Norvegi
Yes. Done. Gone. Payment, then?
Some bloodlines are a matter of honor; others are a matter of shame. Outsiders who know of the Norvegi think them a reproach upon the Kindred, a Deformity. The elders of some of the covenants permit them to endure, and if they grudgingly admit the efficiency with which they make other Kindred vanish and clear up messes, they cannot accept the “Norwegian bloodline” as whole Kindred. For they have No Fangs. They seem to have no problem finding blood and rarely leave a mess. But if no one pays attention to this strange efficiency, it’s because they think the Norvegi to be beneath their notice.
Among elders of the five great Covenants, it’s received wisdom that a Norvegus or Norvega is a waste of dead flesh, and so prevalent is this idea that few of those wise, far-seeing elders ask if that’s the case; they don’t question why the bloodline is still thriving, more numerous in this over-populated age than it has ever been. The dead have always struggled among themselves for Resources – surely, weaklings like the Norvegi would have died out long ago?
The fact is, they’ve found a niche. They do dirty jobs, cheaply and efficiently. Why should an elder ask how all the blood gets so efficiently cleaned away, or how brutally his enemy was dismembered? His only interest lies in the act itself.
And this is their second secret: they may be devoid of fangs, but they have other means of gaining blood. Long ago, they found the secret of warping Vitae and Bone. They have the ability to grow, instantly and silently, hollow spikes and plates of blood and Bone from their very flesh, extending and withdrawing them at will, if only they have the Vitae to spare. A vampire who underestimates a Norvega finds a pointing fingertip extending in a split-second into a long spike that skewers his eyeball and enters his forebrain. Another turns his back to see a blood-and-bone blade extending through his body. Another thinks he’s got the Norvega assassin sent to destroy him cornered, only to find her transformed into a bristling, thorn-bedecked monster.
The Norvegi, by tradition, keep their trump card hidden. One of the Kindred who sees a Norvegus using his power is likely to be either trusted entirely, or about to be dead forever. They bide their time and strike unexpectedly. They know that other vampires are faster and stronger, and prefer to use their powers of clairvoyance to gain an advantage. The Norvegi allow themselves to be underestimated, knowing that in being beneath notice comes safety, of a sort.
Among elders of the five great Covenants, it’s received wisdom that a Norvegus or Norvega is a waste of dead flesh, and so prevalent is this idea that few of those wise, far-seeing elders ask if that’s the case; they don’t question why the bloodline is still thriving, more numerous in this over-populated age than it has ever been. The dead have always struggled among themselves for Resources – surely, weaklings like the Norvegi would have died out long ago?
The fact is, they’ve found a niche. They do dirty jobs, cheaply and efficiently. Why should an elder ask how all the blood gets so efficiently cleaned away, or how brutally his enemy was dismembered? His only interest lies in the act itself.
And this is their second secret: they may be devoid of fangs, but they have other means of gaining blood. Long ago, they found the secret of warping Vitae and Bone. They have the ability to grow, instantly and silently, hollow spikes and plates of blood and Bone from their very flesh, extending and withdrawing them at will, if only they have the Vitae to spare. A vampire who underestimates a Norvega finds a pointing fingertip extending in a split-second into a long spike that skewers his eyeball and enters his forebrain. Another turns his back to see a blood-and-bone blade extending through his body. Another thinks he’s got the Norvega assassin sent to destroy him cornered, only to find her transformed into a bristling, thorn-bedecked monster.
The Norvegi, by tradition, keep their trump card hidden. One of the Kindred who sees a Norvegus using his power is likely to be either trusted entirely, or about to be dead forever. They bide their time and strike unexpectedly. They know that other vampires are faster and stronger, and prefer to use their powers of clairvoyance to gain an advantage. The Norvegi allow themselves to be underestimated, knowing that in being beneath notice comes safety, of a sort.
Culture
Culture and cultural heritage
Sometime in the Middle Ages, the idea arose among the Kindred of Europe that the vampires of the North, members of the alleged Clan Grettir, were in-bred. Tales circulated of a web of Vinculi, and that a tradition of cross-generational Diablerie and a dependence on Ghouls had weakened them. Although they drank the vibrant blood of the Norse peoples of the age, and brought their own living family members into the fold after death, their deficient blood had taken away their fangs.
Among the bloodlines of the North, they were outcast. They carved out a niche as criminals among the dead. They were killers and thieves. The Renaissance came, and the Age of Reason followed, and the Norvegi gradually spread south, receiving the same prejudice and taking the same jobs, and so it is tonight. Many domains across Britain, Germany, the Baltic states, the former USSR and the northern parts of North America have small families of Norvegi. The members of the bloodline manipulate their living families, and at least one ghoul family depends upon Norvegi blood. Many Norvegi make their havens with their living (ghoul) families, and more than half of the Norvegi active in Europe and North America tonight were their sires’ Ghouls before they were Embraced, enslaved by the bonds of Vinculi long before they died. And yet, the relationship between sire and childe is not so simple; the tradition of the Norvegi has it that the Elder of the Norvegi allow themselves to be diablerized – painfully, messily – by their childer before old age forces them into Torpor, presumably so that their memories remain, rather than be washed away by the Fog of Ages.
