Post by Tami on Aug 5, 2006 15:50:02 GMT -5
Vampires: Their Kind & Nature
What They Are
Vampires have the potential to live forever, providing that they can stomach drinking the blood of humans for the rest of their existences - no pun intended. They stalk and very often murder what used to be their own kind, with and without meaning to. They need the blood to survive, and through it gain the only pleasure that is certain to come to them after being so cursed. They are not entirely dead, nor are they alive. Their bodies are mystically changed and old pleasures of the flesh often fall away in the face of the Hunger. Their personalities inevitably warp in response to the lifestyle that is the true curse of vampirism - closed, dangerous and mad.
They are forever living with the threat of the Beast - the darkest part of their vampiric nature which, when it takes over a vampire, wreaks havoc on everything (and often everyone) around it. It is a loss of control that is often seen as being a show of weakness - not a good thing in a society of predators. A vampire spends a lot of time trying to learn to control, appease, avoid, annihilate and otherwise deal with the Beast within. It's an important aspect that should be addressed more often, as it is one of the things that separates vampires from mortals in the greatest degree.
Vampires are for the most part solitary creatures, but they inevitably feel a terrible thirst for companionship and contact of some sort. Over time, vampires have developed groups known as sects that grant them more than just the opportunity to mingle. The groups provide protection, prestige, and even ideologies to live by. They also provide endless battles for territory and dominance, which can keep a vampire busy for decades. Although they do not identify as gangs per se, the sects do have something of a gang mentality: our way is right, this turf is ours, and we will kill outsiders to defend it.
What They Believe
Some vampires cling to being humane, and therefore sport Humanity ratings. They have a moral code and a hierarchy of sins that allow for only so much cruelty, which makes maintaining a high Humanity rating over time a difficult thing. As a vampire moves out of her normal mortal lifetime, and begins to move up the ranks in vampiric society, that vampire becomes more removed from the mortal frame of mind.
When a vampire can no longer remain functioning under the tenets of Humanity, they might just see a new way to live. The Sabbat ushers vampires along other paths from the beginning, viewing the path of Humanity as weak. These other ideologies, called paths, redefine sin and the reason a vampire has for living. They set up new boundaries. Such a drastic change in a deep-down moral code can be a very difficult thing to accept. Many vampires never get near to following a path other than Humanity, and many who try other ways perish without much success.
A vampire witnesses and commits many bloody deeds just to survive, and with each comes the inevitable loss of a piece of the memory of what "normal life" is. The endless fight and flight drains reserves of sanity. Most elders are quite deranged. Memories of the sun, of being able to withstand being near fire, of their own mortal body heat, and of the warmth of simple human tenderness vanish rather quickly in the World of Darkness. The memories that remain only rend the soul further - for such things can never belong to the vampire again. Some do try to recapture the elements of mortal life and mortal days, and they inevitably fail.
Enemies Abound
A vampire has many enemies, no matter what their sect affiliation is. Vampires can do horrible things to each other, thereby making enemies along personal lines. The clans of vampires have their own opinions about each other and grudges from centuries past, and there is much strife between them. There can be strife between coteries (small groups of vampires within sects). Vampires of the Camarilla are targets of the Sabbat and vice versa. Methuselahs (vampires over a thousand years of age) often hunt younger vampires because they can no longer gain sustenance from mortal blood.
Vampires are hunted by mortals and some ghouls that have had enough abuse. Vampires are hunted by the Garou, who are their natural enemies and surround the cities the way wolves surround their prey. Vampires who clash with mages don't tend to enjoy themselves, as True Magick is a powerful thing, even in the modern magickally resistant times. Yet no enemy is quite as dear as another vampire - or as deadly.
Sex and Vampires: Peas and Carrots or Oil and Water?
I've seen a lot of debate over whether or not vampires can and do have sexual intercourse. I've seen even more argument over whether or not they gain any pleasure from it. White Wolf states its own stance - that vampires aren't interested in intercourse and that it's more trouble for them to get involved in than it's worth.
I feel that a vampire doesn't have to stop breathing; they just eventually forget how to. Therefore I feel that a vampire doesn't have to stop having sex, but that some of them forget about it. With the great sweeping pleasure of feeding, vampires might decide that intercourse doesn't measure up. With the unwanted vulnerability that sex involves, some vampires might find that intercourse is just too great a risk. Elder and methuselah vampires may be desperately bored with sex - or they might use sex as a desperate measure in trying to recapture life.
