Individualists
Individualists, or “solos,” are those who believe that the pursuit of a personal agenda, and guaranteed freedoms needed for that pursuit, are the highest rights any Carthian can claim. Protecting those most sacred rights is the duty of the Movement, indeed its only justification, and the minute a Carthian sacrifices that right for anything, he has betrayed the true spirit of the Movement and become the most foul of hypocrites.
To an Individualist, the question of covenant boils down to the Kindred refrain, “What’s in it for me?” The answer is, “The freedom to do my own thing, as long as I respect others doing their own things.” To solos, the voluntary aspect of duty to the collective is critical. The Individualists always want the right to refuse when asked for help. They’d even like it to be no big deal when they refuse. To them, it should be a decision without pressure, a personal decision of conscience (though convenience is certain to be a factor). Not only should they be able to decline, they should be able to decline without a guilt trip, without social repercussions, without having a negative impact on their own requests for assistance.
Smart Individualists know this is an impossible dream. They recognize that a refusal to sacrifice for the collective, while noble, is nobility with a price tag, and must be budgeted for carefully by those who don’t want to find themselves bankrupt of aid when it’s their turn to want or need.
Individualists talk about how resentful assistance is only a little better than no help at all. The realists among them know that “a little better” is still better.
True, staunch solos make up much of the covenant worldwide, but they often occupy only the periphery. They’re the fringe Carthians, sometimes the lunatic fringe but more often just the marginalized enthusiasts, hermits and experts in esoteric subjects. An Individualist with rare skills can bargain from great advantage when those skills are needed, assuming she’s not already deeply in debt to the Movement. An Individualist with great competence who’s often sought may wind up a political force within the covenant whether he wants to or not. (To be fair, many want, and many want but strike a pose of dislike or disinterest.) Solos typically have a few very close companions, with whom they’re united by fervor for a quirky ideology. They may have many fair-weather Allies, a broad but shallow coalition of the mostly willing established through minor favor peddling. Or they may just be hangers-on who get away with being picky about their company because so few Carthians want them around anyway.
The truly powerful Individualists are those who possess the rhetorical skills, charisma, appealing position or just sheer power to make themselves the center of a cult of personality. When seated on a cushion of adoring followers, a Carthian can be truly comfortable claiming the “lone wolf” position. These demagogues are regarded with great Suspicion by the Collectivists, and are often a thorn in the side of the moderates as well.
To an Individualist, the question of covenant boils down to the Kindred refrain, “What’s in it for me?” The answer is, “The freedom to do my own thing, as long as I respect others doing their own things.” To solos, the voluntary aspect of duty to the collective is critical. The Individualists always want the right to refuse when asked for help. They’d even like it to be no big deal when they refuse. To them, it should be a decision without pressure, a personal decision of conscience (though convenience is certain to be a factor). Not only should they be able to decline, they should be able to decline without a guilt trip, without social repercussions, without having a negative impact on their own requests for assistance.
Smart Individualists know this is an impossible dream. They recognize that a refusal to sacrifice for the collective, while noble, is nobility with a price tag, and must be budgeted for carefully by those who don’t want to find themselves bankrupt of aid when it’s their turn to want or need.
Individualists talk about how resentful assistance is only a little better than no help at all. The realists among them know that “a little better” is still better.
True, staunch solos make up much of the covenant worldwide, but they often occupy only the periphery. They’re the fringe Carthians, sometimes the lunatic fringe but more often just the marginalized enthusiasts, hermits and experts in esoteric subjects. An Individualist with rare skills can bargain from great advantage when those skills are needed, assuming she’s not already deeply in debt to the Movement. An Individualist with great competence who’s often sought may wind up a political force within the covenant whether he wants to or not. (To be fair, many want, and many want but strike a pose of dislike or disinterest.) Solos typically have a few very close companions, with whom they’re united by fervor for a quirky ideology. They may have many fair-weather Allies, a broad but shallow coalition of the mostly willing established through minor favor peddling. Or they may just be hangers-on who get away with being picky about their company because so few Carthians want them around anyway.
The truly powerful Individualists are those who possess the rhetorical skills, charisma, appealing position or just sheer power to make themselves the center of a cult of personality. When seated on a cushion of adoring followers, a Carthian can be truly comfortable claiming the “lone wolf” position. These demagogues are regarded with great Suspicion by the Collectivists, and are often a thorn in the side of the moderates as well.
Type
Political, Activist
Ruling Organization
Parent Organization
Two Individualists
Dr. Jay Bauser is a typical Individualist. He’s Nosferatu, was Embraced for his medical expertise and has used his Carthian Contacts to get himself set up with a pretty sweet haven-and-herd combo at a plastic surgery clinic. The chief surgeon is his ghoul. Jay works the anesthesia, assists during surgery and takes care of any loose blood that spills during procedures. He has no interest in the Danse Macabre or the governance of the Carthians. He’s interested in finding the physical location of the human soul.He dislikes being called on for money or blood, actively despises being lobbied politically, tolerates cries for medical help (“They shot my ghoul!”) and is cheerfully eager to assist in any endeavors that might shed light on the boundary between the physical body and the metaphysical spirit. Or, at least he’d be eager if anyone had asked him.
Monica Guiterrez is an atypical Individualist. For one thing, she’s passionately engaged, politically. Her positions over the years have little coherence, except perhaps a strong strain of contrarianism. She was Embraced in the 1940s, she has a decent supply of personal power and an obedient coterie of doting neonates and ancillae (two of them her own childer), but, while she loudly insists everyone has a right to their own opinion, her actions mostly ensure that everyone gets a load of her opinion.
Feminism came too late for Monica. Her first husband was forceful and dominant, and, being a strong-willed person, she resented him for it. When she fled to be with a man who adored her, and whom she could therefore easily manipulate, she despised him for his weakness. Her political posturing is just a mirror of her personal life. She respects only those who disagree and who are equally (or often more) forceful than she is. Those who agree with her are useful, but deserve only to be used. No one knows her past, so no one grasps her motives. This makes her an unpredictable wild card in her domain’s Carthian politics, and in the larger Danse Macabre.