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Caitiff (World of Darkness)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Caitiff are a fictional group of clanless vampires in Vampire: The Masquerade, a role-playing game by White Wolf, Inc.
Lacking patrons or allies, holding no real power as a group, Caitiff are held in contempt by the Camarilla. The Sabbat's Caitiff are treated as a clan; known as Pander, a title whose namesake is a politically powerful and clanless vampire Joseph Pander, they find direction through the Sabbat.
Since they are clanless, they do not specialize in any particular discipline, but have the freedom to learn any discipline or develop their own. However, finding a mentor for such a pursuit can be difficult.
Clanlessness can stem from many circumstances - the sire rejected the individual, the embrace went wrong, their blood is too thin to develop the peculiar characteristics of the sire's clan, or the sire was also a caitiff.
Some take great pride in lacking a clan, claiming to be descended directly from Caine. Since Caine was the first vampire, he lacked the flaws of his descendants who founded various clans and bloodlines. Caitiff tend to be thin-blooded; far removed from Caine, 13th generation or worse, they can be viewed as omens of Gehenna. Most clans tolerate the Caitiff, as long as they maintain the Masquerade, honor the traditions, and stay out of politics. Still, there are exceptions to this rule; Muktar Bey, the Caitiff Prince of Cairo, has ruled for over 500 years.
Passages of the Book of Nod allude to the Time of Thin Blood, when the clanless will come to rule. The increasing number of Caitiff and their strange powers and insights into the Jyhad has many elders worried.
Notes
* 'Caitiff' is defined as a despicable coward or villain. It is an archaic French term, derived from the Latin captivum, an insult for captives and prisoners.
References
* Dean Shomshak & Sarah Roark, Time Of Thin Blood (White Wolf Game Studio, 1999, ISBN 1-56504-245-X)
* Justin Achilli & Richard E. Dansky, Guide To The Camarilla (White Wolf Game Studio, 1999, ISBN 156504262X
* Justin Achilli, Vampire: The Masquerade (Revised Edition) (White Wolf Game Studio, 1998, ISBN 1-56504-249-2)
* James Moore, Outcasts: A Player's Guide to Pariahs (White Wolf Game Studio, 1995, ISBN 1-56504-312-X)
Baali (World of Darkness)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Baali are a fictional bloodline of vampires, from White Wolf Game Studio's Vampire: The Masquerade and Vampire: The Dark Ages books and role-playing games.
The Baali are very strongly rejected by both Camarilla and the Sabbat, 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".
Origins
The Baali are infernalists who once dealt in the names of ancient beings that existed before the "Let there be Light" of Genesis (as simply knowing the names of such powerful beings can give one access to some of that power). Baali legend says there was a group of people called the "First Tribe" who discovered the existence of those old ones and became their acolytes. They were degenerates, who murdered their parents and raped their children. One day, an unknown vampire (speculated to be Saulot, the Antediluvian father of the Salubri) encountered the First Tribe and killed every one of them, and then spread drops of his blood over their corpses. Only three (Nergal, Moloch and the Unknown Third) crawled out of the pit of bodies, and thus the vampiric bloodline Baali was created.
Another origin story of the bloodline speaks of a single progenitor, called Shaitan, who was in life a slave-boy with a beautiful singing voice who attracted the attention of an unknown vampire. This version of their creation does not explain the origin of the corpse-pit Embracing tradition.
The Dark Ages
The Baali became so numerous during the dark ages that they were widely considered to be a Clan. Many Baali during this time imitated their legendary creation by embracing mortals in a similar fashion. That is, to create a new vampire, a Baali sire-to-be will drain all the blood out of a target mortal and throw his body into a pit of corpses, where the vampire has hid some of his own vampiric blood in a human heart. Only the strong-willed who find the heart and drink the blood within it can survive and become Baali. This practice is very different from that of other vampires — the Baali childer are not turned into vampires by their sires; they become vampires on their own. In the modern era, this practice has been largely abandoned, due to the difficulty of procuring the number of corpses required without attracting the attention of law enforcement. Rumors also speak of the Baali ability to "re-embrace" existing vampires, converting them to the Baali cause.