One important factor in vampiric sex is the character at hand. Some characters retain more mortal habits or attitudes (those with high Humanity ratings, or clans that deal with mortals a lot), while others despise the mortal urgings they once had. Some characters are hedonists that wouldn't dare to give up the thrill of warmth and flesh while others focus all of their pleasure on feeding. Some characters may have very twisted sexual expressions, the better to suit their vampiric personas. Sadism and dominance games would not be rare but masochism and submission would be all the more terrifying. Many vampires would realize the benefit to hunting that sex can provide. The Kiss feels close enough to orgasmic to fool most mortals and people naturally get closer when sexuality is involved.
Sex might also be used in torture, but I don't need to go into that for you to grasp the horror of it.
The Origins of the Kindred
The Book of Nod goes into the creation story of the Kindred. The curse started with the son of Adam and Eve, Caine. Caine killed his brother and was cursed by the Archangels after being Awakened by the first woman, Lilith, who had great power. Caine couldn't help but spread his curse through a procedure called the embrace.
The embrace involves draining a mortal of all their blood and giving back vampiric blood in return. Only a little bit of blood needs to be given for the embrace to be successful. Some mortals are embraced at the height of passion, and some are embraced in the most vile and frightening ways. The Sabbat has Creation Rites which all newly embraced vampires undergo, which is frightening and disorienting and strips away the Humanity of the initiate.
Caine created three childer (although there are said to be a few more): Zillah, Irad, and Enoch, and they are known as the Second Generation of vampires. These three were forbidden from embracing, and we all know what happens when the authority figure says no, don't we? Zillah, Irad, and Enoch were responsible for embracing a reported number of 13 childer, known as the Antediluvians. The great flood occurred, and Caine disappeared from the world of men, wanting to be alone.
The Antediluvians began embracing in earnest once Caine was gone and became the founders of what would be known as the 13 clans. Those the Antediluvians embraced were known as the 4th generation, and the 4th generation embraced childer of their own. Each Antediluvian passed on certain traits, and so those who were descended from the same Antediluvian carried the traits of the founder. Some traits, like the insanity of the Malkavians and the ugliness of the Nosferatu, are attributed to Caine cursing the Antediluvian involved and their entire line.
The Antediluvians quarreled amongst themselves, and their childer inevitably got involved in fighting, as well. The Antediluvians went underground and weren't to be seen. The names and whereabouts of the Antediluvians, as well as the number of them left alive, are not certain. Different books state different things, and even sources within the World of Darkness will be conflicting. The genders of the founders are also not set. There are some mentions that have been printed enough to be somewhat reliable: the name of the Toreador Antediluvian is Arikel, for instance. I think the reason for all of the contradictions and vagueness is because White Wolf wants you to make the World of Darkness what you want it to be. Do you want all of the Antediluvians to be alive and well? Did the Tzimisce kill their Antediluvian, or didn't they? You decide.
That, and maybe White Wolf is just feeling a little tired. It would have to be a bitch to swim through all of the material to keep all the details straight. Leaving it up to the storyteller makes it easier. It also makes for some fun debates among players.
The curse of Caine spread. The threat of Gehenna, the time of apocalypse, grew steadily. Gehenna has many signs, and is supposedly the time when the Antediluvians will rise to devour their lines, and when Caine will rise to judge all. What Gehenna will really be is still anyone's guess, because much of the stories told about are woven from rumors, ancient hearsay, and conjecture.
The Old Nights: Pre-New World
In the older times, the sects sects did not exist. Clan relations were very strong, and yet strongest of all was the vampire itself. The vampires of yesteryear were lone wolves and relied on their personal power to survive. While the cities drew vampires naturally, in smaller places vampires could avoid seeing others of their kind for many years. The roads of the world were fewer and far more dangerous for a vampire to travel, so the Kindred were often cut off from each other.
The Modern Day
In the modern day, the curse of Caine has been given too many times. Members of the 14th and 15th generation have begun to show themselves. Such vampires are hardly vampires at all, as the blood of Caine has been greatly diluted. 15th generation vampires are sterile and cannot pass on the curse through their embrace. The number of vampires who hunt the modern nights is great and territory is difficult to maintain control of. The Camarilla and Sabbat are fighting hard and the Camarilla is finally weakening.
