Miscellaneous

= Bloodline: Volgirre =

A secret lineage of Toreador antitribu, the darkly beautiful Volgirre were experts in the blackest pursuits of art, employing Vicissitude to produce twisted and horrific works of repugnant beauty. The Volgirre bloodline was founded by it's progenitor Phillipe Volgirre. A 5th Generation Toreador and the sire of famed Camarilla Justicar Madam Guil, he and his progeny are not favored in the Ivory Tower.

A sabbat bloodline, they have rejected their traditional disciplines in exchange for the dark pact with the soul eaters, starting down the same doomed path Tzimiche walk. Like them, a Volgirre has a special relationship with the parasite sharing their body.

The Volgirre have the following disciplines: Presence, Celerity, Vicissitude. They have the same clan curse as traditional Toreador. Any Volgerrie has the automatic 4 point Enemy flaw: Madam Guil.

= Bloodline: Mayaraja =

Sikhism is a religion that arose in the Punjabi region of India (then belonging to the Mughal empire). The religion proclaimed universal brotherhood among humans, and that faith was the right way to escape the illusion of this lesser world and achieve something better than mere reincarnation in this flawed world. However, a shadowy presence has followed the religion inception in the form of a secretive sect of vampires that barely existed outside of the Punjab region. These vampires are mysterious, perhaps a bloodline of Caitiff with surprisingly similar traits. They call themselves the Mayaraja, and most vampires in India and especially in Punjab see them as a heretical branch of the Setites. The Mayaraja sect of vampires was founded by Damanjeet Singh, who is said to have betrayed some of his Sikh brothers and sisters to the Mughals when the Sikh were persecuted by the empire. The myth states that for this, he was awarded vampirehood by an Ashirra, but something went severely wrong in his embrace and he ran away from his sire. They say that he was cursed to forever remember his betrayla of his brotherhood among the Sikhs, and the act of working together with oppressors which is Sikh faith is seen as a vice. From then on, Damanjeet watched the Sikh faith evolve and become a religion of about 30 million followers. And watching this, his heart grew darker and darker, and his desire for petty revenge grew even greater. Damanjeet begun embracing other vampires en masse, creating his own clan of sorts, and he named them Mayaraja ("kings of the illusion"). His wickedness soon became awfully clear, for he sought to harm the Sikhs, the people he once called comrades. To do this, he created tenets for a heretical faith, drawing heavy inspiration from the teachings of the Setites at the time, forming a special Path of Enlightenment called Path of the Maya, which' purpose was to tempt the living with vice.

''Takign even more inspiration from the Setite lore he studied, Damanjeet made everyone in his cult adapt a new second name: Sapa (meaning "snake"). They would all be brothers and sisters in evil.''

Disciplines: CHIMERSTRY, PRESENCE, AUSPEX.

Weakness: When someone righteous (defined as having Humanity 7+) attacks a Mayaraja, all damage they do will be automatically aggravated.

= Clan: Parasiti =

This bloodline of the Cappodocians originated in the sewers of Rome while it was still a thriving center of commerce, well before Cappadocious himself gave the Embrace to Augustus Giovanni. While the exact nature of the origins of this bloodline are unknown, rumors at the time speculated that they were the result of some strange experiment of the madman known as Cappadocious, a stepping stone on his path to murder God Himself. Whatever the truth, Cappadocius hid his shame away, deep in the sewers and vowed never again to speak of their existence, hoping they would quickly fade into nonexistence.

For many centuries, this was exactly what happened- or so it seemed. As a result of their two-fold curse or perhaps due to the spurning of Cappadocius, the clan is secretive and insular, moreso even than the Giovanni. Those few who have encountered a Parasiti often mistake them for Nosferatu, given their appearance. The bloodline has slowly trickled out of Rome, though they remain few in number.

Nickname: Larua

Sect: Largely independent, though individuals gravitate different ways

Appearance: The Parasiti suffer from a two-fold curse: like their progenitor, the Parasiti are corpselike in appearance, somewhere between the mummified corpses that are the Cappadocians and the rotting zombies that are the Samedi. As well, either due to an oddity in the Embrace or a ritual done beforehand, all Parasiti have hollowed-out abdominal cavities, wherein reside the bugs from which they take their name. The skin that covers their abdominal cavities is loose at best, split and resembling a set of curtains.

