213
   
  creation 
  380-382
   
  Instantaneous Transformation  
  213
   
  Iron Façade  
  213
   
  Lessons in the Steel  
  213-214
   
  Partial Transformation  
  214
   
  Perfect Stranger  
  211-212
   
  Quicken Sight  
  214-215
   
  Touch of Deprivation  
  215
   
  Veridical Tongue  
  215
  Dexterity pool augmentation with Vitae  219-220
  diablerie 
  95, 222-225
  
   
  addiction  
  221
   
  aura veins  
  96-97, 223
   
  bloodlines  
  223, 366
   
  Golconda  
  224
   
  Humanity cost  
  241
   
  system 
  222-223
  Disciplines 
  120-121, 151-215
   
  Animalism 
  154-158
   
  animated corpses as targets 
  207
   
  Auspex 
  158-166
   
  basic system  
  151
   
  blood ties bonus  
  228
   
  bloodline  
  372, 373
   
  Celerity  
  166-167
   
  clan (in and out)  
  151
   
  Coils of the Dragon  
  208-210
   
  creation  
  373-380
   
  Crúac  
  197-
   
  development of new  
  280-281
   
  Devotions  
  210-215
   
  Dominate  
  167-175
   
  experience cost 
  121
   
  gained from diablerie  
  223
   
  in character creation  
  116
   
  ghouls  
  235-236
   
  learning bloodline ones  
  373
   
  Majesty  
  175-181
   
  maximums  
  128
   
  Nightmare  
  181-185
   
  Obfuscate  
  185-192
   
  Protean  
  192-
   
  Resilience  
  195-196
   
  standard damage  
  379
   
  standard durations  
  379-380
   
  Theban Sorcery  
  203-208
   
  Vigor  
  196-197
   
  vs. a Sovereignty user  
  181
  disease  
  247-248
  domain  
  23-25, 34-35, 93
   
  changing  
  284
   
  conﬂ ict  
  36
   
  deference within  
  95-96
   
  dependent  
  24, 35
   
  Ordo Dracul ascendancy and  
  292
   
  Prince vs. Regent  
  36
   
  restriction within  
  29
   
  social groups as  
  35
   
  tenurial  
  34-35
   
  unconventional  
  35 
   
  visiting  
  283-284
  Dominate  
  167-175
   
  • Command  
  169
   
  •• Mesmerize  
  170
   
  ••• The Forgetful Mind  
  171-172
   
  •••• Conditioning  
  172-174
   
  ••••• Possession  
  174-
   
  animated corpses as targets 
  207
   
  conditioned subjects  
  172
   
  eye contact  
  168-169
   
  multiple directives  
  170
   
  Vinculum and  
  168
   
  vs. shapechangers  
  168
  downtime, handing off  
   
     actions with Animalism  
  156
  Dracula  
  17, 72, 75, 78, 88
  dragon lines  
  see wyrm’s nests
  Dragon’s Tail  
  76-77
  Dragon’s Tongue  
  76
  draugr  
  259
  Dread (Nightmare ••)  
  182-183
  dreams in torpor  
  40
  drugs  
  246
  effective City Status  
  283-284
  elders 
  336-337
  electricity damage 
  246-247
  Elysium  
  20-21, 29, 37
   
  Master of  
  34
  Embrace  
  10
   
  blood addiction and  
  221
   
  other supernaturals  
  236
   
  tainted  
  368-369
   
  Willpower cost  
  241
  eminence  
  290-294
   
  beneﬁ ts  
  292-294
   
  bonus  
  290-291
   
  calculating  
  290
   
  rival beneﬁ ts  
  294
  Entrancement (Majesty •••)  
  178
  eternity, fog of  
  39-40 41
  Exhaust the Beast (3rd Coil of the Beast)  
  210
  experience costs 
  121
   
  Carthian cost reductions  
  116
   
  Clan or Covenant Status  
  284
   
  for ghouls  
  236
   
  for Coils of the Dragon  
  209
   
  Invictus cost reductions  
  116
   
  starting  
  117-118
   
  to regain Humanity  
  263-264
  eye contact
   
  Animalism and 
  154
   
  Dominate and 
  168-169
   
  effect of Conditioning  
  172
  Eye of the Beast (Nightmare •••)  
  183-184
  Familiar Stranger (Obfuscate ••••)  
  188-191
  favored Attributes  
  116
  fealty oaths  
  60
  fear frenzy  
  see Rötschreck
  feeding  
  98-99, 230-233
   
