Moroi
You didn’t say you needed him alive
The Moroi bloodline is one of the great mysteries of The Ordo Dracul. The legends surrounding the bloodline’s formation are strange enough, but the (admittedly murky) history of its association with the covenant states that Dracula himself recruited them, binding the Moroi forever to the Dragons. The bloodline is rare, especially outside of Europe, and most Dragons who have heard of the Moroi know them as fearsome combatants. “When the Moroi arrive, seek shelters of stone,” goes a maxim common among Kogaions. But perhaps the strangest and most persistent rumor about the Moroi is that the bloodline is descended from not one, but two clans. Both Nosferatu and Gangrel, supposedly, can become Moroi.
In Romanian legend, a moroi is a vampire rising from the body of a stillborn infant. Elders of the Moroi do not recall if the Romanians took their name to describe their legend, or if the bloodline took the name of the legend as its own. A story handed down from sire to childe within the bloodline, however, draws a connection.
The legend states that a female vampire, mad with grief for the life she had lost, Embraced her infant child. When she beheld the abomination that she had created, she left it in a graveyard and fled west, to meet her end as the sun rose over the mountains. The child, by sheer luck, rolled into an open grave and was there shielded from the same fate. That night, two Kindred, one Gangrel and one Nosferatu, heard the child’s cries. They retrieved the infant monster from the grave, and discussed what to do with it. Letting it live would be cruel, they agreed, since even if it could develop the mind of an adult, its body would never age. They decided to destroy it, but instead of simply burning it or leaving it for the sun, they instead chose to commit Diablerie on the infant.
Two Kindred committing Diablerie on the same target is impossible, of course, but the legend states that this is precisely what these two vampires did. The infant, condemned to undeath with a soul unblemished by sin, gave power to both of them. For that monumental act of cruelty, however, God cursed them both at that moment. They would henceforth be hunters and killers and nothing more, set apart by mortals by Deformity and driven to kill by the howls of the Beast. Those Kindred became the first Moroi, neither Nosferatu nor Gangrel but a hideous amalgam of both.
This story, of course, is unverifiable and modern Dragons consider it little more than superstition. They do agree on one point, however: the Moroi are monsters and killers first and last.
At the same time, the villagers only cut wood during the day, and refused to leave their homes after dark. They would not open their doors to anyone once the sun had set, for fear of a moroi in the form of a trusted neighbor or friend. Intrigued, Dracula ventured into the woods to find these “moroi.” He was not long in looking.
The vampires he found were ugly and bestial, and yet possessed qualities Dracula valued — brutality, hunger and even a strange sort of loyalty. He shared his knowledge with these Kindred, and they spoke for weeks on topics of rulership, superstition, hunting mortals and the society of vampires (of which the Moroi knew little more than Dracula). Finally, Dracula took his leave, but before he did, those few Moroi promised that if Dracula needed soldiers, they would come.
This story is apocryphal at best, and does not address the fact that Dracula never mentions the Moroi once in the Rites of the Dragon. Indeed, the Moroi were not seen or heard from again (as a bloodline of Kindred, at least — their legend persisted among mortals) before Dracula vanished, and his covenant took organized form.
When they reappeared, however, their loyalty was unquestionable.
Very few Kindred historians know of the Moroi, of course.
The Moroi could do little about the lack of focus and infighting that plagued The Ordo Dracul. Those problems would have to work themselves out over time. What the Hunters could do, however, was mitigate the persecution of the Dragons by other Kindred sects. In cities where The Ordo Dracul needed a foothold but the established Kindred were both powerful and intolerant, the Moroi would creep in, slay a few key individuals and leave. They never declared themselves and never spoke a word of their loyalty to The Ordo Dracul or of their origins in Dracula’s homeland. Further, they never (or rarely) committed Diablerie upon their targets, knowing that this unforgivable crime would invite more dogged repercussions. In most cases, the Dragons did not even know about their mysterious benefactors, and arrogantly considered the fact that many of their most stringent opponents met Final Death to be a sort of divine providence.
The fact that no one connected these deaths to The Ordo Dracul didn’t stop perceptive Kindred from connecting them to each other, of course. The killings happened according to a pattern, but lack of easy communication and the nature of what that pattern meant slowed Kindred investigators considerably.