Clan Disciplines: Animalism, Bestiola, Obfuscate

Weakness: The Parasiti are corpselike in appearance, their faces sunken and gaunt, the flesh stretched tight over their bones, their eyes sunk deep into their skulls, making interaction with mortals difficult at best and capping the Parasiti’s appearance scores at 0. Additionally, all Parasiti suffer the effects of the Nosferatu flaw Parasitic Infestation. These insects are the core of the Parasiti’s Bestiola discipline, however, and if at any point they are removed from the kindred or killed, the Parasiti suffers from a debilitating sense of loss, inflicting a permanent +2 difficulty on any actions attempted until a new set of insects can be acquired. Reintegrating a new colony isn’t a quick process, however, and takes a number of days equal to 8 - the Parasiti’s Animal Ken rating. Losing their colony renders the Parasiti unable to access any dot of Bestiola save for Remota Coloniam until a new colony is integrated into the vampire.

Bestiola
Bestiola calls on the addictive and borderline magical properties of vampiric vitae, using it to bind the Parasiti’s colony to them and giving the Parasiti unprecedented levels of control over its colony. The parasites from which the bloodline takes its name become protective of the Parasiti, occasionally rising out of their master in defense - whether the Parasiti wills it or no - and, eventually, merging with the Parasiti’s spirit in such a way that it begins to affect the personality of the Parasiti themselves.

● Impartio

The first dot of Bestiola allows the Parasiti to speak to and understand their colony - and only their colony. The Parasiti is able to communicate telepathically with his colony so long as they are within touching distance of the Parasiti, as well as receiving minor warnings of danger from the colony, akin to the Danger Sense merit.

●● Percuro

As parasites, the colony is loathe to allow their host to die. As such, they will attempt, when the Parasiti is injured, to aid them. The Parasiti is able to ignore any dice penalties taken through injury, up to half of their rating in Bestiola, rounded down (two dots of Bestiola allows them to ignore one dice penalty, four would allow them to negate two). Should the Parasiti lose a limb, the colony will attempt to replace the missing limb, though the Parasiti is at a +2 difficulty to perform any actions with the afflicted limb until they spend the blood points to regrow it or the limb is reattached.

System: The Parasiti must spend a turn in communion with their colony and spend a point of willpower. As well, the Parasiti can benefit from only one of these effects at a time, though they may switch which effect they benefit from with another turn spent communing with their colony. The effects of Percuro last for one scene.

●●● Concors

At this level of Bestiola, the Parasitis becomes fully melded with his colony, the multitude of voices aiding him in his attempts at intimidation and adding their senses to his.

System: The Parasitis must spend an entire turn communing with their colony as well as spending a point of willpower and roll Charisma + Animal Ken difficulty 6, with each success adding a turn to the duration of this ability. At the end of this turn, the Parasitis benefits from the effects of Heightened Senses as well as gaining a -2 difficulty on any Intimidation rolls, owing to the multitude of overlapping voices, however he suffers a +2 difficulty to any other social rolls for the duration of this power. However, due to the conjoined nature of colony and Parasiti, the Parasiti is likely to begin to refer to themselves as ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ and suffers a permanent +1 difficulty to any conscience checks made, regardless of whether this power is active.

●●●● Remota Coloniam

The skilled Parasiti has learned the secret to removing their own colony and replacing it with a different type of insect or placing a member of their colony on an unsuspecting individual.

System: To remove a colony from within himself, the Parasiti must succeed on a willpower roll difficulty 8 (this may not be marginal’d) as well as taking 4 levels of unsoakable lethal damage. He may then replace it with a new colony, requiring another willpower roll at a difficulty 8 and a further level of unsoakable lethal damage as the new colony settles in and begins feeding on its host. A new colony transplanted in this way requires a number of days equal to 8 - the Parasiti’s Animal Ken rating to fully become bound to the Parasiti before he can regain the use of any other dots of Bestiola.