  Blood Price and 
  201
   
  bulimia and  
  270
   
  effects on victim  
  232
   
  Herd 
  99, 131
   
  in the Rack  
  100
   
  limitations  
  128
   
  restrictions  
  30
   
  system  
  230-232
   
  vessel  
  98-99
  feeding grounds  
  101
  Feeding the Crone (Crúac •••••)  
  202
  Feral Whispers (Animalism •)  
  155
  feudalism  
  23-25, 27
   
  subinfeudation  
  34-35
  Fighting Styles 
  194, 202
  Final Death  
  243
  ﬁ re   
  243, see also Rötschreck
  ﬁ rearms damage 
  242
  First Estate  
  see Invictus
  First Tradition  
  see Masquerade
  fog of eternity  
  39-41
  forced revival 
  252
  Forgetful Mind (Dominate •••)  
  171-172
  founding a bloodline  
  366-369
  
  frenzy  
  253-258, see also Rötschreck, Wassail
   
  committing diablerie  
  222
   
  control during  
  256-257
   
  duration  
  257
   
  effects  
  254
   
  Predator’s Taint and 
  237
   
  resisting  
  254-255
   
  riding the wave  
  257-258
   
  triggers  
  255
  Gangrel 
  13, 139-141
   
  eminence beneﬁ ts  
  293
  gargoyle  
  349
  Gather  
  141
  gatherings of Kindred  
  18, 36-37, 237
   
  Predator’s Taint and 
  237
  ghost body  
  see Twilight Projection
  ghoul  
  43, 99-100, 233-236
   
  abilities and powers  
  234-236
   
  animal  
  236
   
  creation  
  233
   
  Disciplines  
  235-236
   
  other supernaturals  
  236
   
  upkeep  
  233
   
  Vitae and 
  235
  Gift of Lazarus (Theban Sorcery ••••)  
  206-207
  Golconda  
  89-90, 276-281
   
  covenant attitudes  
  276-277
   
  possible effects  
  279-280
   
  Storytelling  
  278-279
  government 
  23-27
  grapples and bites  
  232
  Guardians  
  78
  Harpy  
  33
   
  effects on City Status  
  287-28
  Haunts  
  see Nosferatu
  Haven of Soil (Protean ••)  
  192-193
  Haven 
  22-23, 129-131
  healing  
  244-246
  Health and Resilience  
  196
  Heightened Senses (Auspex •)  
  159-160
  hell hound  
  348
  Herald  
  31
  Herd 
  99, 131, 230
  Hierophant  
  56
  history  
  38-39, 45-47, see also mythology
  homunculus  
  348
  Hound  
  33
  Humanity 
  258-267
   
  committing diablerie  
  223
   
  Crúac and 
  198
   
  daytime activity  
  264-265
   
  degeneration draws  
  259-263
   
  derangements  
  263
   
  regaining  
  263-264
   
  relating to mortals  
  265-266
   
  torpor duration and  
  249
   
  Vice  
  263
  hunger frenzy  
  see Wassail
  hungry  
  255
  hunters  
  102-103
  hunting  
  see feeding
  hysteria  
  271-272
  illusions, seeing through with Auspex  
  159
  imitating life  
  219
  inactivity (for Status purposes)  
  288-289
  Incubi  
  see Daeva
  Independence Day  
  50
  Industrial Age  
  39
  Initiative
   
  Auspex bonus  
  162
   
  Celerity and  
  166-167
  Inner Circle  
  62
  Inquisition  
  38
  Inquisitor, Lancea Sanctum 
  71
  Instantaneous Transformation (Celerity/Protean 
  Devotion)  
  213
  Invictus  
  17, 57-63
   
  alliance with Lancea Sanctum  
  46
   
  ascendancy beneﬁ ts  
  292
   
  beliefs on Kindred origins  
  88
   
  experience cost reduction  
  116
   
  expulsion from 
  285
   
  history  
  46
  Iron Façade (Obfuscate/Resilience Devotion)  213
  joining a bloodline  
  366-369
  Judex  
  63
  Kindred government  
  25-26-27
  kine  
  see also blood doll, ghouls, vessels
   
