Just in case you were wondering, this is Risky. I created this account a while ago for a vampire rpg and used it quite often in the meantime probably best known for the one I had with DC/Jake Malcom named “Boys’ Night Out”. Before that David vaguely knew of other vampire species existing, mainly because of stemming from different founders, but it was actually the first time he met one. Since quite a lot of vamps run around like Jake Malcom. Eternal Chaos and others I thought it would be nice to have a little catalogue of what is stalking the night. This is a project to do exactly that. Whoever wants to add the species of vampire his character belongs to. I’ll simply make a start with the Cainites, the vampire species that David is a member of.
Name: Kindred or Cainites
Founder: Caine
History: When Caine slew his brother Abel god cursed him to shun the sunlight and be apart from humans forever. For some reason this curse made Caine more powerful than ever before and he became the first vampire. Soon he learned that he could share his curse with others and created three vampire to end his time of loneliness. Those three sired 13 others as well and they became a family. But the fratricidal blood of Caine flew in all of them and so the 13 turned on the three and vanquished them. Angry for their betrayal Caine cursed the 13 and went into an exile with the prophecy to judge his offspring when he returned the next time. These 13, each cursed with a special affliction, became the founders of the clans, the Antediluvians since they existed before the great flood. No one knows where the founders are now but the 13 clans continue to exist into the modern nights.
Brujah : Rebels and rioters with a penchant for violence, cursed with an even worse temper than most vampires.
Gangrel : Wanderers and loners more in tune with nature than any other of their kindred, become more and more animal like in appeareance the more of their humanity they loose.
Malkavian : Lunatics and madmen although their insanity often holds a disturbing amount of insight
Nosferatu : Horribly disfigured as a whole clan but powerful and masters of stealth
Toreador : Unequaled artists of their kind, tend to loose themselves into beautiful things too often
Tremere : Warlocks with highly feared blood magic, destroyed a original clan founder and took his place, no dissenters are allowed to live
Ventrue : Leaders and rulers, infiltrated the mortal world of politics and economics to a high degree, cursed that they can only drink from one stereotype of person
Lasombra : David’s clan, also rulers and the Ventrue’s greatest rivals, have control over the shadows, get even more harmed by sunlight
Tzimisce : Old and fallen royalty of the old world, today torturers and monsters, can mold flesh like clay and have to sleep in two handful of their home earth
Assamites : Assassins of their kind, deadly and swift, addicted to the blood of other vampires
Giovanni : Mafia and necromancers all in one, reported to be incestuous, since they are also Usurpators like the Tremere their betrayal is feelable in their bite that hurts more than usual
Setites : Enticers and dealers of sin connected to the snake of Eden and the old Egyptian god Set, can arrange almost anything… for a price, hate sunlight even more than the Lasombra
Ravnos : Gypsies with a bad reputation of deception, can produce illusions, addicted to a single crime or sin
Recently some of the clans put their quarrels aside and formed two sects that are battling each other ferociously while others are still independent. Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavians, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere and Ventrue make up the Camarilla that thinks that the Antediluvians are nothing but a story and that vampires should rule humanity I secret. Lasombra and Tzimisce joined in the Sabbath that believes that the Antediluvians have evolved into monsters that will devour their own children on Caine’s judgement and that vampires are superior beings that should be allowed to do whatever they want. The Camarilla enforces their law of the Masquerade while the Sabbath ceaselessly breaks it. For 200 years the vampire sects are at war with each other while the independents watch and wait. The Camarilla uses the word kindred for vampires while the Sabbat refuses to use such a weak moniker and uses the word Cainites instead as an eternal reminder of the impending judgement.
Abilities: All Cainites are much more resistant to injury than mortals and have varying degrees of supernatural abilities inherited from Caine that they call disciplines.
The strength of these disciplines is usually determined by age although a very few kindred become more powerful through constant battle and contest in the nocturnal conflicts. The Cainites are separated into generations counted from Caine up and the lower the generation, the more powerful the vampire either. The only way to decrease one’s own generation is too drink all the blood and thus the soul of a vampire of lower generation. In the Camarilla that is considered to be the worst crime, in the Sabbath it is a great accomplishment. Those disciplines range from simple things like superhuman strength, endurance and speed over the usual qualities ascribed to vampires like turning into animals or mist up to the rather clan-specific odd disciplines like the Tzimisces fleshmolding Viscsissitude or the Tremere’s dreaded blood magic of Thaumaturgy.
The blood of a Cainite can make enslave person, even another Cainite, when he drinks it. Once makes the person like the Cainite more than usual, if a person drinks another time from the same vampire in any night after the one he took the first draught he would do anything for the Cainite, the third time makes him obey the Cainite’s every whim because of honest an deeply felt love.
In really dangerous situations a Cainite can use the stolen blood he has consumed, which the Cainites refer to as Vitae, to heighten his physical attributes to levels slightly above human peak.
Weaknesses: Unlike other vampires Cainites are not vulnerable to garlic or silver. A stake to the heart only immobilizes them. Religious symbols of any kind work as long as the wielder TRULY believes in them. Fire (although some Cainites are more resistant to it than others) works well as sunlight and decapitation. Cainites cannot consume normal food, not even for cover. They are constantly loosing parts of their humanities what they call "succumbing to the beast" when they give in to their primal instincs and become raging beasts. At times the beast can force them to unctontrollable frenzies when they loose their temper. They have to drink blood to sustain themselves and constantly "burn" blood even when not using their disciplines. Even waking up every night drains them of their ressources so they are constantly hungry, one of the many curses of Caine. Should they run out of blood for any reason they instantly fall into a coma-like state called torpor.
Relation with other vampires: Almost none. Most other species consider the Cainites to be the oldest if not even the first of their kind but regard them as religiously fanatic nutjobs. Although powerful the Cainites as a race mostly pose no threat to the other vampires because they can only get stronger if they drink the soul of one of their line and are too consumed with their eternal Jihad. On a personal basis this might prove different when an individual Cainite runs afoul or another vampire because of territory, food or any other reason but being the Darwinists that they are a single Cainite can not hope on much support from his clan or sect when it doesn’t serve the kindred wars.
Okay, your turn. I gave an example with the vampire species David belongs to above so you have a rough guideline. If you want to add something, just do it. Looking forward to your info. ;)
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