To place a member of his colony on an unsuspecting individual, the Parasiti must succeed on a roll of Dexterity + Stealth difficulty 6 contested by the target’s Perception + Alertness difficulty 6. If the Parasiti is successful, the insect is placed unnoticed by the target and will act in accordance with its nature. A burrowing insect will attempt to burrow into the flesh of a target, inflicting one health level of lethal damage, whereas a flying insect will attempt to just cling to the target. An insect thus placed will remain for a month, or until the target discovers the insect and removes it. Any kindred thus afflicted will expel the insect upon rising the next night as their body attempts to return to the state of embrace.

During this month, the Parasiti to whom the insect belongs is always vaguely aware of its location, though attempting to pinpoint it requires a roll of Perception + Survival with a difficulty depending upon the environment in which the Parasiti finds themselves - for example, attempting to focus whilst in a quiet room might only be a difficulty 4, whereas attempting to focus in the middle of a busy nightclub might be a difficulty 9.

At the end of that month, if the insect is not retrieved by the Parasiti, it will die as the effects of the vampire’s vitae wear off.

●●●●● Turbella

At this level of Bestiola, the Parasiti’s concordance with his colony is so great that he can turn his body into a swarm of whatever creatures currently inhabit him.

System: This transformation costs 3 bloodpoints and occurs over three turns, lowered for every extra blood point the Parasiti is capable of spending. Once in a swarm, any attacks against the Parasiti are made at a +2 difficulty, owing to the small, scattered nature of the swarm. The swarm is considered to have a flying speed of twice its normal walking speed, and can squeeze through gaps that might be too small for the kindred normally (i.e. the gap under a door), however the swarm is just as vulnerable to effects such as fire or sunlight. The swarm can attack a target using the Parasiti’s Dexterity + Dodge difficulty 7, dealing Strength + 1 damage on a successful bite. If the insects are normally venomous, add an additional 1-2 points of lethal damage depending on the insect. This attack can be avoided using Dexterity + Dodge difficulty 7 and soaked as normal. This transformation lasts until the Parasiti desires to change back, they fall into torpor, or they fall asleep.

= Clan: Laibon = Laibon forge their lives around two separate paths of Morality: Aye, which is their morality towards humankind, and Orun, which is their morality towards the supernatural. Depending on where they stand on these two scales, their appearance and supernatural power fluctuates. This fundamental difference forever separates the Laibon from the "typical" Cainite.

System: When within charecter creation players would start with three virtues: Aye, Orun, and Willpower with a single dot in each as per standard virtue rules. Whenever a Frenzy check, a Rötschreck check, or Degradation check occurs the player would take 1/2 of her base stat as the dice pool for the check. So if the player has 10 willpower that will translate into 5 courage for a Rötschreck check or 5 self control for a Frenzy check. It rounds down. If the player has 2 dots in Aye and 6 dots in Orun for an Aye Degradation check the player would have a dice pool of 1 and for an Orun Degradation check the player would have a dice pool of 3.

Aye: Aye determines how “human” a Laibon appears. One with an Aye score if 7 or higher will pass even close inspection, while those of 4 or lower are feral and unpleasant to be around. Appearing as inhuman. Those of higher Aye find it easier to simulate lifelike activity (heartbeat, warm skin, etc.). Laibon with high Aye rise earlier in the evening. When forced to act during the day, a character's maximum die pool for any activity is equal to her Aye. If the players virtue are odd numbers then the dice pool rounds down

Orun: The higher a vampire's Orun, the more powerful and “supernatural” he appears. One with high Orun is clearly a mystical being, often sporting claws, permanent fangs, glowing eyes, or even scales. Oddly, these characteristics don't detract from the vampire's social ability, and some are known for their ability to simultaneously lure and terrify. At the high end of the scale, features like horns and hooves may crop up. At Orun 6, 8 and 10, the Laibon gains a characteristic that offers a minor benefit.

= Secondary Abilities = These abilities may be almost anything you can imagine but they all serve the same function: to lower the difficulty of an action to a possible level with a normal broad ability dice pool. What?

For example a player rolls intelligence plus occult as a dice pool to “know” things about the occult like: vampires have clans. The difficulty to know something more specific and secret about a vampire clan or sect your character does not belong to is an 11 making it impossible. However, the secondary ability of Sabbat Lore will lower that difficult by 1 for each level your character has making the Intelligence plus Occult roll possible at level 1 and standard difficulty of 6 at level 5.