  becoming  
  279-280
   
  belief in vampires  
  101-103
   
  blood tasting  
  229
   
  relating to  
  265-266
   
  vampire hunters  
  102-103
  Kiss, the 
  98, 232
  Kogaion  
  78
  Lancea Sanctum  
  17, 64-71, see also Theban 
  Sorcery
   
  alliance with Invictus  
  46
   
  ascendancy beneﬁ ts  
  292
   
  beliefs on Kindred origins  
  88
   
  expulsion from 
  285
   
  history  
  46
  law  
  28-29
  learning bloodline Disciplines  
  373
  Leashing the Beast (Animalism •••••)  
  158
  Lessons in the Steel  
   
     (Auspex/Resilience Devotion)  
  213-214
  lethal damage 
  242 
   
  healing  
  244-245
  lexicon  
  105-109
  Lextalionis  
  see blood hunt
  ley lines  
  76
  Liar’s Plague (Theban Sorcery ••)  
  205
  Lick  see vessel
  licking wounds closed  
  232
  lies, detecting 
  162, see also Liar’s Plague,  
   
   
   
  Veridical Tongue
  life, counterfeiting  
  219
  Lilith  
  56
  lineage recitation  
  60
  Longinus  
  38, 64-67, 87-88 
   
  Testament of  
  65-66, 87, 89, 95
  Lords  
  see Ventrue
  Lupines  
  103-104
   
  Embracing  
  236
   
  ghouls  
  236
   
  resisting abilities  
  153-154
   
  Vinculum  
  236
  Lure the Beast (2nd Coil of the Beast)  
  210
  mages  
  103-104
   
  Embracing  
  236
   
  ghouls  
  236
  
   
  resisting abilities  
  153-154
   
  Vinculum  
  236
  magic  
  see Crúac, Theban Sorcery
   
  perceiving  see Arcane Sight, Aura Perception
  Majesty  
  175-181
   
  • Awe  
  176-177
   
  •• Revelation  
  177-178
   
  ••• Entrancement  
  178
   
  •••• Summoning  
  179-180
   
  ••••• Sovereignty  
  180-181
   
  resisting 
  175-176
  Majordomo 
  31
  makeup  
  341-345
  Malediction of Despair (Theban Sorcery •••)  206
  Man, the  
  258, see also Humanity
  manic-depression  
  272
  Mask of Tranquility (Obfuscate ••)  
  187-188
  Masquerade (First Tradition) 
  92-93, 240
  Master of Elysium  
  34
   
  effects on City Status  
  287-288
  megalomania  
  272
  Mekhet  
  14, 142-144
   
  eminence beneﬁ ts  
  293
  membership, true  
  135
  Merits 
  128-153
   
  Carthian experience cost reductions  
  116
   
  City Status  
  131-133
   
  Clan Status  
  133
   
  Covenant Status  
  133
   
  Haven  
  129
   
  Herd 
  131
   
  Invictus experience cost reductions  
  116
   
  points spent on Blood Potency  
  116
  Mesmerize (Dominate ••)  
  170
  Midnight Mass  
  70
  Minister 
  32
  mist form  
  195
  modern gothic  
  4
  Moirai  
  90-91
  Monomancy  
  61
  Monstrous Countenance (Nightmare •)  
  182
  mood  
  7
  Morality  
  see Humanity
  Mortal Fear (Nightmare •••••)  
  184-185
  mortals  
  see kine
  Mouthpiece 
  32
  multiple personality 
  272-273
  Myrmidon  
  51
  mythology  
  86-91
  neonate  
  335
  Nightmare  
  181-185
   
  • Monstrous Countenance  
  182
   
  •• Dread  
  182-183
   
  ••• Eye of the Beast  
  183-184
   
  •••• Shatter the Mind  
  184
   
  ••••• Mortal Fear  
  184-185
  Nosferatu  
  14, 145-147 
   
  eminence beneﬁ ts  
  293
  oaths of fealty  
  60
  Obedience (Animalism ••)  
  155-156
  Obfuscate  
  185-192
   