The Moroi would first kill off a target’s Herd, servants and any other important mortals, including surviving family. This happened in the space of one or two nights, three at most. The Moroi rarely struck singly. Instead, an entire coterie of Hunters would hunt down the appropriate mortals and slay them. Rather than trying to cloak their killings as accidents or even mundane murders, the Moroi would simply drain these people of blood, leaving them as desiccated husks. When this was complete, the Moroi watched their vampire targets, waiting for them to flee, go to ground, enter Torpor or otherwise protect themselves. At that point, the Moroi struck, attacking their foe with as much force as they could bring to bear. The battle was typically over in moments.
While the Moroi never gained the infamy of VII (because they did not mark their crimes and were never as widespread), their tactics did gain some attention. These killings came to be known as the work of “the Spiders,” after the desiccated husks left behind, and having a vampire fall to these mysterious assassins was said to be an omen of bad luck for the Kindred of a city.
To this night, no one (except The Ordo Dracul itself) has connected the “Spider killings” to The Ordo Dracul. This is indeed fortunate for the Dragons, as doubtless some Kindred must survive who lost sires, childer or Allies to the Hunters, and would surely want revenge.
Modern Moroi Haven’t provided a reason for this absence, but the Dragons assume that the bloodline, knowing that The Ordo Dracul was now capable of standing on its own, decided that their methods would do more harm than good. This is true, but there is more to the story than that. The Moroi also saw that the world was growing smaller, and as they learned more of Kindred society, their views of that society and their own origins were challenged. Was it possible for two clans to form one bloodline? Could their own legends about Dracula be trusted? Were they merely an experiment performed in the early nights of The Ordo Dracul, “programmed,” in a sense, to defend the covenant? Where was Dracula, now that the Moroi had risked all to defend his followers?
The Ordo Dracul was blissfully unaware of the turmoil in their vicious Guardian bloodline. In the meantime, the bloodline retreated to rural villages, leaving behind the cities and dense population centers (and thus other vampires). Moroi who survive from that period, of course, have only hazy recollections, but all report feeling lost or useless, as though their reason for existing had been fulfilled. Indeed, an investigative coterie in France recently reported finding a disused Haven, probably (judging from the bones lying about and the legendry of the local area), belonging at one point to a Moroi. A pile of ash and some charcoal smears on the floor provide the only clue as to the former occupant’s fate, but more interesting was an inscription on the wall, written in Latin. It said simply:, “Nothing left to kill.”
The bloodline might well have died out completely before the modern age, having silently and ferociously shepherded the covenant through its own dark age. But the Moroi are creatures of blood and violence, and the first half of the 20th century would bring both to levels that Dracula himself could scarcely have imagined.
The Ordo Dracul did not waste such an opportunity. Entire coteries were formed to track down the Moroi. Those that agreed to serve the covenant were treated well, trained, fed and educated in matters of Language, mortal customs and any other necessary skills. Those that refused were normally destroyed, but killing a Moroi is no easy feat. Even tonight, The Ordo Dracul admits that some Moroi escaped and are still at large. Tracking a Moroi, in fact, is often a task given to a martial coterie when The Ordo Dracul feels it has outlasted its usefulness.
Most of the Hunters, however, were eager to join with the covenant. The Ordo Dracul began studying the Moroi and determined that, somehow, Kindred of both the Gangrel and the Nosferatu clans dwelling in isolation in the Romanian forests had somehow “merged,” creating a mutual bloodline. The theory is that Kindred of each clan had changed their Blood into a semblance of the other clan’s Blood. The Ordo Dracul has tried to replicate this feat, but has not yet succeeded. Of course, given the relatively brief time since the “discovery” of the Moroi, it might simply require more Research and experimentation.
Aside from the sanguinary questions they presented, the Moroi also had more basic uses in The Ordo Dracul. The covenant first attempted to use them as guardians for Wyrm’s Nests, but with a few notable exceptions, this didn’t work out very well. The Moroi are killers, not watchdogs. If denied their appetite for murder, they tend to go out looking for it, and this kind of aggression isn’t advisable when trying to keep a Wyrm’s Nest hidden and its energies untainted. No, the best use for the Moroi was as weapons.
As the 20th century wore on, The Ordo Dracul slowly established enclaves of Moroi in various places in Europe and the Americas. These enclaves were usually located outside of major population centers, but close enough to Humanity to provide food. The Ordo Dracul also sank a great deal of time and energy into teaching the Moroi to feed without killing, and, in some cases, assigned a Kindred Confessor to these enclaves to temper the Hunters’ bloodlust. Suburbs, though not desirable for most Kindred, more closely resembled the rural villages of old than anything else in the modern world. Tonight, The Ordo Dracul often arranges to purchase a house in the center of a suburb if it needs a coterie of Moroi near a given city. That suburb usually experiences a sudden spike in deaths and disappearances, but the Moroi eventually calm down and temper their hunting habits somewhat.