Final Nights
In the modern era, the Baali are in decline, having been hunted to near extinction by both the Camarilla and Sabbat. Those who remain are divided into two camps: Baali who simply crave power and are willing to deal with infernal entities to get it, and Baali who actively attempt to pacify the dark beings whose names they once used to give them power.
References
* White Wolf Publishing et al., Vampire Storytellers Handbook, (White Wolf Game Studio, 2000, ISBN 1-56504-264-6)
* Justin Achilliet al., Vampire: The Masquerade (Revised Edition) (White Wolf Game Studio, 1998, ISBN 1-56504-249-2)
* Sven Skoog & Lucien Soulban, Clanbook: Baali, (White Wolf Game Studio, 1998, ISBN 1-56504-213-1)
Nosferatu (World of Darkness)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Nosferatu are a fictional clan of vampires from White Wolf Game Studio's Vampire: The Masquerade, Vampire: The Dark Ages and Vampire: The Requiem books and role-playing games. 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', commonly take residence in sewers or underground tunnels, and are highly regarded as information-brokers.
Frustrated over their monstrous appearance, many Nosferatu will Embrace the very vain and/or very beautiful out of spite. Vampires Embraced in this way are often referred to as Cleopatras, named after the character from Freaks.
In Vampire: The Masquerade, the Nosferatu are associated with the Camarilla. Their symbol is a drama mask.
The clan of Nosferatu has several inspirations, most notably the film of the same name, wherein a very ugly vampire named Count Orlock plays out the role of Stoker's Dracula. The word itself is often used to refer to demons and the undead in general.
Disciplines:
• Animalism
• Obfuscate
• Potence
Nosferatu in Vampire: The Requiem
After Vampire: The Masquerade's demise in 2004 in the "Time of Judgment" storyline, White Wolf Game Studio launched a new World of Darkness, with a new vampire game as its launch title, Vampire: The Requiem. In this new game, the Nosferatu were revamped as one of the 5 major clans
References
* Brian Campbell Clanbook: Nosferatu Revised Edition (White Wolf Game Studio, 2000, ISBN 1-56504-266-2)
* Justin Achilli Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition (White Wolf Game Studio, 1998, ISBN 1-56504-249-2)
Tremere
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Tremere are both a fictional clan of vampires, from White Wolf Game Studio's books and role-playing games set in the World of Darkness (Vampire: The Masquerade and Vampire: The Dark Ages), and a fictional House within the Order of Hermes in the role-playing game Ars Magica.
Vampire & Ars Magicka
The continuity of two games was formerly linked, and they were at one stage both owned by White Wolf Game Studio, and in this continuity the House of magicians spawned the clan of vampires as described below, but remained a major House of the Order within the time frame of Ars Magica. Continuity of Ars Magica is now separate, and the vampiric Tremere are no longer part of official continuity. The remainder of this article discusses the World of Darkness continuity, and is likely to be confusing if taken as Ars Magica continuity, though many details (such as clan symbol), are the same in both, and there are some general similarities. This clan is distrusted and feared by most of the other clans.
The Tremere are a clan of tightly-knit magicians. In comparison to the other vampiric clans, the Tremere are especially loyal to their hierarchy. Their symbol is a square surrounded by a circle; with an isosceles right triangle drawn at 60°, where the hypotenuse is a tangent to the circle.
It is told that the Tremere were a large 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."
Vampire: Dark Ages
The Tremere were originally a group of human mages from House Tremere of the Order of Hermes. When they found their magical life-extending elixirs started failing due to the growing lack of belief in magic, they started looking elsewhere. They captured vampires of the Tzimisce clan and conducted experiments on their bodies and blood, and discovered how to turn mortals into vampires without The Embrace. Tremere and his six most loyal followers crafted potions of vampirism and consumed them.
Almost immediately after their transformation, the Tremere were beset with enemies on all sides: the Tzimisce wanted revenge, the Order outlawed them, and their awakened Avatars left them on the transition to death, taking their magic with them. Tremere crafted the art of blood magic, Thaumaturgy, and they defended themselves. Wanting more power for his bloodline, Tremere found the resting place of Saulot, the Antediluvian founder of clan Salubri, and diablerized him, consuming his very essence and gaining his power. Tremere declared his bloodline a full Clan, and started spreading rumours that the Salubri were soul-stealers, and managed to hunt them to near-extinction; it is believed that no more than six Salubri survive into the Final Nights.
