| Post-Gehenna vampirism; Information on how Gehenna changed the children of Caine, as well as which clans/bloodlines survived into the current nights | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Sep 2 2013, 01:16 AM (368 Views) | |
| Psyche_Dreamweaver | Sep 2 2013, 01:16 AM Post #1 |
|
Administrator
|
The new bloodlines and original Kindred: In the nine years that have passed since Gehenna the more astute (or even more active) among the surviving Kindred have become aware of a strange (some would say outright dangerous) phenomenon. Some vampires, once reassured of their own survival, felt secure enough to start seeking out potential childer- whether from the personal desire to create their own broods without the threat or danger of a disapproving elder to put limits on (or outright prevent) their siring, or from an urge to start rebuilding the decimated ranks of their clan. But...just as the end of the Withering had strengthened their blood and weakened their Beast, it had also had an irrevocable effect on their future progeny. The most apparent difference that was immediately noted in childer embraced after Gehenna was that they did not automatically inherit the weakness associated with their bloodline/clan (Childer embraced by Ventrue, for example, did not suffer a feeding restriction, Nosferatu embraces did not deform, ect...) Nor did these newly embraced vampire take to all three of their sire's disciplines. For the first year of their vampiric existence, these childer got by learning the beginnings of two of their sire's disciplines, but without his/her curse. Then, at the end of that first year, another mystifying occurrence; some of these childer suddenly became able to start learning the discipline that had eluded their grasp before, but they also developed their clan flaw. These vampires became, a full year after their embrace, true members of their sire's clan/bloodline and from that point on were no different than any childe the sire might have embraced before Gehenna. The others however... Not only did they never develop their `clan's' traditional weakness, but they began to manifest a new ability that seemingly took the place of the third discipline that should have been theirs by right of their particular embrace. Even more stunning, these new disciplines often seemed to be either enhanced versions of the one mastered by their parent clan, or the opposite of it. Some sires, especially those grim survivors whose clans were almost wiped out by the Withering, understandably reacted poorly to the realization that some of these childer- many of whom had been intended to help strengthen their weakened clans- were not only NOT of their clan, but were perhaps even, in a twisted joke by the divine, the antithesis of it. Some of these young vampires were no doubt slain by their angry sires, others abandoned to find their own way in a strange, hostile world, but some were curious enough about these new flukes of vampiric nature to allow them to stay by their side...if only to observe and possibly study these newly emerging disciplines, or to help puzzle out what factors caused newly embraced childer to `breed true' at the end of their first year, or else become something different entirely. The bare facts of post-Gehenna vampirism: * 'Original' Kindred are those vampires who were embraced prior to, and survived the Withering. They numbered predominantly from the 10th-14th generations (at least the half of the 14th gen who weren't thin-blooded. Thin bloods, down to the last, regained their mortality and lost their vampiric status entirely. * Its *possible* some 8th or 9th generation Kindred survived, but these would've been individuals with very high humanity, and the oldest CONFIRMED vampire who survived Gehenna was the Gangrel (and Noddist scholar) Beckett. *On the final night of the Withering all surviving Kindred felt their Beast weakening (some Gangrel, like Beckett, lost animal features acquired through the years due to frenzy) mere moments before a wave of strength surged through them just before dawn. During the nights that followed the relief of having survived coupled in many cases with startling revelations. To sum up: * Kindred still have a Beast, but its hold over the vampire isn't as powerful as it was before Gehenna. A vampire can still frenzy and suffer from rötschreck, but if they've maintained a middle to high state of humanity they are more easily able to fight these states off, and are able to derive more enjoyment from sensations other than blood drinking. * Conversely, after the Withering came to an end...Kindred who abandoned their humanity began to take on obvious, highly detrimental flaws the deeper they sank into depravity. Vampires who clung more tightly to their humanity, on the other hand, became more `life-like' for want of a better term. * Despite the mostly higher generations of the surviving Cainites, their blood has paradoxically been strengthened in the wake of Gehenna. It no longer thins down as successive vampires are sired, rendering generation itself moot aside from a matter of pride in those