Moroi are occasionally included in normal, student coteries, given the opportunity to study under a Mentor and learn The Coils of the Dragon. This is rare, both because The Ordo Dracul doesn’t see the Moroi as having the intelligence and wherewithal necessary to learn the Coils, and because the Order values the Moroi’s martial prowess so highly. More often, a Moroi might be included in a diplomatic mission or investigate coterie as muscle (and admonished not to do anything to compromise a mission). The most common use for the Moroi, however, is assassination.
A vampire who makes too great a nuisance of herself, in The Ordo Dracul’s eyes, might receive a visit from the Moroi. Sometimes these visits take the form of the Locust and Spider killings of old, but more often the Moroi simply hunt down and slay the offending Kindred. They mask these killings as the work of Belial’s Brood, accidents, mortal hunters or the normal Byzantine rivalry of Kindred society (though they never use VII as a scapegoat — it’s best not to attract their attention). The Moroi can only be “activated” by a Kogaion or a Sworn Dragon with Covenant Status •••• or more, and indeed, few Kindred of lesser Status in the covenant even know of their existence beyond rumors.
The Moroi, for their part, bear the condescension of their “masters” well. Paranoids in the covenant feel that the Hunters are merely biding their time, but the Moroi seldom seem angry or resentful of anything the Dragons do. Most, especially those whose Embrace predates the Second World War, just seem pleased to have a place again.
In Romanian legend, a moroi is a vampire rising from the body of a stillborn infant. Elders of the Moroi do not recall if the Romanians took their name to describe their legend, or if the bloodline took the name of the legend as its own. A story handed down from sire to childe within the bloodline, however, draws a connection.
The legend states that a female vampire, mad with grief for the life she had lost, Embraced her infant child. When she beheld the abomination that she had created, she left it in a graveyard and fled west, to meet her end as the sun rose over the mountains. The child, by sheer luck, rolled into an open grave and was there shielded from the same fate. That night, two Kindred, one Gangrel and one Nosferatu, heard the child’s cries. They retrieved the infant monster from the grave, and discussed what to do with it. Letting it live would be cruel, they agreed, since even if it could develop the mind of an adult, its body would never age. They decided to destroy it, but instead of simply burning it or leaving it for the sun, they instead chose to commit Diablerie on the infant.
Two Kindred committing Diablerie on the same target is impossible, of course, but the legend states that this is precisely what these two vampires did. The infant, condemned to undeath with a soul unblemished by sin, gave power to both of them. For that monumental act of cruelty, however, God cursed them both at that moment. They would henceforth be hunters and killers and nothing more, set apart by mortals by Deformity and driven to kill by the howls of the Beast. Those Kindred became the first Moroi, neither Nosferatu nor Gangrel but a hideous amalgam of both.
This story, of course, is unverifiable and modern Dragons consider it little more than superstition. They do agree on one point, however: the Moroi are monsters and killers first and last.
Dracula and the Moroi
A story that The Ordo Dracul is willing to give more credence is that of how the Moroi bloodline came to join the covenant. Supposedly, in the years following his transition to undeath, Vlad Tepes wandered the world, looking for information about his kind. He came into conflict with vampires of several covenants and (presumably) all clans, but early in these wanderings, he chanced through a village surrounded by a dense forest. He saw that the villagers lived in fear, and were much more superstitious than even normal Wallachian peasants. In particular, there were no cats anywhere in the village, and the villagers killed the animals if they found them. Domesticated animals were blinded when they reached maturity, and the villagers crossed themselves whenever birds flew overhead. Dracula discovered that they believed that all animals were servants of the moroi, and only by blinding their livestock could they prevent these monsters from possessing the animals or turning them against their masters.At the same time, the villagers only cut wood during the day, and refused to leave their homes after dark. They would not open their doors to anyone once the sun had set, for fear of a moroi in the form of a trusted neighbor or friend. Intrigued, Dracula ventured into the woods to find these “moroi.” He was not long in looking.
