A Vampire is a specific kind of corporeal, blood-drinking undead.
Vampiric History[]
The earliest legends that Vampires have of their own kind all tell vaguely similar stories. In all versions of their creation myth, there is a murder, and a sorcerer-woman who curses or blesses the murderer with undeath. Many bloodlines claim that their ultimate progenitor was the first source of this myth, hoping to lay claim to some kind of Vampiric pedigree through seniority.
Cain and Lilith[]
According to the Daeva, the first vampire was Cain, the biblical “first murderer”. When Cain killed Abel, he was banished from Adam's tribe to wander the wilderness, until he came across his mother – Lilith, Adam's banished first wife. Lilith had become a powerful sorceress in the time since she left Adam, and she used her powers to bless her son with undying power – at the curse of always having to feed from the blood of his brothers. In return, Lilith asked only that Cain create for her a child, that she could raise as her own.
Cain moved east into the city of Enoch, where he learned the extent of his powers by Embracing three of the most politically powerful members of the city – Enoch the Wise, Irad the Strong, and Zillah the Beautiful. When each of the three displeased him in turn, he cursed them – Zillah with madness, Irad with hideousness, and Enoch with an aversion to light. Thus were the Adunis, Vyrkolakas and Mekhet Clans born. Lilith herself went on to raise the child that Cain had Embraced for her, the first of the Daeva. Lilith and Cain both granted the un-cursed child an immortal birthright to rule the Kindred. The Lamia maintain that the Invictus are merely the modern continuation of that birthright.
Set and Isis[]
According to the Mekhet, the first vampire was Set, the Egyptian god tasked with guarding Ra during the night. Set and his brother Osiris jealously fought each other for control of the Nile during the formation of the kingdom of Egypt, until Set killed his brother and tore him into pieces. In retribution, Isis cursed Set with undeath and a lethal aversion to the light of Ra, then resurrected her lover with her magics, turning him into the first of a line of immortal vampire-hunters. According to this mythology, each of the other four Clans was a failed attempt by the Mekhet to overcome their vulnerability to sunlight, trading it each time for another, worsened curse.
Tammuz and Ishtar[]
According to the Adunis, the first vampire was Tammuz, beloved of the sorceress Ishtar. But when Ishtar needed more power to vanquish her enemies, she chose to sacrifice her beloved Tammuz to her dark gods, to gain their favor and so raise legions of the dead to do her bidding. When she was finished, she returned to find Tammuz's sister lamenting the loss of her brother. Ishtar herself so lamented the loss of her lover that she resurrected him with the powers of necromancy that her dark gods had bestowed to her, feeding him his sister's life-force to sustain him. Tammuz was named the Molech, or sacrificial king, and it was decreed that throughout Ishtar's empire, her subjects would sacrifice their youngest children to him to gain her blessing.
Baba Yaga and the Wanderer[]
The Vrykolakas tell a tale of the Baba Yaga, a hideous hag with incomprehensible magic powers. Once, a wanderer came to Baba Yaga, asking to be made immortal, for he had slain his brother and greatly feared the gallows. He asked three times on three different nights, and on the third night, Baba Yaga became so incensed that she slew him, and bound his ghost to his body, that he would be cursed to wander the nights for all eternity as a loathsome drinker of blood. Some versions of the legend claim that the wanderer was nameless, while others associate him with the Slavic tale of Koschei the Deathless.
Kali and Ravana[]
According to the Gangrel, the first vampire was Ravana, a wise scholar and king of a land known today as Sri Lanka. When Rama, the king of Ayodha, defiled and disfigured his sister, Ravana swore vengeance upon Rama and prayed to his lord Shiva for deliverance. Shiva sent him Kali-ma, Shiva's dark bride and the slayer of demons, who taught him to strengthen his prowess in battle by drinking the blood of his enemies. Through scholarly research, he learned to unlock further secrets within the blood, including distilling the pranic life-force into Brahma's elixir of immortality, crafting illusions from his prana, and commanding the wills of mortals.
Clans and Bloodlines[]
Most Vampires tonight belong to five clans and thirteen bloodlines:
- Daeva: Passionate rulers of the night;
- Gangrel: Primal nomads;
- Mekhet: Light-fearing scolars and sorcerers;
- Adunis: Visionary sovereigns;
- Vrykolakas: Unwholesome monsters;
- Clanless: Vampires whose blood denies descent from the great clans;
- Caitiff: Unthinking brutes;
Covenants[]
Main article: Covenant
Vampiric society is almost always as static and unyielding as everything else about the Curse. Vampires exist in one of five main political structures, called Covenants.
- Invictus: Rigid feudal nobility, hiding itself in mortal power structures;
- Lancea Sancta: Dark shepards of the damned;
- Belial's Brood: Blood-thirsty would-be Overlords of humanity;
- Circle of the Crone: Pagans reveling in their undead state;
- Carthian Movement: Reformers and revolutionaries, opposing each other almost as often as their enemies.