Vampire: The Masquerade
Originally from Eastern Europe, the Tremere were organized in chantries. These were almost completely destroyed in the war against the Tzimisce. Only the fortified Coeris, in the southern Transylvanian Alps, survived, but the Tremere soon spread again and founded strongholds in Prague and Vienna (the latter was to become their main center of power), with smaller chantries elsewhere (such as the one in Perugia, in central Italy).
With the destruction of many Elder vampires during the Inquisition and the retreat into torpor of many other Elders, most surviving vampires had little knowledge of the Salubri and no source to counter the Tremere's allegations of the Salubri's soul-stealing. This, combined with the Thaumaturgical powers the young clan made available for the fledgeling Camarilla's defense, brought them greater esteem among the Kindred population in later centuries.
When the Camarilla was organized, the Tremere were one of the group's strongest defenders, although the Gangrel and Nosferatu clans harbour deep resentment toward the Tremere due to their use of Gangrel and Nosferatu blood to create their gargoyle servants.
The Tremere have a strict formal hierarchical structure called the Pyramid. The heads of the Pyramids insure the loyalty of their subjects by having each childe presented to the regent of the local chantry and forced to drink the blood of the Seven elders through a Thaumaturgical ritual, thus bringing them closer to a blood bond. All Tremere are expected to respect and obey their superiors, or else risk being harshly punished.
During the formation of the Sabbat, a group of Tremere under the leadership of a powerful vampire named Goratrix defected to become the Tremere antitribu, which ultimately came to be based in Sabbat-dominated Mexico. They bore a supernatural mark that could be perceived nly by the members of the clan that had remained loyal. According to the Third Edition of Vampire: the Masquerade, all members of the Tremere antitribu were wiped out in one night in 1997.
Disciplines:
• Auspex
• Dominate
• Thaumaturgy
Vampire: Requiem and the World of Darkness
In the current World of Darkness, the Tremere existed once but are no more. They were a clan that practiced stealing the souls of mortal humans to overcome the inherent weaknesses of being a vampire. However, souls tended to decay when attached to the vampires, so to sustain themselves they struck a bargain to allow them to obtain the souls of willing mages in return for vampiric lore. However, something went wrong (it is unspecified what exactly happened) and the Tremere were apparently completely destroyed, but the mages inherited their spiritual curse, forcing them to steal souls to sustain their own bodies. They adopted the name of the extinct vampire clan and became a left-handed (tainted) legacy of mages.
References
* Vampire: The Masquerade (Revised Edition) by White Wolf (1998)
Lasombra
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Lasombra is a fictional clan of vampires, associated with the Sabbat, from White Wolf Game Studio's Vampire: The Masquerade books and role-playing games. The Lasombra are the Sabbat's counterpart to the Ventrue. The Lasombra have the ability to create and control shadows. Unlike most other vampires, the Lasombra do not cast reflections in mirrors or other surfaces, much like vampires of popular culture. They are also even more susceptible to sunlight than other Cainites, except the Followers of Set.
The Lasombra clan's unique discipline is Obtenebration, which allows them to manipulate shadows and even the unformed substance of the primordial void, known as the Abyss. The effects they can create range from causing flittering shadows which have actual substance, transforming their own bodies into an expression of darkness and emptiness, and even the ability to temporarily submerge a small area of the immediate environment into the Abyss itself.
The clan's extremely rare antitribu are affiliated with the Camarilla.
Some Lasombra share with their clan founder's affinity for the ocean, often staring at the ocean or taking long sea voyages. Many Lasombra antitribu even live at sea, as pirates along waterways historically dominated by Spanish, Italian, or Portuguese colonialism and trade.
The Lasombra are one of two major clans forming the majority of the Sabbat, along with the Tzimisce. These were the only two clans to achieve any major success during the Anarch Revolt, and are even rumoured to have destroyed their clan founders, called Antediluvians.