The vampires he found were ugly and bestial, and yet possessed qualities Dracula valued — brutality, hunger and even a strange sort of loyalty. He shared his knowledge with these Kindred, and they spoke for weeks on topics of rulership, superstition, hunting mortals and the society of vampires (of which the Moroi knew little more than Dracula). Finally, Dracula took his leave, but before he did, those few Moroi promised that if Dracula needed soldiers, they would come.
This story is apocryphal at best, and does not address the fact that Dracula never mentions the Moroi once in the Rites of the Dragon. Indeed, the Moroi were not seen or heard from again (as a bloodline of Kindred, at least — their legend persisted among mortals) before Dracula vanished, and his covenant took organized form.
When they reappeared, however, their loyalty was unquestionable.
The Spider Killings
From the time of Dracula’s disappearance in the 16th century to the first decades of the 19th, The Ordo Dracul might have foundered and vanished at any time. The reasons for this instability are discussed in Chapter One. The fact that The Ordo Dracul survived at all, much less gained the power that it did in the 1800s and remains tonight, amazes many Kindred historians.Very few Kindred historians know of the Moroi, of course.
The Moroi could do little about the lack of focus and infighting that plagued The Ordo Dracul. Those problems would have to work themselves out over time. What the Hunters could do, however, was mitigate the persecution of the Dragons by other Kindred sects. In cities where The Ordo Dracul needed a foothold but the established Kindred were both powerful and intolerant, the Moroi would creep in, slay a few key individuals and leave. They never declared themselves and never spoke a word of their loyalty to The Ordo Dracul or of their origins in Dracula’s homeland. Further, they never (or rarely) committed Diablerie upon their targets, knowing that this unforgivable crime would invite more dogged repercussions. In most cases, the Dragons did not even know about their mysterious benefactors, and arrogantly considered the fact that many of their most stringent opponents met Final Death to be a sort of divine providence.
The fact that no one connected these deaths to The Ordo Dracul didn’t stop perceptive Kindred from connecting them to each other, of course. The killings happened according to a pattern, but lack of easy communication and the nature of what that pattern meant slowed Kindred investigators considerably.
The Moroi would first kill off a target’s Herd, servants and any other important mortals, including surviving family. This happened in the space of one or two nights, three at most. The Moroi rarely struck singly. Instead, an entire coterie of Hunters would hunt down the appropriate mortals and slay them. Rather than trying to cloak their killings as accidents or even mundane murders, the Moroi would simply drain these people of blood, leaving them as desiccated husks. When this was complete, the Moroi watched their vampire targets, waiting for them to flee, go to ground, enter Torpor or otherwise protect themselves. At that point, the Moroi struck, attacking their foe with as much force as they could bring to bear. The battle was typically over in moments.
While the Moroi never gained the infamy of VII (because they did not mark their crimes and were never as widespread), their tactics did gain some attention. These killings came to be known as the work of “the Spiders,” after the desiccated husks left behind, and having a vampire fall to these mysterious assassins was said to be an omen of bad luck for the Kindred of a city.
To this night, no one (except The Ordo Dracul itself) has connected the “Spider killings” to The Ordo Dracul. This is indeed fortunate for the Dragons, as doubtless some Kindred must survive who lost sires, childer or Allies to the Hunters, and would surely want revenge.
The 19th Century
Very little is known of the bloodline’s activities from roughly 1820 to 1900. The Spider Killings ceased as The Ordo Dracul experienced its boom in membership (see Chapter One for more details), and the word moroi existed only on the lips of those knowledgeable in Romanian folklore.Modern Moroi Haven’t provided a reason for this absence, but the Dragons assume that the bloodline, knowing that The Ordo Dracul was now capable of standing on its own, decided that their methods would do more harm than good. This is true, but there is more to the story than that. The Moroi also saw that the world was growing smaller, and as they learned more of Kindred society, their views of that society and their own origins were challenged. Was it possible for two clans to form one bloodline? Could their own legends about Dracula be trusted? Were they merely an experiment performed in the early nights of The Ordo Dracul, “programmed,” in a sense, to defend the covenant? Where was Dracula, now that the Moroi had risked all to defend his followers?
