Vampire
Basic Information
Biological Traits
Animalism, Auspex, Blood Sorcerery, Clerity, Dominate, Fortitude, Obfuscate, Oblivion, Potence, Presence, Protean.
Genetics and Reproduction
A vampire must feed upon a mortal and then feed them some of their own blood, turning them within minutes.
Ecology and Habitats
Kindred tend to hunt in urban areas with high human populations. They blend in in a variety of ways, from feeding on the willing, the sleeping, or using their abilities to muddle the mind of their prey.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Part appetite, part lust, and part addiction, Hunger gives voice to the Blood and claws to the Beast. It calls to vampires constantly, whispering and screaming of needs, urges, and desires. Every vampire awakens to Hunger and must kill to silence it. The Kindred pay for their immortality and their powers in Hunger, and the bill is always coming due.
Biological Cycle
A Vampire's abilities rely on a quality known as Blood Resonance, determined by their generation. this reonance builds with every century of unlife, but especially intense experiences or exposure to extremely potent Blood can speed the process.
Behaviour
Vampires are monsters, have no doubt, and even a Kindred with the highest empathy or kindness remains nothing more than a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Nonetheless, as humanity erodes, vampires not only become capable of, but also actively pursue, evermore depraved acts. It is in a vampire’s nature to hunt and to kill, and eventually every vampire finds themselves holding the corpse of a vessel they had not intended to murder.
Vampires seldom begin as sadistic monsters, unless they began that way as humans. However, overpowering hunger for humanblood and an existence dependent on regular feeding drive vampires toward sociopathy and predation. The vampire’s psychology changes as their solitary, predatory existence corrodes attitudes learned as a communal omnivore.
Circumstance or need eventually forces even the most reluctant vampire to kill – and the joy and ease of murder turns such force to inclination, and finally to desire. Realizing their betrayal, vampires cease to trust. Realizing their differences, vampires isolate themselves from the mortal world. Realizing their existence depends on secrecy and control, vampires become secretive and manipulative.
As the years turn to decades and then to centuries, and the vampire kills over and over – or refrains from killing and watches their loved ones die anyway – such feelings ossify. Human life, always brief, becomes cheap, and then valueless compared to immortality. The mortal herd means nothing, only the vampire's house of cruelty, shadows, and lies holds significance. Jaded, unfeeling, paranoid – in a word, monstrous – vampire elders may not in fact be demons, but at that point, who can tell the difference?
Additional Information
Facial characteristics
All Kindred have fangs and glowing/reflective eyes.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Kindred are often able to use discplines to heighten their senses to supernatural levels.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Many Kindred are known to take new names after their embrace, stylized in various ways or simply as disguises. Some continue using their living names if discreet enough, or if they happen to be maintaining a human life.
Major Organizations
Nominally, every vampire is Embraced into a Clan, which is a line of vampires tracing their ancestry back to a common Antediluvian. Each Clan has specific strengths and weaknesses, as well as their own distinct history. A vampire without a Clan is Caitiff, generally a second-class citizen in vampiric society.
Most vampires belong to one of two major sects: the Camarilla and the Sabbat. The Camarilla consists of those clans who are dedicated to preserving the Masquerade and (generally) their Humanity. The Sabbat are dedicated to the coming Gehenna and the superiority of the vampire species over humanity. It should be noted that the distinction is not between Good Vampires and Bad Vampires as much as between Bad Vampires and Worse Vampires (which is which depends largely on who you ask). The Camarilla and Sabbat are violent enemies.
In addition to these two Sects, several lesser divisions exist. Vampires who reject both Sects in favor of more indepedence are grouped into a loose community called Anarch. Several Clans are loyal primarily to their Clans, and are independent of the major Sects. In addition, there is a group of mysterious elder vampires, the Inconnu, who eschew all politics in favor of their own projects. However, not every Kindred belongs to a Sect, nor swears fealty to a Clan, Prince, Bishop, or other such entity - these Autarkis often lead solitary unlives not unlike hermits or outcasts.
History
Cainite's history begins with a homicidal farmer: Caine of the Biblical story. According to Vampiric mythology (detailed in the Book of Nod), Caine killed his brother Abel and was exiled by God to Nod, East of Eden. Outside of Nod he met Lilith, who taught him the basics of vampiric power. At this time, he was also cursed by God's Angels to be vulnerable to fire, sunlight and the treachery of his descendants.
Caine then traveled to Enoch, the First City of the human race. There he embraced its ruler and became the God-King of the city, embracing three childer as the Second Generation. These three childer in turn embraced the thirteen Antediluvians, the founders of the clans.
Some time after this, the Antediluvians rebelled against the Second Generation, after which the Great Flood covered Enoch in water. The Antediluvians survived for 40 days under water, devouring their own, until the floods receded.
Some time after the flood, the Antediluvians build the Second City, which they rule over as Gods, until Caine returns to pass judgement on them. Caine curses each of the Clans, then dissapears.
The Antediluvians spread across the world at this time, travelling to various places and embracing further descendants. Eventually, they sink into Torpor. Vampires fear Gehenna, the time that the Antediluvians will rise from Torpor and devour their descendants, then Caine will return in judgement. The Camarilla claims Gehenna is a fraud, and that there are no Antediluvians. In contrast, the Sabbat is strongly Noddist and sees defeating the Antediluvians as their entire purpose.
Genetic Descendants
Scientific Name
Homo Sapiens Sanguineus
Origin/Ancestry
Banu Haqim, Brujah, Gangrel, Hecata, Lasombra, Molkavian, The Ministry, Nosferatu, Ravnos, Salubri, Toreador, Tremere, Tzimisce, Ventrue
Lifespan
Immortal
Conservation Status
Vampires have maintained the Masquerade for centuries in order to protect themselves from humanity. The Second Inquisition has greatly reduced their numbers, making these measures all the more necessary.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Kindred typically have skin hued in the shade of death, and eyes which eerily reflect in the darkness.
Related Organizations
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