References
* Bruce Baugh, Clanbook: Lasombra (White Wolf Game Studio, 2001, ISBN 1-58846-201-3)
* Justin Achilli et al., Guide to the Sabbat (White Wolf Game Studio, 1999, ISBN 1-56504-263-8)
* Justin Achilliet al., Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition (White Wolf Game Studio, 1998, ISBN 1-56504-249-2)
* Craig Bolin, Richard E. Dansky & Robert Hatch, Libellus Sanguinis 1: Masters of the State (White Wolf Game Studio, 1997, ISBN 1-56504-286-7)
Ravnos
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Ravnos are a fictional clan of vampires, from White Wolf Game Studio's Vampire: The Masquerade books and role-playing games. Unlike most vampires, the Ravnos are associated with neither the Camarilla nor the Sabbat; much of the Ravnos symbolism is Middle Eastern and Asian, and the organization is centered in India. In Europe, these vampires are associated with Gypsies. Their symbol is a pointed cross. Even 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, that 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).
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details about (Gehenna) follow.
In the late 1990s, the Ravnos had been fighting a war with the Cathayans, siring large numbers of high-generation cannon fodder. The mass Embracings and Final Deaths of so many awakened the clan's slumbering Methuselahs, and in turn awakened Zapathasura, the clan's Antediluvian founder.
In the Week of Nightmares, Zapathasura's awakening caused all Ravnos to go mad. Zapathasura caused a massive monsoon to block out the sun as he laid waste to Bangladesh. Three powerful Eastern Kindred fought him for three days and nights, until the Technocracy dropped a spirit nuke on him. The attack did not kill him, but it enraged him even farther. (The blast had the additional effect of killing hundreds of mortals, which was later blamed on the monsoon; as well as bringing the adhene into the waking world, which would effect events in the Changeling: The Dreaming RPG). The Technocracy had to reflect the sun off three satellites onto Zapathasura, burning through the cloud cover, in order to destroy him. In his death throes, Zapathasura forced all of his progeny to engage in a brief self-destructive rampage. When their minds cleared, an unknown (but low) number of Ravnos survived. This number is not strictly known, as some sources say 'less than 100' survivors, while others say 'at least 100' or similarly-vague figures.
Spoilers end here.
Nickname: Rogues
Appearance: Ravnos are usually embraced from the homeless, vagrant, or derelict and tend to dress more for functionality than form. Many of the older Ravnos originate from Roma (Gypsie) or Indian descent, and so have the appropriate physical features.
Background: Potential Ravnos are selected because they have a quick mind and an ability to deceive. In India, potential childer are selected according to social caste.
Clan Disciplines: Animalism: The ability to communicate with animals and the feral nature of humans. Fortitude: Superhuman resilience and resistance to physical harm. Chimerstry: This is a unique Discipline practiced only by the Ravnos. This power allows them to manipulate "Maya", or the lie of the world, creating illusions that are incredibly realistic and able to deceive all five senses.
References
* Vampire: The Masquerade (3rd Edition) by White Wolf (1998)
* Time of Thin Blood White Wolf Game Studios (1999)
Giovanni (World of Darkness)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
clan of vampires, from White Wolf Game Studio's Vampire: The Masquerade books and role-playing games. Unlike most vampires, the Giovanni are associated with neither the Camarilla nor the Sabbat. Much of the Giovanni symbolism is Italian, and the organization was founded in Venice (c.1000 AD). Their symbol is the Giovanni seal.
Introduction
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.
Augustus Giovanni
Augustus Giovanni is the head of the Giovanni Family, a massive merchant family who made their mark on the world by being war profiteers from the Crusades. Originally embraced into the Cappadocian clan, he rose up against his sire, and committed the act of diablerie. His family hunted down the rest of the Cappadocian clan to extinction
He oversaw the aftermath of the sixth maelstrom’s effects on Venice.
As of now he has just returned from a long trip in the Shadowlands. He was last reported to be under Venice talking with other Elders of the Clan or has fallen into torpor for a year or so.
Clan structure
Most of the Giovanni are related to one another by birth in addition to their shared vampiric lineage; a number of their families are incestuous and necromancer. Unlike the bite of other vampires in the World of Darkness (whose bites induce a stupefying pleasure), the bite of a Giovanni (the so-called "Giovanni Kiss") is extremely painful. Many Giovanni prefer biting corpses (instead of humans).
There are very few Kindred who operate outside the Giovanni family, due to the insular nature of the clan, and the family structure. While members of the Ventrue and Lasombra clans spend up to 10 years evaluating and testing potential embraces, and the Tremere have a rigid apprenticeship where ghouls serve as acolytes for many ranks, the Giovanni embrace strictly within Family lines. Candidates are bred into the Clan and taught from the time that they can speak that the Family is everything. The most promising members of the generation are ghouled. Only those who show enough promise as a ghoul are embraced.
