Drakus's blog: "vampires/vampyres"

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Vampires

Assamite

The Assamites are a group of skilled, select assassins who often commit contract killings in exchange for the blood of other vampires. Even when compared to other vampires, the Assamite appear overly obsessed with blood, due to a clan weakness which causes an addiction to the blood of other vampires.

Baali

The Baali are very strongly rejected by most vampires, because of their infernalist nature — they are called "monsters" and "demons" even by the other vampires. Much of the Baali symbology is Mesopotamian and Phoenician in origin. The very name Baali is originated from the Phoenician word Ba'al, meaning "great lord".

Brujah

Brujah are characterized mostly as anarchists. Brujah childer conduct their political conventions amongst the noise of raves and punk rock concerts. Their Ancilla have long used secret, impromptu, and often violent rants to propel their anarchic culture. In comparison to other vampires, the Brujah are especially violent. Currently the most popular symbol of Brujah is upside-down form of Circle A Red.

Cappadocius

The Antediluvian founder of the Cappadocians was a third generation vampire known as Cappadocius. Unlike the other Antediluvians, he sought peace, understanding of the world and of the curse of his blood in order to hopefully escape from its grasp.

The Cappadocians were marked by a desire to understand the limits between life and death. Some of them meticulously studied death and decay; others chose to focus on the possibility of bringing life back into a dead body. Their clan Discipline, Mortis, gave them the power to animate corpses (or parts thereof). As their interests met, some Cappadocians shared information with scholars of the occult from the Tremere clan; others kept correspondence with Jewish Kabbalists regarding the powers inherent in the name of God (the manufacture of golems from inert matter might be an example).

Followers of Set

The Setites are known as keepers of secrets, particularly those of a thaumaturgical nature. Indeed, the Followers of Set tend to know anything anyone needs to know or can find it for them - for a price. Many vampires warn each other never to trust a Setite, as Followers of Set do not follow the Path of Humanity like most other vampires. Instead they have their own Path of Enlightenment, the Path of Typhon, which exalts, amongst other things, the corruption of others. Many who are snared by the Followers of Set do not realize the danger until it's too late and are either forced to become followers of Set themselves or become dangerously indebted to them.

Gangrel

Unlike their brethren, Gangrel spurn the trappings of civilization, preferring to roam the deep wilds of solitude. The Gangrel is a clan only in the loosest sense; its members tend to be rugged individualists, indifferent to the protocols of either mortal or vampire. They are the bestial ones, the closest to losing themselves to the wild.

Many Gangrel appear as, and dress in the manner of, barbarian people. Furs, plaids, deerskin clothing and similar garb predominate. Some, emulating the Highland Picts, go about in woad and little else.

Of course, those unfortunate Gangrel who have fallen prey to the Beast one too many times have a look all their own. Tufted ears, horns, coats of fur, razor talons, gleaming catlike eyes, even feathers and scales adorn (deform?) these bêtes noires, and feral musk wafts from them.

Giovanni

The Giovanni Family is an enigma, standing outside Kindred politics, and is the only clan to have truly done so since its inception, The Giovanni have a reputation that causes most fellow Kindred to avoid them at all costs. The clan’s taste for the morbid is something that even the stuffy Ventrue and the wild Brujah can agree is not natural. They are the only clan that knows the joy of life, the dark twilight of unlife and the bitter ashes of true death.

Founded during the Dark Ages and coming to ascendance in the Renaissance, the Family of Giovanni has since grown to include several other families. They are now stronger than they have ever been, while all around them disintegrate into dust. Still, suspicion of this clan has continued to the present day. By staying neutral in quaint battles, the Giovanni have had free rein to build their merchant empire. The clan's wealth is quite sizeable, but no one knows the exact purpose for which it employs this wealth. Few outsiders have ever taken part in the clan's necromantic rituals, so the purpose of these is likewise a mystery. Instead, suspicions and innuendoes have taken the places of facts and truths. Clan Giovanni is one of the more rigidly controlled clans and contact is constantly maintained between members of the clan.

Kiasyd

The Kiasyd trace their lineage to a Lasombra vampire named Marconius who had himself infused with fae blood. For this reason, Marconius, and those embraced by him and his followers, are often thought to be a combination of vampire and fae.

The clans members are exceptionally tall and heights of over seven feet are not unusual. Their odd appearance includes chalk-white skin which seems to glow blue in the moonlight, and solid black eyes. This strange visual impression may account for the clan nickname "Weirdlings."