  • Touch of Shadow  
  186-187
   
  •• Mask of Tranquility  
  187-188
   
  ••• Cloak of Night  
  188
   
  •••• The Familiar Stranger  
  188-191
   
  ••••• Cloak the Gathering  
  191-192
   
  duration  
  159
   
  showing successes  
  159
   
  vs. Auspex  
  159
  obsessive compulsion 
  273
  Order of the Dragon  
  see Ordo Dracul
  Ordo Dracul  
  17, 72-79,  
   
   
   
  see also Coils of the Dragon
   
  ascendancy beneﬁ ts  
  292
   
  beliefs on Kindred origins  
  89
   
  history  
  47, 72-73
   
  interaction with other supernaturals  103-104
  origins of Kindred  
  88-89
  other Disciplines 
  121
  Pangs of Proserpina (Crúac •)  
  199
  paranoia 
  273-274
  Partial Transformation  
   
     (Protean/Resilience Devotion)  
  214
  Perfect Stranger  
   
     (Auspex/Obfuscate Devotion)  
  211-212
  Perspicacious Blood (3rd Coil of Blood)  
  209
  phobia  
  271
  physical augmentation  
  219-220
  piercing illusions with Auspex  
  159
  plague  
  see disease
  player surveys  
  299-300
  player’s characters targeted  
   
     with Conditioning  
  173
  plot  323
  poisons  
  246
  Possession (Dominate •••••)  
  174-
  power fetish obsession  
  274-275
  praiseworthy deed
   
  for the city  
  290
   
  for clan or covenant  
  284
  Predator’s Taint  
  42, 237-239
   
  at vampiric gatherings  
  237-238
  Prefect  
  50-51
  preludes  
  320
  presentation  
  28, 60, see also deference
  pressure  
  247
  prestation  
  see boons
  prey  
  see feeding
  Priest  
  71
  Primogen  
  32, 293 
  Prince  
  30 
   
  calling a blood hunt  
  97 
   
  effects on City Status  
  287
  Priscus  
  32
   
  effects on City Status  
  287-288 
  Progeny (Second Tradition) 
  93-94, 240-241
  Protean  
  192-195
   
  • Aspect of the Predator  
  192
   
  •• Haven of Soil  
  192-193
   
  ••• Claws of the Wild  
  193-194
   
  •••• Shape of the Beast  
  194
   
  ••••• Body of Spirit  
  195
  Quicken Sight (Auspex/Celerity Devotion) 214-215
  Rack  
  100
  rack visitor (sample traits) 
  351
  rank  
  see titles
  realizing a sire’s bloodline  
  366-367
  recognition of bloodlines  
  370-371
  recovering 
  see healing
  Recognized  
  282
  Red Fear 
  see Rötschreck
  Reeve 
  33
  
  Regent 
  34-36
  regnant  
  see Vinculum
  release (of childe by sire)  
  94
  Requiem  
  11
  Resilience  
  195-196
  resisting frenzy 
  254
  Respected  
  282
  restriction (of clan, covenant or bloodlines)  
  29
  Revelation (Majesty ••)  
  177-178
  reversion  
  248
  revival from torpor  
  249, 252
  riding the wave  
  257-258
  Rigor Mortis (Crúac •)  
  199
  rising at night 
  219
  rising during the day  
  265
  Rites of the Dragon  
  87, 89
  rival clan  
  294
  rogue ghoul (sample traits)  
  352
  Rötschreck  
  253-256, see also frenzy
   
  triggers  
  256
  Runner 
  32
  salons  
  37
  Sanctiﬁ ed  
  see Lancea Sanctum
  sanguinary animism  
  275
  Savages  
  see Gangrel
  scars  
  248
  schizophrenia  
  275-276
  Scourge 
  33
  Second Tradition  
  see Progeny
  Secretary 
  31, 32
  seeing in darkness  
  160
  seeing through illusions with Auspex  
  159
  Senate 
  32
  Seneschal  
  31
  sensory overload from Auspex  
  158-159
  Seven 
  see VII
  Shadows  
  see Mekhet
  Shape of the Beast (Protean ••••)  
  194
  shapechangers 
  see Lupines, Protean
  Shatter the Mind (Nightmare ••••)  
  184
  Sheriff  
  33
  sins
   
