Vampire/Mekhet Bloodlines

Most of the time, Kindred who join a bloodline have a Sire of the same bloodline, which means a less restrictive and natural transformation for the childe. Those who do not wish to join their Sire's line, wish to attempt to change their bloodline or whose sire belongs to no bloodline (i.e. is a direct member of the parent clan of a bloodline), must seek an instructor, called an Avus, who can induct them into the bloodline's beliefs and Vitae. In such a case, both must belong to the same parent clan. The following is a list of bloodlines available to Vienna Mux players. Bear in mind that these may need ST approval.

Description: Hidden in the shadows of every great university town in the Western world, a group of Kindred wage war against ignorance, their own nature and the ever-hungry maw of time itself. As the Greeks once used the agon, contests of physical strength and endurance, to test the mettle of a person, so do the Agonistes, a bloodline wholly composed of historians, philosophers, psychologists and scientists, test themselves nightly in intellectual struggle against the forces of the world that would keep Kindred forever in the dark. Unfortunately, those forces are legion, and even the very Kindred the Agonistes claim to help often thank the Polemicists' efforts with violence, hatred and mistrust.

Nickname: Polemecists

Covenant: Ordo Dracul, Lancea Sanctum or Circle of the Crone, wherever they can engage in intellectual pursuits and seek out lost secrets.

Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Dominate, Obfuscate

Weakness: In addition to the Mekhet weakness, the Agonistes are somewhat addicted to torpor, and sleep for longer periods than other vampires. When determining the length of torpor for an Agoniste, treat the character's Humanity as one dot lower than it actually is. At Humanity 1, an Agoniste remains in torpor for two centuries multiplied by her Blood Potency.

Character Generation: Standard - While Vienna is not the very first name that comes to mind when one thinks of higher education, it has quite a long and illustrious history of its own.

Members:

Source: Bloodlines: the Chosen, p. 16

Description: Inheritors of this line are afflicted with the same tormented dreams and visions of their originator, who is said to have been haunted by victims of diablerie. These Sandmen extend their Requiem into the realm of dreams through the Insomnium Discipline.

Nickname: Sandmen

Covenant: Most unbound, the rest among Ordo Dracul or (more rarely) Invictus, Carthians, Lancea Sanctum and Circle of the Crone.

Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Insomnium, Obfuscate

Weakness: Mekhet weakness. They also do not regain Willpower after a day’s sleep, and once per session they may catch a brief glimpse or hallucination of things that may or may not happen still, suffering a -1 penalty for the remainder of the scene.

Character Generation: Standard - rumors indicate the Alucinor date back to the times of the Roman Empire of which today's Austria formed the northern border. Their history between than and 1931 when Aradiane Metaxes, a Greek Cyrioth Mekhet appeared and by 1935 became increasingly possessed with the then-nascent writings of Carl Jung. Ever since, Alucinor sightings have remained uncommon but not unheard of throughout Germany and Austria.

Members:

Source: Bloodlines: The Hidden, p. 12

Description: The once great Bak-Ra (literally "Servants of Ra") once ruled the Kindred of Egypt through a mixture of fear and awesome power. Their reign was cut short by the invasion of the Romans, and the Bak-Ra were hunted down for heresy and other crimes against the "one true God". The remaining Bak-Ra entered torpor, hiding away in tombs to preserve their secrets from the Romans. Three thousand years later, the Bak-Ra have awoken and freed themselves, but lost all memories of their past, all the secrets they had sought torpor to preserve.

Nickname: Servants of Ra, Childer of the Sun, the Sun-Stroked (derogatory)

Covenant: Often Circle of the Crone.

Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Majesty, Obfuscate

Weakness: In addition to the Mekhet clan weakness against fire and sunlight, the Bak-Ra have difficulty waking up for the night, and require an additional Vitae to do so.

Character Generation: Limited - The Bak-Ra were asleep for a very long time, and have only recently reawoken. While the bloodline will have started to spread past those few who survived three millennia in torpor, it's hardly the most plentiful or local line.

Members:

Source: Ancient Bloodlines, p. 167

Description: We’ve spent the last century poisoning ourselves. A nuclear power plant melts down in the Ukraine. A chemical plant explodes in India. One of the largest cities of the world near-collapses under the weight of its polluted air. And in the first World War, we found ever more efficient ways to poison each other. Every side propelled countless shells, full of deadly gases – phosgene, chlorine, mustard gas – onto soldiers who could do nothing more than pray that their battered, sweaty masks would keep them alive.

And standing behind those in the trenches, the dead, who could not be poisoned, found ways to exploit these horrors. One dead man in particular, who bore the most mundane of names, learned how to internalize the poisons in the air, mud and water, and use them for his own ends.