The Vampire Template[]
Main article: Vampire Template
A character's Vampire Template overrides his Sanity with Restaint, Spirit with Drive, Inspiring Spirit and Socially Small Merits with Magnanimous and Craven Predator, respectively, and gains him a Sanguinius of 1, his bloodline's favored Disciplines at 1 and 5 Merits dots.
Disciplines, Powers and Devotions[]
Main article: Disciplines and Devotions
Vampires are dead, static things. The spark of life that allows humans to develop and grow has been robbed from them. Because of this, a Vampire may no longer permanently raise their Attributes through Experience. Instead, Vampires have Disciplines – undead augmentations of their body, mind and soul.
Powers and Devotions are supernatural abilities that may be learned by vampires. They are often arranged by themes, but it is not necessary to learn the weaker Devotions within a particular Theme before learning the stronger Devotions within the same Theme. Powers are distinct from Devotions in that Powers are always linked directly to a Discipline. If your character's Bloodline favors a Discipline, she also favors that Discipline's Powers.
Certain Devotions are called Rituals. They require an Initiation Devotion to learn, but do not themselves have a Discipline requirement. The Initiation Devotion will determine a Ritual's dice pool.
Daylight[]
Vampires other than the Mekhet do not necessarily take aggravated damage from sunlight, and are not necessarily helpless during the day. A Vampire may Push himself Mentally to roll Resolve + Composure; each success indicates one turn they may remain awake before expending another Integrity point and making another roll. On an exceptional success, the character may remain awake for the remainder of the scene, making a new roll at the beginning of the next scene. Each scene the character is awake costs one point of Vitae.
A Vampire is not without risk of harm during the day, however. All use of Vitae (other than the one point per scene spent continuing to animate) is suppressed, and Sanguinus, all dice pools, and all Disciplines are effectively reduced by (10 – Restraint), to a minimum of 0. Disciplines which do not require the active expenditure of Vitae and which are still accessible after reduction may be used when not in sunlight, and only if the vampire Pushes themselves in addition to other costs.
Vitae smoulders and boils upon exposure to direct sunlight, upgrading all lethal damage taken in sunlight to aggravated damage. Attempting to expend Vitae while in sunlight, likewise, results in one automatic aggravated wound per Vitae expended, and the character immediately begins to smolder.
Thralls and Ghouls[]
By taking a point of lethal Morale damage and feeding a point of vitae to a mortal, that mortal may be enthralled. An enthralled mortal is subject to Vinculum, a supernatural compulsion to obey their master. Whenever they are fed Vitae, roll their Composure vs. their master's Sanguinus, with each success adding one level to the Vinculum. A thrall must Push themselves Socially whenever they attempt to disobey their master, then roll Resolve+Composure and achieve more successes than their Vinculum dots. Thralls may learn the first dot of their master's in-Clan Disciplines and Devotions at double the Experience cost, and possess a Blood Pool equal to their Health.
A thrall is an incredibly useful tool, since they are capable of moving unimpeded during the day, do not frenzy, and do not breach the Masquerade. To anyone with aura sight, a thrall appears with a slightly muted aura, with streaks of their master's aura coursing through their own with each heartbeat. Thralls do not possess fangs, and their blood does not smolder when exposed to sunlight. Physiologically, they can only be distinguished from normal mortals by the presence of unusual antibodies in their bloodstream, which most mortal organizations do not know how to test for.
Another useful tool is the Ghoul. Ghouls are created by feeding a drop of vitae infused with a point of lethal Will to a corpse that has not yet suffered rigor mortis, but has fully suffered brain-death. Ghouls possess a Sanguinus of 0 and rudimentary intelligence, behaving like fast, ravenously hungry zombies that thirst insatiably for blood. They have a Self and Drive of 0, and an effective Logic, Resolve, Presence, Savvy and Composure of 0. Regardless of their creator's Clan, they are effectively Caitiff – they may only gain dots in Vigor, Celerity and Resilience. Ghouls may raise their Sanguinus and Disciplines as they feed and age, just as normal Vampires, but may never learn Mental or Social Disciplines besides Ferocity.
Dhampir[]
The final kind of half-vampiric being is never created intentionally. Dhampir are mortals who were exposed to vampiric blood while in the womb, and somehow survived the pregnancy. Most pregnant women immediately miscarry when enthralled, but very rarely the child will survive to term. If it does, it has a number of remarkable powers.
First, a dhampir functions exactly as if it had a permanent supply of vitae – it has a Sanguinus of 0, and it may buy the first dot of its parent's Master's in-Clan Disciplines and Devotions. It may expend lethal health levels to activate those Devotions as if they were points of vitae, fueling the chained death-curse within its soul with its own life-force. If the dhampir ever drinks Vampiric blood, it has a blood pool equal to its Health track that it may use to store additional Vitae, to more safely fuel its Devotions. Dhampirs are utterly immune to Vinculum, and thus may feed from any Vampire without risk of becoming Enthralled.