The Ordo Dracul was blissfully unaware of the turmoil in their vicious Guardian bloodline. In the meantime, the bloodline retreated to rural villages, leaving behind the cities and dense population centers (and thus other vampires). Moroi who survive from that period, of course, have only hazy recollections, but all report feeling lost or useless, as though their reason for existing had been fulfilled. Indeed, an investigative coterie in France recently reported finding a disused Haven, probably (judging from the bones lying about and the legendry of the local area), belonging at one point to a Moroi. A pile of ash and some charcoal smears on the floor provide the only clue as to the former occupant’s fate, but more interesting was an inscription on the wall, written in Latin. It said simply:, “Nothing left to kill.”
The bloodline might well have died out completely before the modern age, having silently and ferociously shepherded the covenant through its own dark age. But the Moroi are creatures of blood and violence, and the first half of the 20th century would bring both to levels that Dracula himself could scarcely have imagined.
The Dragons’ Fangs
World War I coaxed the Moroi in Europe out of hiding. The carnage and confusion in France provided opportunities for feeding such as the bloodline had never seen, and, even farther east, the new weapons being unveiled intrigued the Moroi. The Ordo Dracul, and Kindred society in general, reeled from the slaughter of so many of their vessels, but, in the midst of that carnage, the Moroi presented themselves to the most powerful of the Sworn and the eldest Kogaions they could find. They made no offers, but simply stated that they had once served the covenant at the behest of Dracula himself, and would hold to that bargain now, if the Dragons desired.The Ordo Dracul did not waste such an opportunity. Entire coteries were formed to track down the Moroi. Those that agreed to serve the covenant were treated well, trained, fed and educated in matters of Language, mortal customs and any other necessary skills. Those that refused were normally destroyed, but killing a Moroi is no easy feat. Even tonight, The Ordo Dracul admits that some Moroi escaped and are still at large. Tracking a Moroi, in fact, is often a task given to a martial coterie when The Ordo Dracul feels it has outlasted its usefulness.
Most of the Hunters, however, were eager to join with the covenant. The Ordo Dracul began studying the Moroi and determined that, somehow, Kindred of both the Gangrel and the Nosferatu clans dwelling in isolation in the Romanian forests had somehow “merged,” creating a mutual bloodline. The theory is that Kindred of each clan had changed their Blood into a semblance of the other clan’s Blood. The Ordo Dracul has tried to replicate this feat, but has not yet succeeded. Of course, given the relatively brief time since the “discovery” of the Moroi, it might simply require more Research and experimentation.
Aside from the sanguinary questions they presented, the Moroi also had more basic uses in The Ordo Dracul. The covenant first attempted to use them as guardians for Wyrm’s Nests, but with a few notable exceptions, this didn’t work out very well. The Moroi are killers, not watchdogs. If denied their appetite for murder, they tend to go out looking for it, and this kind of aggression isn’t advisable when trying to keep a Wyrm’s Nest hidden and its energies untainted. No, the best use for the Moroi was as weapons.
As the 20th century wore on, The Ordo Dracul slowly established enclaves of Moroi in various places in Europe and the Americas. These enclaves were usually located outside of major population centers, but close enough to Humanity to provide food. The Ordo Dracul also sank a great deal of time and energy into teaching the Moroi to feed without killing, and, in some cases, assigned a Kindred Confessor to these enclaves to temper the Hunters’ bloodlust. Suburbs, though not desirable for most Kindred, more closely resembled the rural villages of old than anything else in the modern world. Tonight, The Ordo Dracul often arranges to purchase a house in the center of a suburb if it needs a coterie of Moroi near a given city. That suburb usually experiences a sudden spike in deaths and disappearances, but the Moroi eventually calm down and temper their hunting habits somewhat.
Moroi are occasionally included in normal, student coteries, given the opportunity to study under a Mentor and learn The Coils of the Dragon. This is rare, both because The Ordo Dracul doesn’t see the Moroi as having the intelligence and wherewithal necessary to learn the Coils, and because the Order values the Moroi’s martial prowess so highly. More often, a Moroi might be included in a diplomatic mission or investigate coterie as muscle (and admonished not to do anything to compromise a mission). The most common use for the Moroi, however, is assassination.
A vampire who makes too great a nuisance of herself, in The Ordo Dracul’s eyes, might receive a visit from the Moroi. Sometimes these visits take the form of the Locust and Spider killings of old, but more often the Moroi simply hunt down and slay the offending Kindred. They mask these killings as the work of Belial’s Brood, accidents, mortal hunters or the normal Byzantine rivalry of Kindred society (though they never use VII as a scapegoat — it’s best not to attract their attention). The Moroi can only be “activated” by a Kogaion or a Sworn Dragon with Covenant Status •••• or more, and indeed, few Kindred of lesser Status in the covenant even know of their existence beyond rumors.