(Shamelessly taken from www.kismetrose.com/vtm/VampireKind.html
What They Are
Vampires have the potential to live forever, providing that they can stomach drinking the blood of humans for the rest of their existences - no pun intended. They stalk and very often murder what used to be their own kind, with and without meaning to. They need the blood to survive, and through it gain the only pleasure that is certain to come to them after being so cursed. They are not entirely dead, nor are they alive. Their bodies are mystically changed and old pleasures of the flesh often fall away in the face of the Hunger. Their personalities inevitably warp in response to the lifestyle that is the true curse of vampirism - closed, dangerous and mad.
They are forever living with the threat of the Beast - the darkest part of their vampiric nature which, when it takes over a vampire, wreaks havoc on everything (and often everyone) around it. It is a loss of control that is often seen as being a show of weakness - not a good thing in a society of predators. A vampire spends a lot of time trying to learn to control, appease, avoid, annihilate and otherwise deal with the Beast within. It's an important aspect that should be addressed more often, as it is one of the things that separates vampires from mortals in the greatest degree.
Vampires are for the most part solitary creatures, but they inevitably feel a terrible thirst for companionship and contact of some sort. Over time, vampires have developed groups known as sects that grant them more than just the opportunity to mingle. The groups provide protection, prestige, and even ideologies to live by. They also provide endless battles for territory and dominance, which can keep a vampire busy for decades. Although they do not identify as gangs per se, the sects do have something of a gang mentality: our way is right, this turf is ours, and we will kill outsiders to defend it.
What They Believe
Some vampires cling to being humane, and therefore sport Humanity ratings. They have a moral code and a hierarchy of sins that allow for only so much cruelty, which makes maintaining a high Humanity rating over time a difficult thing. As a vampire moves out of her normal mortal lifetime, and begins to move up the ranks in vampiric society, that vampire becomes more removed from the mortal frame of mind.
When a vampire can no longer remain functioning under the tenets of Humanity, they might just see a new way to live. The Sabbat ushers vampires along other paths from the beginning, viewing the path of Humanity as weak. These other ideologies, called paths, redefine sin and the reason a vampire has for living. They set up new boundaries. Such a drastic change in a deep-down moral code can be a very difficult thing to accept. Many vampires never get near to following a path other than Humanity, and many who try other ways perish without much success.
A vampire witnesses and commits many bloody deeds just to survive, and with each comes the inevitable loss of a piece of the memory of what "normal life" is. The endless fight and flight drains reserves of sanity. Most elders are quite deranged. Memories of the sun, of being able to withstand being near fire, of their own mortal body heat, and of the warmth of simple human tenderness vanish rather quickly in the World of Darkness. The memories that remain only rend the soul further - for such things can never belong to the vampire again. Some do try to recapture the elements of mortal life and mortal days, and they inevitably fail.
Enemies Abound
A vampire has many enemies, no matter what their sect affiliation is. Vampires can do horrible things to each other, thereby making enemies along personal lines. The clans of vampires have their own opinions about each other and grudges from centuries past, and there is much strife between them. There can be strife between coteries (small groups of vampires within sects). Vampires of the Camarilla are targets of the Sabbat and vice versa. Methuselahs (vampires over a thousand years of age) often hunt younger vampires because they can no longer gain sustenance from mortal blood.
Vampires are hunted by mortals and some ghouls that have had enough abuse. Vampires are hunted by the Garou, who are their natural enemies and surround the cities the way wolves surround their prey. Vampires who clash with mages don't tend to enjoy themselves, as True Magick is a powerful thing, even in the modern magickally resistant times. Yet no enemy is quite as dear as another vampire - or as deadly.
Sex and Vampires: Peas and Carrots or Oil and Water?
I've seen a lot of debate over whether or not vampires can and do have sexual intercourse. I've seen even more argument over whether or not they gain any pleasure from it. White Wolf states its own stance - that vampires aren't interested in intercourse and that it's more trouble for them to get involved in than it's worth.
I feel that a vampire doesn't have to stop breathing; they just eventually forget how to. Therefore I feel that a vampire doesn't have to stop having sex, but that some of them forget about it. With the great sweeping pleasure of feeding, vampires might decide that intercourse doesn't measure up. With the unwanted vulnerability that sex involves, some vampires might find that intercourse is just too great a risk. Elder and methuselah vampires may be desperately bored with sex - or they might use sex as a desperate measure in trying to recapture life.