  again Humanity  
  260
   
  against clan or covenant  
  285
   
  against the city  
  289
  sire   
  see also blood ties
   
  hospitality  
  22
   
  joining his bloodline  
  366-367
   
  tutelage and release of childer  
  94
  Skill
   
  gained from diablerie  
  223
   
  maximums  
  128
  society 
  16-18, 36-37
  soul shards 
  224
  Sovereignty (Majesty •••••)  
  180-181
  Speed and Celerity 
  166
  Speed and Vigor 
  196
  Spirit’s Touch (Auspex •••)  
  162-164
  Spokesman 
  32
  staking  
  251
  Stamina and Resilience 
  196
  Stamina pool augmented with Vitae 
  219-220
  starving  
  250, 255
  Status points 
  see City Status
  Status 
  see also City Status,  
     Clan Status, Covenant Status
   
  as social tool  
  135
   
  system 
  281-294
   
  travel and  
  283-284
  staying awake 
  264
  Stigmata (Theban Sorcery ••••)  
  207
  Storytelling  
  298-361
   
  antagonists  
  345-352
   
  chronicle  
  311-316
   
  conﬂ icts  
  324-326
   
  Golconda  
  278-279
   
  plot  
  323-324
   
  Predator’s Taint  
  238-239
   
  stories  
  319-330
   
  themes  
  308-310
   
  troubleshooting  
  353-361
  street preacher (sample traits) 
  351
  Strength and Vigor 
  196
  Strength pool augmented with Vitae  
  219-220
  subinfeudation  
  34-35
  Subsume the Lesser Spirit 
   
      (Animalism ••••)  
  157-158
  Succubi  
  see Daeva
  Summoning (Majesty ••••)  
  179-180
  Sun’s Forgotten Kiss (3rd Coil of Banes)  
  210
  sunlight  
  243-244
  supernaturals 
  see Lupines, mages
  Surmounting the Daysleep 
   
     (2nd Coil of Banes)  
  210
  surprise bonus from Auspex  
  160
  Suspire  
  277
  Sworn of Dracula  
  79
  sympathy with blood relatives  
  230
  Taint, Predator’s  
  42
  taste of family  
  229
  Telepathy (Auspex ••••)  
  164-165
  temperature  
  247
  Templar 
  33
  tenurial domains  
  34-35
  Tepes, Vlad  
  see Dracula
  territory  
  see domain
  Testament of Longinus  
  65-66, 87, 89, 95
  The Hydra’s Vitae (Crúac ••)  
  200-201
  Theban Sorcery  
  69, 116, 203-208,  
     see also Lancea Sanctum
   
  • Blood Scourge  
  204-205
   
  • Vitae Reliquary  
  205
   
  •• Curse of Babel  
  205
   
  •• Liar’s Plague  
  205
   
  ••• Blandishment of Sin  
  206
   
  ••• Malediction of Despair  
  206
   
  •••• Gift of Lazarus  
  206-207
   
  •••• Stigmata  
  207
   
  ••••• Transubstantiation  
  207-208
   
  ••••• Wrathful Judgment  
  208
   
  blood addiction and 
  221
   
  Covenant Status and 
  202-203
   
  system  
  203-204
  themes  
  7, 308-310
  Third Tradition  
  see diablerie
  thrall  
  see Vinculum
  titles  
  30-34
   
  Carthian Movement 
  50-51
   
  Circle of the Crone  
  55-56
   
  City Status and 
  132-133
   
  Invictus  
  62
   
  Lancea Sanctum  
  70-71
  
   
  Ordo Dracul  
  77-78
  torpor  
   248-252
   
  dreams  
  40
   
  duration  
  249
   
   effects  
  251-252
   
  forced revival  
  252
   
  from lethal damage  
  242, 248-250
   
  from staking  
  251
   
  from starvation  
  250
   
   memories and  
  39-40
   
  sleeping without Vitae  
  219
   
  voluntary  
  250-251
  Touch of Deprivation  
   
     (Auspex/Dominate Devotion)  
  215
  Touch of Shadow (Obfuscate •)  
  186-187
  Touch of the Morrigan (Crúac •••)  
  201
  toxins 
  246
  Traditions  
  91-95, 240-241
  transcendence  
  see Golconda
  Transubstantiation  
   