A Norvega named Astrid served until recently as the secret assassin of the Lady of London, not caring that the Lady will not acknowledge her publicly, but glad to be left alone when not working. Her disappearance went largely unnoticed. An old, powerful Norvegus operates in the New York Subway system as a kind of unofficial marshal. He preys upon and protects the homeless at the same time, as if farming them for his own personal use. Thanks to his vile-smelling Ghouls, he knows everything that goes on underground within a matter of hours, or sometimes minutes. A pair of Norvegi in Anchorage, banned from Kindred society for simply being “less than vampires,” has been taking down the Prince’s brood one by one.
Among the bloodlines of the North, they were outcast. They carved out a niche as criminals among the dead. They were killers and thieves. The Renaissance came, and the Age of Reason followed, and the Norvegi gradually spread south, receiving the same prejudice and taking the same jobs, and so it is tonight. Many domains across Britain, Germany, the Baltic states, the former USSR and the northern parts of North America have small families of Norvegi. The members of the bloodline manipulate their living families, and at least one ghoul family depends upon Norvegi blood. Many Norvegi make their havens with their living (ghoul) families, and more than half of the Norvegi active in Europe and North America tonight were their sires’ Ghouls before they were Embraced, enslaved by the bonds of Vinculi long before they died. And yet, the relationship between sire and childe is not so simple; the tradition of the Norvegi has it that the Elder of the Norvegi allow themselves to be diablerized – painfully, messily – by their childer before old age forces them into Torpor, presumably so that their memories remain, rather than be washed away by the Fog of Ages.
A Norvega named Astrid served until recently as the secret assassin of the Lady of London, not caring that the Lady will not acknowledge her publicly, but glad to be left alone when not working. Her disappearance went largely unnoticed. An old, powerful Norvegus operates in the New York Subway system as a kind of unofficial marshal. He preys upon and protects the homeless at the same time, as if farming them for his own personal use. Thanks to his vile-smelling Ghouls, he knows everything that goes on underground within a matter of hours, or sometimes minutes. A pair of Norvegi in Anchorage, banned from Kindred society for simply being “less than vampires,” has been taking down the Prince’s brood one by one.
Major organizations
Reputation: This is the paradox of the Norvegi’s reputation: the Covenants find them beneath their notice, and yet they consider the Norvegi the vampires to hire when something needs to be stolen or someone must be killed forever. The Norvega names her price, freely, and if the paymaster refuses to haggle, she shrugs and walks away. She is not worth talking to and is thrust to the margins of the Kindred night-society, and yet her discretion is expected and her ability to do the job is not in question.
The Kindred know that the Norvegi keep whole stables of Ghouls, but leave them to it. The Invictus and the Acolytes will tell you that they’re no threat, that they’re not worth bothering with. The Ordo Dracul don’t even consider them to be Kindred, imagining them to be some sort of mutant sub-vampire and regarding them with mild curiosity before moving on to some more interesting topic of study. The Carthians, who bother, say that they’re not really the proletariat of the Kindred, but some other, less developed group, less suited for revolution. And The Lancea Sanctum consider them damned and immaterial. Sure, a Norvegus can join, but he won’t rise very far before prejudice rears its head.
The Kindred know that the Norvegi keep whole stables of Ghouls, but leave them to it. The Invictus and the Acolytes will tell you that they’re no threat, that they’re not worth bothering with. The Ordo Dracul don’t even consider them to be Kindred, imagining them to be some sort of mutant sub-vampire and regarding them with mild curiosity before moving on to some more interesting topic of study. The Carthians, who bother, say that they’re not really the proletariat of the Kindred, but some other, less developed group, less suited for revolution. And The Lancea Sanctum consider them damned and immaterial. Sure, a Norvegus can join, but he won’t rise very far before prejudice rears its head.
Nickname: “Knives” among themselves; to elders “the Norwegian bloodline,” and to other outsiders “Scum,” “Filth,” and things less printable.
Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Bloodworking, Obfuscate, Vigor
Weakness: A Norvegus suffers from one of the weaknesses of his parent clan, but humiliatingly, he has No Fangs. He must either drink blood through having shed it with a blade (although, as a Norvegus, he is rarely without a blade), and cannot administer the Kiss, meaning that aware victims always put up a fight. This is the same as the Flaw: No Fangs (p. 118). Childer of the Norvegi, who have not yet fully developed the bloodline, usually have this Flaw. Any character who has the Flaw: No Fangs and who joins the bloodline ceases to gain experience point bonuses gained from the Flaw as soon as he joins the bloodline, because it becomes in game terms a bloodline weakness rather than a Flaw.
Further, because of the historical prejudice against the Norvegi, no Norvegus or Norvega can ever gain more than two dots of Status in any Covenant.
Parent ethnicities
Diverged ethnicities
Weakness: A Norvegus suffers from one of the weaknesses of his parent clan, but humiliatingly, he has No Fangs. He must either drink blood through having shed it with a blade (although, as a Norvegus, he is rarely without a blade), and cannot administer the Kiss, meaning that aware victims always put up a fight. This is the same as the Flaw: No Fangs (p. 118). Childer of the Norvegi, who have not yet fully developed the bloodline, usually have this Flaw. Any character who has the Flaw: No Fangs and who joins the bloodline ceases to gain experience point bonuses gained from the Flaw as soon as he joins the bloodline, because it becomes in game terms a bloodline weakness rather than a Flaw.
Further, because of the historical prejudice against the Norvegi, no Norvegus or Norvega can ever gain more than two dots of Status in any Covenant.