The Moroi, for their part, bear the condescension of their “masters” well. Paranoids in the covenant feel that the Hunters are merely biding their time, but the Moroi seldom seem angry or resentful of anything the Dragons do. Most, especially those whose Embrace predates the Second World War, just seem pleased to have a place again.
Culture
Culture and cultural heritage
Background: As the bloodline encompasses two clans, Moroi backgrounds vary. Membership in the Moroi is often offered to Nosferatu or Gangrel who are skilled combatants but aren’t particularly puissant in learning The Coils of the Dragon. Unlike the Sworn of the Axe, membership in the Moroi bloodline isn’t necessarily something to aspire to, as Moroi tend to become sheltered and hidden. When Moroi Embrace directly, they choose soldiers, policemen, gang members and other mortals with some combat experience. Criminals, however, are also common choices, as Moroi Embraced from more conventional stock tend to go mad as the murderous urges appear and their Humanity plummets.
When looking for potential Moroi, The Ordo Dracul looks not only for combat skill and brutality but obedience. The lot of the Moroi is that of a trained killer, let loose upon a target at the Ordo’s behest. While cunning is prized, the Ordo looks askance at Moroi who seem too clever — they’re not prized for their creativity.
When looking for potential Moroi, The Ordo Dracul looks not only for combat skill and brutality but obedience. The lot of the Moroi is that of a trained killer, let loose upon a target at the Ordo’s behest. While cunning is prized, the Ordo looks askance at Moroi who seem too clever — they’re not prized for their creativity.
Common Dress code
Appearance: Moroi of either lineage take on a yellowish cast to their skin, which lightens to a slightly pinkish color for approximately an hour after feeding. Their eyes lighten, becoming an unnatural ice-blue or jaundiced yellow. Even Nosferatu Moroi who previously exhibited no physical Deformity develop this visage after joining the bloodline. Moroi, therefore, dress to cover their inhuman appearance.
Art & Architecture
Haven: The Moroi, as a kind of “secret weapon” to The Ordo Dracul, are generally given functional, secure havens, often in a city’s Barrens or in a nearby suburb. Sometimes a young coterie is given the task of procuring vessels for a group of Moroi, in order that they be kept out of view of both mortals and a city’s Kindred until such time as they are needed. Moroi with a bit more freedom of movement often choose havens near mortal residential areas, so that they can prey on people in their homes. This instinct seems to have remained with the bloodline since its inception in the far-flung past. Indeed, Moroi in less industrialized countries seem drawn to rural or farming communities.
Major organizations
Covenant: The Moroi are a bloodline exclusive to The Ordo Dracul and The Unaligned. New members are chosen from within the covenant or Embraced by Dragon Moroi. As mentioned above, some Moroi chose not to join The Ordo Dracul, but they either met Final Death or went into hiding decades ago. While it’s possible that a Moroi could join one of the other covenants, claiming to be a “normal” Nosferatu (those descended from the Gangrel are too repulsive to claim membership in their parent clan), their murderous instincts would eventually betray them. It is more probable, then, that any non- Dragon Moroi are unaligned, existing on the fringes of vampiric society.
Organization: The bloodline itself has no real organization. Coteries of Moroi Kindred are kept separate from each other. They are told that this is because they are too great an advantage, and thus too tempting a target, to be allowed to gather in numbers, and this is true. A better reason for not allowing the Hunters to communicate or gather, however, is that with their skills as murderers and their bloodlust, they could wreak untold damage on the covenant if they ever decided to turn against the Dragons. The Moroi have never given any indication that they are displeased with their treatment, but elders of The Ordo Dracul insist that such a rebellion is a distinct possibility if the Moroi are left unchecked. Whether the elders feel this way out of simple Paranoia or because of privileged information is a mystery.
Organization: The bloodline itself has no real organization. Coteries of Moroi Kindred are kept separate from each other. They are told that this is because they are too great an advantage, and thus too tempting a target, to be allowed to gather in numbers, and this is true. A better reason for not allowing the Hunters to communicate or gather, however, is that with their skills as murderers and their bloodlust, they could wreak untold damage on the covenant if they ever decided to turn against the Dragons. The Moroi have never given any indication that they are displeased with their treatment, but elders of The Ordo Dracul insist that such a rebellion is a distinct possibility if the Moroi are left unchecked. Whether the elders feel this way out of simple Paranoia or because of privileged information is a mystery.