This process operates for many things for example the craft ability will let you make a wide variety of items however, to make something complex an St may require a secondary ability like nuclear engineering to make nuclear weapon designs. A secondary ability may be required mechanically to increase your chance of creating something of particularly rare quality as another example. In all other regards secondary abilities are treat exactly like abilities. Secondary abilities may only be used to lower the difficulty of static non-combat rolls, including disciplines. As secondary abilities represent a specialization in a narrow field included in the more general abilities any roll reduced by a secondary ability grants to player the right to re-roll 10's.

Sample Secondaries: Masquerade, Seduction, Blacksmithing, Gunsmithing, Engineering, Armoring, Carpentry, Precision Engineering, Research, Software engineering, Hardware engineering, Hacking, Psychology, Chemistry, Biology, Neurology, Surgery, Herbalism, Torture, Meditation, Intuition, Sleight of Hand, Lying, Acting, Singing, Dancing, Piano playing, Cooking, Lore Sewers, Lore Kindred, Lore Camarilla, Lore Thaumaturgy, Lore Wraiths, Lore Sabbat.

= Specialties = To allow for further specialisation the characters may purchase additional specialties at the costs listed below. You may find some examples of specialties here.

Attribute:

5th Trait Specialty: 8

6th Trait Specialty: 10

Ability:

5th Trait Specialty: 4

6th Trait Specialty: 5

= Bearing Bonuses for Paths = Characters on the Path of Humanity benefit by High Humanity by being able to blend in with the Kine and feed. They are so good at this that often they are able to fool even those skilled with identifying kindred into thinking they are mortal. Bearing counts as a way for a kindred to benefit from having a high path rating, similarly to those with High Humanity. Kindred on a Path/Road benefit by gaining 2 dice to the pools mentioned below, depending on the situation and their Path.


 * Path of Paradox (both variants)/Road of Paradox: Confidence. Followers of the teachings of Paradox believe that they are in the exact place and time they are meant to be, doing what they are meant to do. Advanced rating bonuses apply to rolls aimed to manipulate or lead others.
 * Path of Power and the Inner Voice/Road of Kings: Command. Followers of this way of thinking exert their wills on those around them. Advanced rating bonuses apply to rolls aimed to leadership.
 * Path of Evil Revelation: Corruption. The followers of this Path carry the narcotic presence of their masters with them. Advanced rating bonuses apply whenever the infernalist attempts to turn another vampire away from his Path.
 * Path of Night/Road of Night: Darkness (V20) or Guilt (DAV). The aura of a follower reflects the grim purpose of the vampire on earth. The darkness that radiates from them leads those around them to dwell on their darkest thoughts, eliciting the emotions the Nihilist evokes when he punishes a victim. Advanced rating bonuses apply to rolls that seek to elicit dirty secrets from a target or inspire remorse in a sinner.
 * Path of Honorable Accord: Devotion. Knights are nearly impossible to sway from their duties once accepted. Advanced rating bonuses apply to rolls to resist attempts to distract them from their purpose.
 * Path of Typhon/Path of Sutekh/Road of the Serpent: Devotion. Servants of Set do everything with an eye to how they might best serve their dark god. Advanced rating bonuses apply to rolls that seek to win converts and resist the powers of True Faith.
 * Path of Caine: Faith. The righteousness of the Cainite is apparent to all. Advanced rating bonuses apply to all rolls that rely on the vampire's image as a devout Kindred and scholar of Caine.
 * Path of the Warrior: Fury. Wraths are filled with divine rage and violence. Advanced rating bonuses apply to rolls to cow others, even your own Beast, into submission.
 * Sharia El-Sama/Road of Heaven: Holiness. The Faithful radiates the glory of Heaven. Advanced rating bonuses apply to all rolls that rely on the vampire's image as divine being.
 * Path of Metamorphosis/Road of Metamorphosis: Inhumanity.Followers of the philosophy of Metamorphosis seek to transcend their humane origins in order to achieve Azhi Dahaka. Advanced rating bonuses apply to Intimidation rolls as well as any Manipulation rolls that can be positively affected by frightening the target.
 * Path of the Scorched Heart: Intellect. Unforgiving resist any attempt to appeal to their emotional sides. Advanced rating bonuses apply to rolls meant to influence them through Social Attributes.
 * Road of the Hive: Justice. Knowing that their purpose on this world is holy and sanctioned by the One Above, the Abelenes act with supreme conviction. Advanced ratings apply to attempts to justify one's behaviour and appear righteous.
 * Path of the Beast/Path of Harmony/Road of the Beast: Menace. Onlookers know they are witnessing a predator, like the sheep when they see the wolf. Advanced rating bonuses apply to rolls aimed at terrifying or cowing an enemy.
 * Humanity/Road of Humanity: Mundane. Vampires who retain much of their Humanity seem normal, without any indication that they are anything else than an especially nice human. High Humanity ratings can affect rolls for winning sympathy and appearing unusual.
 * Path of Ecstasy: Rapture Using earthly sensations and passions to transcend the mundane, the Ecstatics see beyond them. Advanced rating bonuses apply to attempts to solicit extreme or transformative emotion in themselves or others.
 * Path of Blood/Road of Blood: Resolve. Followers of Haqim are fervently dedicated to their cause and few things can sway their minds. Advanced rating bonuses apply to Willpower rolls.
 * Path of Cathari/Road of Sin: Seduction. Masters of the physical have an uncanny knack for knowing the desires of others. Advanced rating bonuses apply to attempts to tempt or seduce a target.
 * Path of Bones/Path of Death and the Soul/Road of Bones: Silence. The scholars of death are so immersed in the object of their studies that it radiates from them. Advanced rating bonuses apply to Stealth rolls and attempts to go unnoticed.
 * Path of Entelechy: Stoicism. hilosophers face undeath with pragmatism and equanimity. Advanced rating bonuses apply to Frenzy resistance in cases of insults or other deliberately provocative actions by others.
 * Path of Lilith: Tribulation. Lilins believe in the enlightenment through pain and conflict and seek to use their own suffering for their advantage. Advanced rating bonuses apply to rolls impacted by their own wound penalties.
 * Path of Asakku: Otherworldly. adopt an alien demeanor. Most utilize their Vicissitude constantly. Even when they attempt to blend in, all but the cleverest make unusual mistakes, marking themselves as beings unfamiliar with the human world. They ignore social conventions and stare in odd directions. An Asakku’s bearing modifier applies to Awareness and Occult rolls to sense supernatural energies.