The bearers of his legacy survive, a line of monsters who thrive on toxins, under whose pale skin lies the chemical pollutant that has done its part in the poisoning of a century.

Nickname: Joneses, Trenchers

Covenant: Any, but rarely together; Joneses compete for the same food sources, and tend to leave each other alone.

Bloodline Disciplines: Asphyx, Auspex, Celerity, Obfuscate

Weakness: In addition to the Mekhet weakness, the Joneses are limited to drinking blood from victims who suffor from some kind of poisoning. Healthy blood tastes foul and gives no nourishment.

Character Generation: Limited - The Brothers of Ypres originated in Europe, but are very spread out. Joneses who Embrace typically don't tell their childer about the bloodline, and those who do know of each other stay out of each other's ways.

Members:

Source: Ancient Bloodlines, p. 22

Description: Dark sorcerers and subtle assassins, members of the Iltani bloodline are as clever, spiteful and venomous as snakes.

They operate in stealth and secrecy, and are masterful manipulators and deceivers. Vipers are unusually adept at controlling their own emotions, and they cling to their anger in death, fueling and transforming its corrosive energy to suit their own purposes. A vampire meeting an Iltani for the first time could never hope to see or understand the depth of the seething anger that is forever just beneath the surface of her stoic gaze – at least, not unless she chooses to unleash her fury.

Nickname: Vipers

Covenant: The bloodline is frequently believed not to exist any more. They have no Covenant to rope them together, and the surviving members of the bloodline are extremely secretive, even of their association with each other.

Bloodline Disciplines: Animalism, Auspex, Celerity, Obfuscate

Weakness: In addition to the Mekhet weakness, the Iltani seethe with anger and resentment. Whenever the player fails a Discipline roll, the Storyteller rolls one die. On a 1, the player must roll to avoid frenzy (two successes required) as the Beast rages.

Character Generation: Restricted - The Iltani are a rare and secretive bloodline with a fairly exclusive membership. Prospective members are tested to demonstrate self-control, and then expected to exercise that same control constantly.

Members:

Source: Ancient Bloodlines, p. 145

Note: While the Iltani bloodline is approved, Mérges Sorcery is not.

Description: Quiet and unseen, but omnipresent, the vampires derided as mere servants bear a far more important heritage and duty than even they know. Over the centuries this ancient Egyptian bloodline became procurers and valets, leg-breakers and guards, a veritable emotional compensation for the higher duties their blood once demanded.

Nickname: Asps

Covenant: Originally Circle of the Crone, sometimes Invictus or Ordo Dracul, to a lesser degree also Lancea Sanctum and Carthians.

Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Obtenebration, Vigor

Weakness: Mekhet weakness, in addition Khabit suffer a -2 penalty on rolls to resist Roetschreck in regard to light.

Character Generation: Limited - Historically most Asps in Vienna were servants to one or the other Kindred or Covenant.

Members:

Source: Bloodlines: The Hidden, p. 58

Description: The Kuufukuji are a monastic Oriental bloodline whose powers are tied to their hunger: if they are sated, i.e. at full Vitae, they have no access to their Disciplines. Their tenets are based around the control over the Man, and they are fanatical in their devotion.

Nickname: The Hungry

Covenant: Mostly they prefer only the companionship of their own Bloodline. Some join the Invictus, some within Ordo Dracul, Circle of the Crone and Carthians.

Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Obfuscate, Shihai

Weakness: In addition to the Mekhet weakness, Kuufukuji need to keep their Vitae limited to maximum Vitae - Blood Potency, or they can't use their Disciplines. Thus a Kuufukuji with Blood Potency 2 (and a maximum pool of 11 Vitae) would have to restrict herself to 9 Vitae or less.

Character Generation: Restricted - Kuufukuji prefer to live away from cities and are primarily an Asian bloodline. They also often live reclusive, making a Kuufukji in or near Vienna unlikely.

Members:

Source: Bloodlines: The Legendary, p. 78

Description: The bloodline began as mortal cult hidden behind the scenes of University College in the 1880s as manifestation of Europe’s renewed interest in classical art and culture in the late 19th century. Tonight, they are the undertakers and funeral priests of the Damned, preparing the corpses and spirits of vampires for the long deathlike sleep of torpor.

Nickname: Morticians

Covenant: Exclusively Ordo Dracul and Circle of the Crone.

Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Dominate, Mortualia, Resilience

Weakness: Mekhet Weakness plus -2 penalty on all Humanity rolls to awaken during the daytime (this penalty also affects the character's Humanity dots for purposes of determining the maximum dice pool sizes when awake).