     (Theban Sorcery •••••)  
  207-208
  travel  
  18, 283-284
  Tribunal 
  32
  true Covenant Status  
  135
  tutelage  
  94
  Twilight Projection (Auspex •••••)  
  165-166
  unaligned  
  80-83
   
  ascendancy beneﬁ ts  
  292
  unbound  
  see unaligned
  unconsciousness  
  242
  Valued  
  282
  vampire hunters  
  102-103
  vampire template  
  114-116
   
  quick reference  
  120-121
   
  summary  
  112
  vampiric gatherings  
  18, 237
  Ventrue  
  15, 148-150
   
  eminence beneﬁ ts  
  293-294
  Veridical Tongue  
   
     (Dominate/Majesty Devotion)  
  215
  vessel 
  98-99
  Vices 
  117, 263
  Vigor  
  196-197
  VII   
  85-86
  Vinculum  
  43, 99, 225-228
   
  bonuses to regnant  
  226, 227
   
  breaking  
  227
   
  imbibing mixed blood  
  226 
   
  number of regnants  
  225
   
  other supernaturals  
  236
   
  resisting  
  226-227
   
  system  
  226-
   
  Willful Vitae and 
  202
  Virtue 
  117
  Vitae Reliquary (Theban Sorcery •)  
  205
  Vitae 
  218-221
   
  addiction  
  see blood addiction
   
  blush of life  
  219
   
  counting with glass beads  
  327
   
  from animals  
  233
   
  healing  
  244-246
   
  in ghouls  
  235
   
  levels at beginning of a game session  
  230
   
  maximum capacity  
  128
   
  physical augmentation  
  219-220
   
  points per turn  
  128
   
  revival from torpor  
  252
   
  spending  
  218
   
  supply in victims  
  232-233
   
  tasting  
  229
   
  to rise  
  219
   
  vessels & herds  
  98-99
  Vlad Tepes  
  see Dracula
  voluntary torpor  
  250-251
  waking up at nightfall 
  219
  waking up during the day  
  265
  Wassail  
  253-256, see also frenzy
   
  triggers  
  255-256
  weaponry ban in Elysium  
  29
  werewolves  
  see Lupines
  Whip  
  33
  Willful Vitae (Crúac ••••)  
  202
  Willpower
   
  changing Kindred body  
  248
   
  cost to Embrace  
  240-241
   
  suppressing the Masquerade  
  240
  Winnowing  
  54
  wolf form  
  194
  wound  
  see damage
  wound penalties  
  241
  Wrathful Judgment (Theban Sorcery •••••)  208
  wyrm’s nests  
  76
  
  ATTRIBUTES
  Intelligence 
  OOOOO
  Wits 
  OOOOO
  Resolve 
  OOOOO
  Strength 
  OOOOO
  Dexterity 
  OOOOO
  Stamina 
  OOOOO
  Presence  
  OOOOO
  Manipulation  
  OOOOO
  Composure  
  OOOOO
  MERITS
  ____________________OOOOO
  ____________________OOOOO
  ____________________OOOOO
  ____________________OOOOO
  ____________________OOOOO
  FLAWS
  ___________________________
  ___________________________
  EQUIPMENT
  ___________________________
  ___________________________
  ___________________________
  Size:  _________________________
  Speed (acting/running): ____ / _____
  Initiative Mod: __________________
  Defense: _______  Armor:  ________
  MENTAL SKILLS (-3 unskilled)
  Academics __________________OOOOO
  Computer ___________________OOOOO
  Crafts ______________________OOOOO
  Investigation _________________OOOOO
  Medicine ____________________OOOOO
  Occult _____________________OOOOO
  Politics _____________________OOOOO
  Science _____________________OOOOO
  PHYSICAL SKILLS (-1 unskilled)
  Athletics ____________________OOOOO
  Brawl ______________________OOOOO
  Drive ______________________OOOOO
  Firearms ____________________OOOOO
  Larceny _____________________OOOOO
  Stealth _____________________OOOOO
  Survival ____________________OOOOO
  Weaponry ___________________OOOOO
  SOCIAL SKILLS (-1 unskilled)
  Animal Ken __________________OOOOO
  Empathy ___________________OOOOO
  Expression __________________OOOOO
  Intimidation _________________OOOOO
  Persuasion __________________OOOOO
  Socialize ____________________OOOOO
  Streetwise ___________________OOOOO
  Subterfuge __________________OOOOO
  HEALTH
  O O O O O O O O O O O O
  WILLPOWER
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  VITAE
  BLOOD POTENCY
  HUMANITY
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  DERANGEMENTS
  ____________________________
  ____________________________
  Name: _____________________
  Player: _____________________
  Virtue: ________ Vice:  ________
  Clan: ______________________
  Covenant:___________________
  