One important factor in vampiric sex is the character at hand. Some characters retain more mortal habits or attitudes (those with high Humanity ratings, or clans that deal with mortals a lot), while others despise the mortal urgings they once had. Some characters are hedonists that wouldn't dare to give up the thrill of warmth and flesh while others focus all of their pleasure on feeding. Some characters may have very twisted sexual expressions, the better to suit their vampiric personas. Sadism and dominance games would not be rare but masochism and submission would be all the more terrifying. Many vampires would realize the benefit to hunting that sex can provide. The Kiss feels close enough to orgasmic to fool most mortals and people naturally get closer when sexuality is involved.
Sex might also be used in torture, but I don't need to go into that for you to grasp the horror of it.
The Origins of the Kindred
The Book of Nod goes into the creation story of the Kindred. The curse started with the son of Adam and Eve, Caine. Caine killed his brother and was cursed by the Archangels after being Awakened by the first woman, Lilith, who had great power. Caine couldn't help but spread his curse through a procedure called the embrace.
The embrace involves draining a mortal of all their blood and giving back vampiric blood in return. Only a little bit of blood needs to be given for the embrace to be successful. Some mortals are embraced at the height of passion, and some are embraced in the most vile and frightening ways. The Sabbat has Creation Rites which all newly embraced vampires undergo, which is frightening and disorienting and strips away the Humanity of the initiate.
Caine created three childer (although there are said to be a few more): Zillah, Irad, and Enoch, and they are known as the Second Generation of vampires. These three were forbidden from embracing, and we all know what happens when the authority figure says no, don't we? Zillah, Irad, and Enoch were responsible for embracing a reported number of 13 childer, known as the Antediluvians. The great flood occurred, and Caine disappeared from the world of men, wanting to be alone.
The Antediluvians began embracing in earnest once Caine was gone and became the founders of what would be known as the 13 clans. Those the Antediluvians embraced were known as the 4th generation, and the 4th generation embraced childer of their own. Each Antediluvian passed on certain traits, and so those who were descended from the same Antediluvian carried the traits of the founder. Some traits, like the insanity of the Malkavians and the ugliness of the Nosferatu, are attributed to Caine cursing the Antediluvian involved and their entire line.
The Antediluvians quarreled amongst themselves, and their childer inevitably got involved in fighting, as well. The Antediluvians went underground and weren't to be seen. The names and whereabouts of the Antediluvians, as well as the number of them left alive, are not certain. Different books state different things, and even sources within the World of Darkness will be conflicting. The genders of the founders are also not set. There are some mentions that have been printed enough to be somewhat reliable: the name of the Toreador Antediluvian is Arikel, for instance. I think the reason for all of the contradictions and vagueness is because White Wolf wants you to make the World of Darkness what you want it to be. Do you want all of the Antediluvians to be alive and well? Did the Tzimisce kill their Antediluvian, or didn't they? You decide.
That, and maybe White Wolf is just feeling a little tired. It would have to be a bitch to swim through all of the material to keep all the details straight. Leaving it up to the storyteller makes it easier. It also makes for some fun debates among players.
The curse of Caine spread. The threat of Gehenna, the time of apocalypse, grew steadily. Gehenna has many signs, and is supposedly the time when the Antediluvians will rise to devour their lines, and when Caine will rise to judge all. What Gehenna will really be is still anyone's guess, because much of the stories told about are woven from rumors, ancient hearsay, and conjecture.
The Old Nights: Pre-New World
In the older times, the sects sects did not exist. Clan relations were very strong, and yet strongest of all was the vampire itself. The vampires of yesteryear were lone wolves and relied on their personal power to survive. While the cities drew vampires naturally, in smaller places vampires could avoid seeing others of their kind for many years. The roads of the world were fewer and far more dangerous for a vampire to travel, so the Kindred were often cut off from each other.
The Modern Day
In the modern day, the curse of Caine has been given too many times. Members of the 14th and 15th generation have begun to show themselves. Such vampires are hardly vampires at all, as the blood of Caine has been greatly diluted. 15th generation vampires are sterile and cannot pass on the curse through their embrace. The number of vampires who hunt the modern nights is great and territory is difficult to maintain control of. The Camarilla and Sabbat are fighting hard and the Camarilla is finally weakening.
(Shamelessly taken from www.kismetrose.com/vtm/VampireKind.html