Nickname: Hunters
Character Creation: Physical Attributes and Skills are primary, almost without exception. Most Moroi have some rating in Intimidation, and many have decent Wits or Presence ratings, but the bloodline’s main talent is killing, and this where they receive their training and encouragement. The Ordo Dracul often provides some rating in Herd or Haven, and other Merits vary based on the background of the character in question. Trading Humanity for Experience is very appropriate for Moroi characters. Buying a second dot of Blood Potency is, of course, required to join any bloodline.
Bloodline Disciplines: Animalism, Obfuscate, Resilience, Vigor
Weakness: When a Gangrel or Nosferatu becomes a Moroi, she gains a specific form of the other clan’s weakness in addition to that of her parent clan. This only contributes to the notion that both clans become the same form of Moroi.
Gangrel Moroi keep the feral urges common to their parent clan. Those urges take on a sadistic, bloodthirsty streak, however, as the Moroi blood imprints a constant desire to hunt and kill (the game mechanics remain the same). The moment Gangrel become Hunters, their bodies change as well (see Appearance, above). In game terms, this Deformity is identical to the Nosferatu clan weakness. The 10-again rule does not apply to Presence or Manipulation dice pools (except for Discipline use), and any 1s on such rolls cancel successes.
Nosferatu Moroi keep their repulsiveness in whatever form it took, but usually take the physical characteristics described above as well. In addition, these Moroi grow vicious and bloodthirsty, their higher brain functions lost in the snarls of their Beasts. In game terms, this sadism is identical to the Gangrel clan weakness. The 10-again rule does not apply to Intelligence or Wits dice pools (except for Discipline use), and any 1s on such rolls cancel successes.
Concepts: Drill instructor for the Sworn of the Axe, former assassin, fugitive-hunter, guerilla tactician, Kogaion’s bodyguard, prowler of the Barrens, Romanian lore keeper, serial killer, sleeper agent, unrepentant monster.
Readers might well question how it is possible for two clans to “merge” into a single bloodline. The answer: it isn’t. The Moroi aren’t a single bloodline, but two very similar bloodlines that “evolved” together. The founders of these bloodlines, whoever they truly were, probably did not recognize the differences between their clans, thinking of themselves as vampires first and Nosferatu or Gangrel second, if at all. Isolated together (perhaps even sharing Vitae), their blood merged and mutated, becoming so similar as to be indistinguishable.
Modern Moroi don’t distinguish themselves based on parent clan. Since Hunters “born” of both Gangrel and Nosferatu lose their signature Disciplines (Protean and Nightmare, respectively) and gain the remaining Disciplines common to the other clan (Gangrel gain Vigor and Obfuscate, Nosferatu gain Animalism and Resilience), they seem to have the same capabilities. They also tend to share knowledge of any other Disciplines they know with their “sisters” in the bloodline, meaning any given Moroi might well have some knowledge of Protean and/or Nightmare as well as her four bloodline Disciplines. These two Disciplines are more difficult to learn, granted. Of course, characters, not having read the rulebook, have no concept of how many “experience points” a given Discipline costs to learn.
Identifying a Moroi’s parent clan by the taste of her blood is possible (see p. 163 of Vampire: The Requiem), but a Kindred attempting to do so must have tasted both Nosferatu and Gangrel blood before, and her player receives a –1 modifier to the roll. Also, the Masked Blood Devotion is only common within the Moroi bloodline, and this also aids in the Hunter being viewed As One lineage, even to its members.
You’re right, of course. The Moroi are designed to be good at combat. They get two of the three physical Disciplines, plus most of the Moroi have some knowledge of Protean or Nightmare and can get easy access to the other. What are we thinking?
Take another look. They’re good at combat — and very little else. They suffer from both the Gangrel and the Nosferatu clan weaknesses, both of which are pretty debilitating if you want to do something simple, like have a normal conversation. The Ordo Dracul views them as attack dogs at best, and relics of the covenant’s brutal past at worst.
This isn’t to say that the Moroi are nonviable or “unbalanced” as characters. They provide interesting roleplaying challenges, to be sure. A character who joins the Moroi bloodline and tries to maintain her Humanity has quite a task ahead of her, as she is in her element only when hunting and killing. The primary instance in which a Moroi character “unbalances” a chronicle is if the chronicle is focused solely (or at least largely) around combat. Chronicles that focus on the larger themes of Vampire: The Requiem, or even on the themes of The Ordo Dracul in general, don’t inordinately favor the Moroi. If anything, these Kindred must struggle to keep up with the subtle espionage and intriguing schemes of their contemporaries.