Lasombra

They are invariably talented and have a commanding air about them; even when they are not selected from aristocratic stock, they are skilled manipulators, tempters and plotters. They have the ability to create and control shadows (appropriate, given that their name comes from the Spanish for "the shadow"), but unlike most other vampires, the Lasombra do not cast reflections in mirrors or other surfaces, and are even more susceptible to sunlight than any other Cainites.

Malkavian

Malkavians suffer from a specific flaw: in this case, they are incurably insane. However, many Malkavians believe their insanity to be a strength rather than a weakness. Exactly why they all suffer from insanity is unknown, but according to the Book of Nod, all third-generation vampires were cursed by Caine after the second-generation vampires were destroyed. One of these third-generation vampires was Malkav, from whom Malkavians come.

According to Malkavian legend, when Malkav was killed, all his childer came to his corpse and drank the blood of their father, thus collectively diablerizing Malkav. He is said to speak inside each and every Malkavian's soul and connects them into one collective consciousness. This "hive mind" is sometimes called "the Cobweb" or "the Malkavian Madness Network", which contains each thought and memory that any Malkavian in the world has ever had (and sometimes is about to have).

Nosferatu

They are uniformly hideous as a result of the flaw in their vampiric bloodline, though each individual's physical monstrosity is unique. Nosferatu frequently reside in catacombs, cemeteries, and sewers. The Nosferatu, also referred to as 'Nossies' or 'Sewer Rats,' are highly regarded as information-brokers.

Ravnos

When compared to other vampires, Ravnos are not seen as being especially honorable; they are often seen as compulsive gamblers, thieves, liars, and criminals in general. This is because of the Ravnos' unique curse: their beast is especially clever and cajoling. Rather than the usual feral desires for violence and gorging on blood, the Ravnos beast tempts its host with crimes and infractions against society. In this way, the Ravnos beast is more similar to the classical "devil on the shoulder" than the usual Cainite version (which is much more brutal and violent in nature).

Toreador

The Toreador typically have an obsession with anything artistic, exquisite or (superficially) beautiful. As expectable, the Toreador find the Nosferatu to be especially revolting, and vice versa. Their attraction to beauty is so strong that they have to force themselves not to stop at the sight of an aesthetically appealing work.

It is said that the Toreador are the closest of the Kindred to human sensibilities.

Tremere

It is told that the Tremere were a cabal of human alchemists and Mages who attempted to gain the immortality and powers (Disciplines) of the vampires. After gruelling research and many setbacks, their experiments resulted not in immortality and blood-fueled magic, but undeath (the cursed state of existence laid upon all Kindred), and pitiably stunted powers. During the time of their inception, The Dark Ages, they were considered an upstart, and had already made many enemies as a result of their experiments. By the peak of the Renaissance, however through clever alliances and the forging of new, strange powers (even in the eyes of other Kindred), they took a place in the highest council of the Camarilla.

Since they moved from an isolated band of Mages into an acknowledged, mysterious and powerful Clan of Kindred in the space of less than a thousand years, and since they had created unknowable and powerful new Disciplines (as well as for other, darker reasons), the Tremere are generally mistrusted, and are frequently referred to with the sobriquet, "Usurpers."

Tzimisce

The Tzimisce are known for their body altering technique, called Vicissitude or, less formally, "fleshcrafting". Tzimisce can supernaturally alter the bodies of living and undead organisms, even to the point of melting them. For this clan, body alteration is an art and a philosophy. In the modern ages, most Tzimisce are simultaneously radical transhumanists, posthumanists, and prescriptive social Darwinists. Sooner or later, many Tzimisce become totally lost in this detatched and inhuman way of thinking, often losing all contact with the concepts of mercy, compassion, or moral or ethical value as understood by the human mind.

The Tzimisce seek physical and spiritual purification and perfection, though their interpretations of these concepts are often alien or incomprehensible to humans and sometimes even to other vampires. They often "fleshcraft" themselves into forms they believe to be beautiful and/or terrifying. The most common "path of enlightenment" for a Tzimisce is called the "Path of Metamorphosis", and is a replacement for their lost humanity. Tzimisce with this path only have one goal with their whole existence: to become so powerful that the whole world becomes part of themselves.

Ventrue

The Ventrue claim that ruling vampires is their duty, their burden, a task which is interlocked with their fate, given by Caine himself. The reality is that excessive pride and ambition seem a more convenient explanation as to why they strive to expand their already vast influence and assert themselves over other Kindred. They tend to be politicians, businessmen, military officers, crime lords, important members of powerful religions, sects and cults.