Second, a dhampir ages at nearly half the rate of a normal person. dhampir often do not reach puberty until their very late teens, and do not fully mature until their mid-thirties. A dhampir may live to be 150 years old, even if it never tastes a drop of Vampiric blood. With Vitae in its system, it does not age, and it may use its Vitae to heal lethal damage as a normal thrall. Finally, even without Vitae, it heals remarkably quickly – twice as quickly as a normal mortal.
The Embrace[]
A vampire may attempt to Embrace a mortal even before the mortal is drained of blood. So long as the Vampire first tastes the mortal's blood, they may deplete one aggravated Morale box as their next action to “curse” one point of their Vitae. Feeding the mortal that cursed Vitae grants the mortal a version of the thrall template. What's more, that mortal is now on the way to becoming a vampire.
Each day, the half-living mortal loses one health level, as their body consumes their own blood to maintain its half-living state. The victim will feel lethargic and listless during the day, taking the same penalties to all actions as a true vampire would. During the night, they are overwhelmed by the desperate desire to feed.
If the half-living mortal succumbs to this temptation, or if they are slain before their would-be Sire, the transformation is complete – they fully become a vampire, and can never be restored to their living state. However, if they continue to hold out, they are effectively a thrall until their would-be Sire is slain. They may make a reflexive Resolve + Composure roll at the moment of their Sire's Final Death to attempt to expel the curse, assuming they have not yet succumbed to the temptation to feed. This roll is made at a -2 penalty if the character is not present when their Sire is killed, or at a +1 bonus if the character is the one actively landing the killing blow. Each success made on this roll causes one point of lethal damage, as their corrupted and cursed blood is vomited out of them, and simultaneously expels the cursed Vitae that had been fed to them. Once that last point of Vitae has been expended, they are cured.
Certain actions may be taken to aid the victim – blood transfusions are not technically “feeding”, and may therefore replenish the victim's blood supply (healing one point of lethal damage per success on an extended Logic + Medicine roll). Restraining the victim to keep them from feeding may help those who do not have the composure to restrain themselves, giving Hunters a fighting chance to find the source of the curse and kill it.
However, this may not be as easy as it seems. While effectively a thrall, the half-living mortal also has an effective Sanguinus of 1, as if they were a true vampire. They can extend fangs as a vampire can, and can spend blood for any purpose that a vampire could. Their Blood Pool is equal to their total health levels, but expending it also costs them one lethal health level of damage (since they are effectively feeding upon themselves to fuel their vampiric effects). If this process kills them, they immediately arise as a ravenously hungry vampire, fully in the grip of wassail.
Many supernatural beings may be Embraced with some difficulty, but the results are not pretty. A living being reflexively resists the Curse with their Sanity + Potency traits, with a single success sufficient to expel the poisoned Vitae. A mage, werewolf or changeling who is fully Embraced replaces their old supernatural template with the new one, but may optionally keep some of their original experience to purchase equivalent powers (Protean shape-changing for Werewolves, for example, or Sorcery rituals for mages). Still, they lose access to the true magic they had when alive, and may only produce a pale substitute with the undead Curse. Prometheans are utterly incapable of receiving the Embrace, as their Pyros burns away the tainted Vitae as it is consumed.
Once a mortal character fully joins the Requiem, their starting Sanguinus is determined by rolling their Sire's Sanguinus + the dying mortal's Resolve – each success grants the new Vampire one dot of Sanguinus, to a maximum of one less than their Sire's. (When creating a new Vampire player character, follow the standard character creation rules. These rules are meant to handle the Embrace in-play.)
Golconda[]
Vampires theorize that there is a way out of the curse of their condition. By fully restraining the Beast, many members of the Lancea Sancta hope to someday become human again. In truth, it is theoretically possible, but extraordinarily difficult. A penitent vampire must maintain a Restraint of 10 and a Sanguinus of 1, and refrain from ever frenzying or slaying a living being or vampire. If they can maintain this state for a full decade, they may make a Resolve + Composure roll to attempt to enter a meditative version of Torpor, where they may hope to burn away the last of their curse. On a dramatic failure, they frenzy and their years of effort are wasted. On a simple failure, they enter a normal torpor. On a success, they realize that they are not yet ready for the final step. On an exceptional success, they may begin.
Each decade that the vampire slumbers, they roll their Sanguinus (1 die). On a success, they reawaken. On a dramatic failure, though, their last dot of Sanguinus slips away, and they re-awaken as a dhampir, replacing their Restraint with Sanity. The new dhampir is the same age that they were when first Embraced, and begins aging at the same slow rate as all dhampir, eventually dying of old age or some mortal malady.
Other Undead[]
There are other undead beings that walk the night, besides Vampires and ghouls. Ghosts, Zombies and Revenants are three of the most common undead beings – ghosts are the ephemeral echoes of a dead person's consciousness, while Revenants are the reanimated bodies of a ghost, driven to fulfill that ghost's dying will. Zombies are shambling bodies animated by necromantic energies, but with no purpose or motivation other than to move and feed.