= Lores = All of the Lores are ranked by their rarity. Rarer the lore, harder it is to find a teacher for or, if taken at creation, requires more justification.

If you don't have a teacher or an occult library but still want to learn, you may acquire the books necessary via occult and some other influences. To do so, you need to spend acquire points equal to (The dot desired + The rarity rank) x5. Please note that you can't learn from books on advanced knowledge without having the basis for it, and each dot needs to be acquired separately. A book on kindred lore 4 will be incomprehensible for a character with kindred lore 1.

Rarity for any clan lore to which the character doesn't belong to is increased by 3 for them.

Rarity for any sect lore to which the character doesn't belong to is increased by 2 for them.

To see examples of what different lores allow your character to know, see HERE

The base Occult knowledge will also grant you some basic information as follows:

● You know of kindred and basic functions of blood like ghouling and stereotypes of your clan

●● You know of your sect and its rules (if you have one), as well as basic functions of physical and common disciplines.

●●● You know general, stereotypical tales of other sects and clans, basic functions of signature disciplines (IE Obtenebration will kill you with shadows, Protean lets Gangrel transform)

●●●● You know of other supernaturals existence and basic stereotypes of them.

●●●●● You can tell a spirit from wraith, know of different kinds of werewolves etc

Free Lores

Additionally, during character creation players are awarded dots of lore. This is to represent what your character has learned over the course of their kindred years. No dots can never go above 3 in this stage. This is meant to be used on Kindred lore, Clan Lores, Sect Lore, and so on and so forth. Anything beyond this level exp can be spent to increase your knowledge level. If you want a rarer lore such as wraith, fey, umbra, or perhaps a clan lore not of your sect or whom is more secretive with their knowledges there needs to be a backstory justification as to why this should be received. Depending the age of the character depends the amount of dots of lore they would receive.