Bloodline Disciplines: Animalism, Obfuscate, Resilience, Vigor
Weakness: When a Gangrel or Nosferatu becomes a Moroi, she gains a specific form of the other clan’s weakness in addition to that of her parent clan. This only contributes to the notion that both clans become the same form of Moroi.
Gangrel Moroi keep the feral urges common to their parent clan. Those urges take on a sadistic, bloodthirsty streak, however, as the Moroi blood imprints a constant desire to hunt and kill (the game mechanics remain the same). The moment Gangrel become Hunters, their bodies change as well (see Appearance, above). In game terms, this Deformity is identical to the Nosferatu clan weakness. The 10-again rule does not apply to Presence or Manipulation dice pools (except for Discipline use), and any 1s on such rolls cancel successes.
Nosferatu Moroi keep their repulsiveness in whatever form it took, but usually take the physical characteristics described above as well. In addition, these Moroi grow vicious and bloodthirsty, their higher brain functions lost in the snarls of their Beasts. In game terms, this sadism is identical to the Gangrel clan weakness. The 10-again rule does not apply to Intelligence or Wits dice pools (except for Discipline use), and any 1s on such rolls cancel successes.
Concepts: Drill instructor for the Sworn of the Axe, former assassin, fugitive-hunter, guerilla tactician, Kogaion’s bodyguard, prowler of the Barrens, Romanian lore keeper, serial killer, sleeper agent, unrepentant monster.
Two Clans, One Bloodline
Readers might well question how it is possible for two clans to “merge” into a single bloodline. The answer: it isn’t. The Moroi aren’t a single bloodline, but two very similar bloodlines that “evolved” together. The founders of these bloodlines, whoever they truly were, probably did not recognize the differences between their clans, thinking of themselves as vampires first and Nosferatu or Gangrel second, if at all. Isolated together (perhaps even sharing Vitae), their blood merged and mutated, becoming so similar as to be indistinguishable.Modern Moroi don’t distinguish themselves based on parent clan. Since Hunters “born” of both Gangrel and Nosferatu lose their signature Disciplines (Protean and Nightmare, respectively) and gain the remaining Disciplines common to the other clan (Gangrel gain Vigor and Obfuscate, Nosferatu gain Animalism and Resilience), they seem to have the same capabilities. They also tend to share knowledge of any other Disciplines they know with their “sisters” in the bloodline, meaning any given Moroi might well have some knowledge of Protean and/or Nightmare as well as her four bloodline Disciplines. These two Disciplines are more difficult to learn, granted. Of course, characters, not having read the rulebook, have no concept of how many “experience points” a given Discipline costs to learn.
Identifying a Moroi’s parent clan by the taste of her blood is possible (see p. 163 of Vampire: The Requiem), but a Kindred attempting to do so must have tasted both Nosferatu and Gangrel blood before, and her player receives a –1 modifier to the roll. Also, the Masked Blood Devotion is only common within the Moroi bloodline, and this also aids in the Hunter being viewed As One lineage, even to its members.
A Combatant's Drakm
You’re right, of course. The Moroi are designed to be good at combat. They get two of the three physical Disciplines, plus most of the Moroi have some knowledge of Protean or Nightmare and can get easy access to the other. What are we thinking?Take another look. They’re good at combat — and very little else. They suffer from both the Gangrel and the Nosferatu clan weaknesses, both of which are pretty debilitating if you want to do something simple, like have a normal conversation. The Ordo Dracul views them as attack dogs at best, and relics of the covenant’s brutal past at worst.
This isn’t to say that the Moroi are nonviable or “unbalanced” as characters. They provide interesting roleplaying challenges, to be sure. A character who joins the Moroi bloodline and tries to maintain her Humanity has quite a task ahead of her, as she is in her element only when hunting and killing. The primary instance in which a Moroi character “unbalances” a chronicle is if the chronicle is focused solely (or at least largely) around combat. Chronicles that focus on the larger themes of Vampire: The Requiem, or even on the themes of The Ordo Dracul in general, don’t inordinately favor the Moroi. If anything, these Kindred must struggle to keep up with the subtle espionage and intriguing schemes of their contemporaries.