who saw and managed to outlast Gehenna where so many others of their kind did not. *When an original Kindred sires a childe, the newly created vampire enters into a year of `grace' so to speak- a trial period during which his/her behavior (and more importantly, the level of humanity they manage to hold onto during that first year of vampirism) ultimately determines whether he/she becomes a true member of the sire's bloodline in the end, a member of the newly-emerging bloodlines, or in rare cases, a variant of the sire's bloodline. - for the most part, childer who maintain the level of humanity they had when they were embraced, or who lose humanity, `breed true' in the end of the first year and develop both the traditional weakness of their clan, and are then able to begin learning their clan's third discipline. (So yes...this means that vampires who are embraced by original Nosferatu or Malkavians go a year without physically deforming or developing a derangement, but once they settle in and become full members of their sire's clan they DO deform/develop said derangement.) - Childer who, in spite of all odds, manage to rise in humanity during that first year, automatically become members of the new, as-of-yet un-named bloodlines, and develop the first level of their respective new discipline instead of the third discipline of their sire's clan/bloodline. They might lose humanity as their unlives continue on (if they managed to escape the wrath of a potentially vengeful sire), but although they will take on the flaws that all vampires now acquire as their humanity level drops, they will never be members of their sire's bloodline, and will thus never acquire their inherent weakness. -Once a new vampire embraced by a survivor of Gehenna's clan/bloodline `finalizes', that's what they are permanently from the end of that first year for the rest of their vampiric lives on. If they were embraced by a Toreador sire and became fully Toreador themselves at the end of their grace period, they're a Toreador forever. If a brood-mate became a member of the new Toreador-descended bloodline, that's what he/she is forever too. * Any childer embraced by these vampires ALL `breed true' to their sires- whether they belong to an original clan/bloodline, are one of the new bloodlines, or in rare cases are a variant of their sire's clan. The only fledglings who have this odd year of grace are those embraced by original Kindred. Gehenna, naturally enough, was brutal on all Kindred. Many bloodlines and even an entire clan (The Followers of Set) were wiped out entirely, and accordingly the ranks of the three main vampire factions were decimated as well. Far more Camarilla and Anarch vampires survived than Sabbat, but some Sabbat Cainites (or at least, individual members of clans traditionally belonging to that faction) made it through as well. Currently surviving clans/bloodlines: The following clans/bloodlines outlasted the Withering, and despite the uncertainty of their post-Gehenna progeny `breeding true', have managed to hold on with the strongest numbers (though NO clan or bloodline was particularly numerous in the ashes of Gehenna...) Brujah Gangrel Giovanni Gargoyles Kiasyd Malkavian Nosferatu Toreador Ventrue The following clans/bloodlines managed to SURVIVE Gehenna, but their numbers were (for various reasons, some including being killed en masse by their respective Antediluvian during the event...) drastically reduced, and they are now rare in the current nights. For this reason, they are the most likely to nurse intense resentment, bitterness and potentially outright hatred for their newly-spawned bloodlines (with one notable exception). Assamite Lasombra Ravnos Salubri (they are perhaps the exception to the `hates their new bloodline' rule, and are the most likely to nurture these high humanity progeny, and possibly even protect them) Tremere Tzimisce (for obvious reasons...Assamite, Tremere, Ravnos and Salubri are the most rare. The ranks of the Assamites and Ravnos were devastated by their own Antediluvians, and few were spared. The Salubri were already rare even before Gehenna, but as most standard Salubri had higher levels of humanity than most Kindred, those few who were left had a better chance of survival than most. Most Tremere were killed when the ritual to turn them back into mortals at their main Chantry failed, but those who did not attend survived...as did those Ravnos who were isolated from their fellow clan members during the Week of nightmares and thus outlasted the cannibalistic frenzy that claimed most of their numbers at their antediluvian's final death. As for the Lasombra and Tzimisce, the Sabbat (containing the highest concentration of low humanity vampires by virtue of their brutal lifestyles and creation rites designed to strip the humanity from their new recruits...) was the faction hardest hit by Gehenna, and so their clan numbers were horrifically reduced as well in the process. All other clans/bloodlines are now considered to be extinct. |
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · Character Creation · Next Topic » |