Lore Chart:

3 Fledgling [0-2 years]

4 Neonate [3-99 years]

5 New Ancilla [100-149 years]

6 Established Ancilla [150-199 years]

7 Elder [200-399 years]

8 Venerable Elder [400+ years]

Lore Rarity 1:

 * Kindred
 * Anarch
 * Camarilla
 * Sabbat
 * Assamite
 * Brujah
 * Gangrel
 * Giovanni
 * Lasombra
 * Malkavian
 * Nosferatu
 * Ravnos
 * Setite
 * Toreador
 * Tremere
 * Tzimisce
 * Ventrue
 * Caitiff
 * Daughters of Cacophony
 * Samedi
 * Thaumaturgy
 * Necromancy

Lore Rarity 2:

 * Black Hand
 * Cappadocian
 * Gargoyle
 * Salubri
 * Vampire
 * Lycanthrope
 * Wraith
 * Spirit
 * Umbra
 * High Umbra
 * Numinae
 * Sadhana
 * Akhu

Lore Rarity 3:

 * Fae
 * Inconnu
 * Blood Brothers
 * Harbingers of Skulls
 * Kiasyd
 * Lamia
 * Nagaraja
 * Mid Umbra
 * Koldunism
 * Dur-An-Ki

Lore Rarity 4:

 * Ahrimanes
 * Anda
 * Children of Osiris
 * Lhiannan
 * Willworker
 * Golconda
 * Abyss
 * Deep Umbra
 * Voudun
 * Hunters
 * Ashirra

Lore Rarity 5:

 * True Black Hand
 * Noddist
 * Telyavelic
 * Nahuallotl
 * Laibon

Lore Rarity Banned:

 * Baali
 * Cathayan
 * True Brujah
 * Demonology ( Infernalist)

= Humanity Variants =

In order to qualify for these Dark Ages Humanity variants, the kindred must be old enough to have been embraced and active at the appropriate times, as well as requiring ample backstory justification.

Path of Community
On your own, you are a monster, and only when you surround yourself with humanity can you retain your humanity. Society is a Cainite’s natural habitat, and the herd is their natural responsibility. While some Cainites would squander the herd, or treat their keep like animals in cages, that is no way to remain the noble being you were born to be.

With the need that the Cainite has, it is natural for any creed to see the wisdom of cultivating a herd of kine they can feed from, be that a series of lovers, a cult, and so on. The Cainites on the Path of Community take this a step further, however, and see a wisdom and purpose in not just creating a herd, but raising it up. The betterment of the kine around them becomes the betterment of the Cainite, and this responsibility is a sacred trust inherent to the Cainite’s blood and ability. Why have the abilities they do if they weren’t meant to guide humanity at large to a better way of being? Selfishly, one could assume that a Cainite on this Path keeps his kine healthy to assure he has a regular supply of clean blood or a good stock for drawing ghouls and childer from. While those things may be true, they hardly remain the main motivation for those who walk this Path for very long. The act of building something has many rewards, and for these Cainites, those rewards become spiritual.

Among any of the Paths a Cainite might follow, the Path of Community often becomes a coterie-wide philosophy, as having such a Cainite in your midst shows obvious rewards to the rest of the brood. As a result, a small coterie can quickly become the secret guardians of a larger community than a single Cainite might think possible.

While few Cainites on this Path throw what they do in their kine’s faces, it isn’t uncommon for their wards to be dedicated and loyal to their benefactor, even without knowing exactly who she might be. This group loyalty may manifest as a loyalty to the built community, to some traditions tied to the Cainite, to the Cainite’s human retainers, or the site where the Cainite sleeps without any of the members truly understanding the significance of these spots. A smart Cainite takes advantage of this, and seeds these expressions of gratitude to her benefit. After all, to keep the Cainite safe is to keep the community safe, and vice versa.

Additional Ethics of Community:

• The needs of the many are equal to the needs of the

Cainite.

• Growth is vital to a community’s health and well-being.

• A people who know who or what benefits them may

rebel against it, so secrecy is best.

Virtues: Conscience and Self-Control

HIERARCHY OF SINS

AGAINST COMMUNITY

Score Minimum Wrongdoing

7 Accidental destruction of public property

4 Theft

1 Genocide or any action that ends a community’s

ability to grow and thrive