Potential Giovanni have many opportunities to betray the Family long before they're even ghouled. Those who show signs of disloyalty are simply never embraced. Furthermore, even after the embrace, the traffic in wraiths and unwilling spirits is significant enough that should a Giovanni betray the Family, one of the wraiths they've been abusing would use the excuse to inform on them.
Minor Families
* Pisanob: Descendants of Aztec and Mayan priests from Mesoamerica. Their power base lie in the badlands of Mexico and South America.
* Hidalgo: Another branch of the family that originated within Mexico. Rumored to be wiped out by the Sabbat as contact with them has been broken
* Rosselini: From a similar Roman decent as the Giovanni. Also accomplished necromancers who typically exert force even when force isn't necessary to control their wraithly servants. Considered near equal to the main family.
* Milliners: A family of bankers bar none. The head of the Milliners has a hard on for destroying the Kennedys. While not interested in necromancy, they excel at what they do best and that's finance. The Milliners are a big reason the Giovanni control Boston to this day.
* della Passaglia: Another family of traders who were rumored to have been connected to the great Marco Polo himself. They now serve as the Giovanni connection to Asian thanotology and their prime Asian mercantile business men.
* Ghiberti: A branch of the family from Africa and responsible for involving the Giovanni in the United States, West Africa, and West Indies trade triangle. Also responsible for inventing the Cenotaph path of necromancy.
* Dunsirn: A Scottish branch of the Giovanni. Savvy bankers with a nasty taste for cannibalism.
* Putanesca: Sicilian thugs with a temper that puts the Brujah to shame. Every clan has to have their guys to do the dirty work, and the Giovanni have the Putanesca
* St John: Cabal of English Masons
* Beryn: Flemish traders with inroads into Africa similar to the Ghiberti
* Rothstein: Jewish-American Kabbalists who seem to be centered in Las Vegas
* Li Weng: Chinese geomancers based out of San Francisco's Chinatown
Dates of Importance to Giovanni
* April 4 – Anniversary of Augustus Giovanni's diablerie of Cappadocius. This is the primary date of importance for the Giovanni family, when almost all embraces are performed.
* All Saints Day – Second most popular day of embrace.[citation needed]
* June 27 – Important to the South American members of the Clan.[citation needed]
* September 15 – Important to Machiavelli[citation needed] for reasons unclear (Rumored to have been the day they were brought into the Family fold).
Relations with the Camarilla
“ Ok someone want to remind me why other vampires haven't figured out why we're so strong? Oh that's right, the weak always stay close to mommy. We've made a pretty penny off of them and their war with the Sabbat, so no complaints there. But the whole passive aggressive shtick has got to go.
Relations with the Sabbat
“ This is your brain......this is your brain on drugs. Any questions? If cowtowing to a Prince in the Camarilla isn't your thing then maybe you could try the faux freedom of the Sabbat. "you're free from oppression! Now just go follow the code of Mulan, carry your luck dragon Mushu, and cross dress to obtain that freedom!" Yeah right....
References
* Vampire: The Masquerade (3rd Edition) by White Wolf Game Studio (1998)
Assamite
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Assamites, in a role-playing-game context, are a clan of fictional vampires, from White Wolf Game Studio's Vampire: The Masquerade books and role-playing games, based on a historical group, by the same name. 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.
Much of the Assamite symbology is Arabic in origin. Even the clan stronghold, Alamut, is based in a mountain range in the Middle Eastern region. The Hashshashin cult that once occupied this fortress are what inspired the first version of the Assamites.
Aside from warriors/assassins, the Assamites also have among them scholars, known as Viziers, and sorcerers. Effectively the clan consists of three bloodlines, known as castes, each with slightly different disciplines and weaknesses.
Even though most Assamites claim independence from the sects, they still collaborate with both the Camarilla and the Sabbat whenever such an alliance suits their purposes. A few Assamite factions have permanently defected to the sects, however, notably the antitribu (who joined the Sabbat) and the smaller group of Schismatics that sought protection under the Camarilla.