  CHARACTER TRAITS & POOLS
  BASIC TRAITS
  Perception Pool 
  (Wits + Composure) =  _______________
  Defense 
  (Lower of Wits or Dexterity) =  _________
  Initiative Modiﬁ er
  (Dexterity+Composure) =  _____________
  Speed (Acting/Running) = _____  / _____
  ATTACK POOLS
  Unarmed Attack 
  (Str + Brawl) =_____ (RES by Def + Armor)
  Melee Attack 
  (Str +Weap +Dmg)=_____ (RES by Def + Armor)
  Firearms Attack 
  (Dex + Firearms + Dmg)=_____(RES by Armor)
  MERIT BONUSES
  ___________________________________
  ___________________________________
  ___________________________________
  KEY RULES
  ACTIONS & SUCCESSES
  Instant Actions: Each character gets one per turn. 
  Consist of a single draw.
  Reﬂ exive Actions: Take no time and occur as per the 
  trait’s description. Consist of a single draw.
  Extended Actions: Take place over several turns or 
  more; and consist of several draws.
  CONT(ested) Draws: Both attacker and defender form 
  a pool, draw, and then compare successes. Ties go to 
  defender; otherwise subtract defender’s successes from 
  attacker for ﬁ nal number of attacker successes. 
  RES(isted) Draws: Subtract the defender’s traits from 
  attacker’s pool before drawing.
  Successes: A total of 10 is one success; every increment 
  of 5 above that (15, 20, etc.) is an additional success.
  COMBAT SUMMARY
  Step 0: Mediate: Can the players resolve things 
  without cards?
  Step 1: Initiative: Draw one card + Initiative Modiﬁ er; 
  lasts the whole combat
  Step 2: Attack: Character with the highest Initiative 
  attacks. A character may choose to hold his action 
  until later in the turn.
  Step 3: Resolve: Apply damage or other effects. 
  Damage = attack successes.
  Step 4: Repeat: Follow Initiative roster and repeat 
  Steps 2 and 3 for every character until everyone has 
  acted (this is the end of the turn). Then repeat again 
  for the next turn (do not redraw Initiative).
  FAVORED ACTIONS
  Action/Power 
  Traits 
  Pool
  _________ ( ___ + ___+ ___ ) =  
  (CONT/RES by _____________)
  _________ ( ___ + ___+ ___ ) =  
  (CONT/RES by _____________)
  _________ ( ___ + ___+ ___ ) =  
  (CONT/RES by _____________)
  _________ ( ___ + ___+ ___ ) =  
  (CONT/RES by _____________)
  _________ ( ___ + ___+ ___ ) =  
  (CONT/RES by _____________)
  _________ ( ___ + ___+ ___ ) =  
  (CONT/RES by _____________)
  _________ ( ___ + ___+ ___ ) =  
  (CONT/RES by _____________)
  FAVORED ACTIONS
  Action/Power 
  Traits 
  Pool
  _________ ( ___ + ___+ ___ ) =  
  (CONT/RES by _____________)
  _________ ( ___ + ___+ ___ ) =  
  (CONT/RES by _____________)
  _________ ( ___ + ___+ ___ ) =  
  (CONT/RES by _____________)
  _________ ( ___ + ___+ ___ ) =  
  (CONT/RES by _____________)
  _________ ( ___ + ___+ ___ ) =  
  (CONT/RES by _____________)
  _________ ( ___ + ___+ ___ ) =  
  (CONT/RES by _____________)
  _________ ( ___ + ___+ ___ ) =  
  (CONT/RES by _____________)
  
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SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Storyteller [multi]/World of Darkness (WoD) [multi]/Vampire/Vampire - The Masquerade (Classic)/Mind's Eye Theatre (MET)/Mind's Eye Theatre - Vampire the Requiem.pdf