Tel'Kovesh

"What is more pure, my children? The purity of riches, or the purity of blood? What is more powerful? Powdered wigs and haughty words, or snapping bones and sharp blades? What strikes more fear? A pampered carriage ride, or our eyes gleaming from the dark? Look within yourself, brothers and sisters. You know who is truly deserving of the birthright of blood."
— A Tel'Kovesh Shaman during a rallying speech

The Tel'Kovesh walk a very different, more primal life than their other vampiric kin. Outcast by the Blood of Senera, they are forced to exist outside of the safety of large city walls and the comfort of a warm hearth. Instead, they live within the dark forests and gloomy swamps, partaking in twisted blood rituals and hunting their prey as though they were animals that join them in the wild.

Culture

Average technological level

Tel'Koveshians live very simple, almost druidic lifestyles, preferring to wear hides of their quarry and live in huts within tree tops. This does not exempt them from donning metal either in the form of serrated, cruel looking weaponry or rudimentary plates to supplement their armor, though their limited access to precious ores prevents them from greater use.

Art & Architecture

Many would consider Tel'Koveshian art to be stretching the definition of the word. Mostly bone fetishes and headresses, their greatest artistic endeavors are the crimson lines that stain their skin, worn in pride. These tattooes are actually blood that has been drained and blessed by a shaman, then inked into their pallor flesh and comes in a variety of styles, from completely tattooing their lower jaw to fashioning lines along their arms and abdomen. This ritualistic inking is taken and worn with intense pride by those within their clan.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

Rituals, often with the focus being blood related, are commonplace among Tel'Kovesh circles. Many of these events offer a tone of reverence such as howling at the moon after a bountiful hunt, or painting or tattooing their skin in the blood of their captured. These events are generally attended or led by a Tel'Koveshian shaman.

by Scott Murphy

Ideals

Beauty Ideals

Despite their fervent distaste for other vampire ethnicities, they share the same disregard of natural, physical beauty. Rather their ideals lie within the acts of greatness performed within their tribe. A male who boasts the most victims hunted, or a female who dances the most violently around the circle of bones during prayer may garner more attention from their counterpart.

Military Traditions

While they lack an structured military unit, all members of the Tel'Kovesh are capable of fighting and hunting to varying degrees, and their bloodlust driven savagery tends makes up for lack of training. However, they prefer to not make up a war band, but rather engage in little skirmishes and hunts to thin their enemies, and when they are at their weakest, they strike. To better break up opposing rank, they utilize animals, traps, and other guerilla tactics and then have their skilled stalkers prey on isolated targets.