The Assamite clan Discipline is Quietus, which alters the internal chemistry and alchemical balance of the vitae (or blood) of the practitioner or his/her victims. The Discipline was developed as a tool for carrying out the Clan's purpose as judges and police to their fellow Cainites during the age of the First City of Enoch. The effects range from the novice ability to use one's blood as a potent poison, to causing an entire Cainite bloodline to "weep" blood.
Another trait which differentiates the Assamites from the other original Clans is that they were never cursed by Caine, the first vampire. Despite this, they were still subject to two powerful curses from other sources. The first such curse originated with the Baali bloodline during the Assamite Clan's attempted destruction of that family. The results of this curse was that the entire warrior caste of the Assamite Clan became afflicted with a tremendous blood-lust for the vitae of other vampires, even to the extent of addiction after only one taste of such another Cainite's blood. The second curse occurred around the time of the Anarch Revolt, at the hands of the Tremere. This curse, intended as a punishment for the clan's addiction to vampire blood as a result of the first curse, caused the entire Assamite Clan to have a severe allergic reaction to vitae from any other Cainite clan. Only the Assamites that joined the Sabbat and thus became antitribu and a few disobedient loners who refused to succumb to the curse were spared this fate. Recently, however, the Assamites have managed to shrug free of the Tremere curse due to the awakening of one of their most ancient and powerful methuselahs, named Ur-Shulgi, and have resumed feeding on other vampires. This caused a great many elder Assamite Antitribu to rejoin the original clan, leading to a leadership crisis in the Sabbat's Black Hand subsect.
Unlike the other lines of vampires, who become paler as they age, Assamites grow darker - their eldest members being the shade of obsidian. There is one notable exception to this; Al Ashrad, former Amr of the clan, has pure white skin and no one has been able or willing to explain this.
The Beborn Beton song Hemoglobin (Assamite) is about vampirism.
References
* Vampire: The Masquerade (3rd Edition) by White Wolf Game Studio|White Wolf (1998)
Followers of Set
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Followers of Set (Setites) are a fictional clan of vampires (also known as "The Snake Clan"), from White Wolf Game Studio's books and role-playing games set in the World of Darkness (Vampire: The Dark Ages and Vampire: The Masquerade).
Unlike most vampires, in the modern setting the Setites are associated with neither the Camarilla nor the Sabbat sect. Much of the Setite symbology is Egyptian, and they claim that their organization was founded by the god Set and not Caine. They see themselves as having a divine mandate to revive their master, Set, in order to create an era of paradise for vampires and they are willing to work towards this in any way possible without drawing attention to themselves. The Followers of Set are generally found near Cairo, in sub-Saharan Africa, India, and the Caribbean though they travel worldwide in their search for knowledge to help them find and revive Set.
Due to this connection to Set, all Setites see things a little differently than other vampires.
All Setites count their vampire "generation" from Set instead of Caine, which lowers the number by two, but does not affect gameplay mechanics. Hence, a Setite who claims to be ninth generation is in actuality eleventh.
Even when compared to other vampires, the Setites are especially pained by sunlight having it deal more damage to them faster than for any other kind of vampire. Only their antitribu, the Serpents of the Light, escape this fault. According to in-game lore, Set was cast from his family to become a vampire by Ra for his hand in killing Osiris and Ra's hate is what causes the sunlight to burn Set and all his children more than all other kindred.
The Setites are known as keepers of secrets, particularly those of a magical 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 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 join the Followers of Set or become dangerously indebted to them. In the Followers of Set Handbook, it is revealed that the Setites were responsible for the Inquisition, which was a turning point in the fictional history of the World of Darkness.
The Disciplines of the Followers of Set are...
* Obfuscate - the ability to become "invisible" by manipulating the minds of those who would otherwise see you
* Presence - an ability used to draw attention to oneself for various purposes
* Serpentis - a strange collection of abilities drawn vaguely from Typhonic lore with such abilities as transformation into a giant snake.
There is an antitribu sect of the Setites called Serpents of the Light. Like most antitribu, they're associated with the Sabbat. The Serpents of the Light practice an alteration of voodoo taught to them by a Haitian holy woman during the 1960's. They do not associate with the Followers of Set at all.
References
* Vampire: The Masquerade (Revised Edition) by White Wolf (1998)