Character Generation: Standard - Vienna boasts with having the first University in the German speaking world. It is also often called a city with a morbid fascination with the dead where recently deceased are carried to their graves with great pomp and elaborate ceremonies, making it a natural choice for members of this bloodline.

Members:

Source: Ordo Dracul, p. 155

Description: The Lynx never refer to themselves as a bloodline, insisting they are a blood web instead. All members of the Lynx share a fascination with networks of all sorts (particularly electronic and commercial ones), although political and social networks have received more attention in recent years.

Nickname: By popular standards, the Lynx have no nickname – or by reckoning of the Invictus, they only have a nickname.

Covenant: Invictus with the second most within the Carthians. Some serve other Covenants but that’s usually for personal reasons.

Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Obfuscate, Web

Weakness: Mekhet weakness, in addition Lynx need to feel connected (this can be either the internet or any other network like a network of contacts, criminal network, allies, etc.) – in case of internet they do not need to surf all the time, but check their connection every so often. Whenever in threat of being disconnected, they must check for fear frenzy at -2 penalty. Finally, powers subject to the +2 bonus for blood ties gain a +3 bonus instead.

Character Generation: Restricted - The Lynx weakness may make them very hard to play, on the other hand, there is certainly as much room for networkers (internet or otherwise) in Vienna as any other major western city.

Members:

Source: The Invictus, p. 165

Description: Blood is more than the life. Blood is heredity; blood is memory; blood is instinct. The Mnemosyne don’t just know this for a fact: they are the fact. Everything they do is tied to the concept of memory. The Kindred are terrified of losing their past. They sleep and fall prey to terrible dreams; they wake and begin to wonder which was the dream and which was reality. History plays tricks on the Kindred. You sleep for a century, and when you wake up, you barely know who you are. Dreams of making love and dreams of drinking the blood of kings; dreams of flying, dreams of devils with the faces of owls, dreams of people who you never met and people who have yet to be born. You wake up; the world has changed. You doubt everything you were before. Each slumber makes you a little less human, a little more dead. And yet, the Mnemosyne don’t seem to have that problem. There aren’t so many of them. Their power is simple, potent: they feed on memories. A Mnemosyne uncovers the truth, shares it, buries it and keeps it secret.

The dead value the Mnemosyne for that reason; there are none more efficient at manipulating history. In the hands of a Mnemosyne, history doesn’t stand a chance.

Nickname: Keepers

Covenant: Mostly unaligned.

Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Meminissie, Obfuscate

Weakness: The Mnemosyne have their clan weakness also. While the unique power of a Mnemosyne depends upon drinking Vitae, it has the side effect of making the Keeper crave it. A Mnemosyne suffers a -2 dice pool penalty to all Resolve + Composure rolls to resist blood addiction, cumulative with the usual penalties to the roll (Vampire: The Requiem, p. 158).

Mnemosyne are prone to derangements; consider taking a derangement as a Mental Flaw when creating a Mnemosyne character.

Character Generation: Restricted - Mnemosyne are a rare bloodline, to most Kindred more of a legend than a fact.

Members:

Source: Mekhet: Shadows in the Dark, p. 82

Description: An enigma to bloodline historians and genealogists among the Kindred, the Morbus line thrives like a disease, and is no more respected than a plague. Their bizarre powers over contagion and rarefied palettes that limit them to feeding on the afflicted make it such that a single Morbus risks the contamination of the herd in the best case, and the Masquerade in the worst.

Nickname: Carriers

Covenant: When they can hide their heritage, Invictus or Lanea Sanctum.

Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Cachexy, Celerity, Obfuscate

Weakness: The Morbus can only feed on the blood of diseased and dying mortals; healthy blood turns to ash in their mouth and provides no sustenance whatsoever. Additionally, if they let their blood be known, Morbus are unlikely to be able to gain much Status, if any.

Character Generation: Limited - Due to their status as outcasts and pariahs, an individual Morbus must be careful to hide the bloodline, or willing to accept stigma and possible Final Death. Too many Morbus in the same place are a major risk to herd and Masquerade should one of them slip up.

Members:

Source: Vampire: the Requiem, p. 244

Nickname: "Knives" among themselves, "the Norwegian bloodline" among their elders, and to other outsiders "Scum", "Filth", and things less printable.

Covenant: Generally unaligned, given their stigma.

Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Bloodworking, Celerity, Obfuscate

Weakness: A Norvegus suffers from one of the weaknesses of his parent clan, but humiliatingly, he has no fangs. He must either drink blood through having shed it with a blade (although, as a Norvegus, he is rarely without a blade), and cannot administer the Kiss, meaning that aware victims always put up a fight. This is the same as the Flaw: No Fangs (p. 118). Childer of the Norvegi, who have not yet fully developed the bloodline, usually have this Flaw. Any character who has the Flaw: No Fangs and who joins the bloodline ceases to gain experience point bonuses gained from the Flaw as soon as he joins the bloodline, because it becomes in game terms a bloodline weakness rather than a Flaw.

Further, because of the historical prejudice against the Norvegi, no Norvegus or Norvega can ever gain more than two dots of Status in any Covenant.

Character Generation: Standard - While historically put down and outcast, Norvegi are appropriate for the region, and there's little to restrict a Norvegus from settling in Vienna.

Members:

Source: Mekhet: Shadows in the Dark, p. 84

Description: This small, enigmatic and almost extinct bloodline seeks to derive understanding by studying that which God has withheld from the Damned: death. Osites traditionally regard funerary rites as fascinating cultural and occult event; they examine corpses cemeteries, morgues and churchyards for some evidence of what lies beyond the mortal coil. Some Osites even have become keepers of catacombs deep beneath ancient cities.

Nickname: Bone Monks

Covenant: Commonly Lancea Sanctum, only few have left that Covenant to join the Ordo Dracul or even more rarely Circle of the Crone.

Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Memento Mori, Obfuscate

Weakness: Mekhet clan weakness. Osites who wish to spend Vitae in a scene must first spend 1 Vitae to excite circulate their blood. They also loose 2 Vitae per night. Healing comes harder to them as well and they only heal 1 bashing damage per Vitae spent or 1 lethal damage for every 2 points of Vitae spent.

Character Generation: Standard - Vienna is a city with the reputation of being strangely fascinated with death. It also features a high amount of graveyards, burial grounds, crypts and catacombs, making it a very attractive city for Osites. Keep in mind, as well, that the Osite bloodline is largely Sanctified.

Members:

Source: Lancea Sanctum, p. 173

Description: Players are Hollywood wannabes, drawn to the image of vampirism as portrayed in popular entertainment. Just as there are wannabe supermodels, wannabe football stars and wannabe gangsta rappers, these kindred are wannabe Lestats with a bloodline weakness which how well they are able to keep hold of people through supernatural powers, often forcing them to have to rely on their natural Social charms instead.

Nickname: Wannabes, Posers and less printable names.

Covenant: Mostly unaligned. Some few fall in with the Carthians and rare others with the Invictus.

Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Majesty, Obfuscate

Weakness: Mekhet weakness. Also, whenever a player rolls more 1s than successes to affect a target's mind with a Discipline, it is treated as dramatic failure. What's more, the target becomes permanently immune to the character’s mental manipulation not just until the next sunset.

Character Generation: Restricted - Vienna may be known for many things, it’s a central for politics, hub between east and west, a city of waltzes, elaborate balls and among some also known for its electric music scene, rock, pop and nightlife. It is not, however, known for its movies. This is because movies are generally not produced there, neither does the city boast with many movie star celebrities (and those it has usually migrate to the Americas and Hollywood). The Players are a bloodline born 60 years ago in Hollywood who seek the glamour of the Hollywood movie world, giving its members little to no reason to go to Vienna other than perhaps the eventual visit when a movie is shot there.

Members:

Source: Bloodlines: The Legendary, p. 116

Description: The self-proclaimed mothers of the undead, the Hierodules claim the religious right – no, duty – to spread their supernatural race. Challengers of the Second Tradition, these vampires are either condemned by Princes or turned to for protection by supplicating wards.

Nickname: Hierodules

Covenant: None and all. The bloodline holds no special loyalties to any bloodline and is as common (or as little common) among all of them alike.

Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Embrocation, Obfuscate

Weakness: Mekhet weakness. Also, when drinking of mortal, the human feels only extreme pain (for someone to willingly endure Qedeshah ministrations, he must spend 1 Willpower point). Qedeshah may only embrace females. Any and all attempts to embrace males has disastrous results. Men spend 24 hours in extreme pain (can do nothing but eat or sleep). After that, his skin splits, teeth fall out and he vomits gallons of blood and fluids. When the man finally expires, the Herodule automatically suffers two points of aggravated damage as her blood burns within her desiccated arteries.

Character Generation: Standard - Quedesh are primarily Babylonian but it is not impossible for members of this bloodline to have it made to central Europe.

Members:

Source: Bloodlines: The Hidden, p. 106

Description: The Sangiovanni bloodline is seen by many Mekhet as an embarrassment, an uncomfortable confirmation of certain unwholesome rumors surrounding the clan and its dealings. Based in Venice, the Sangiovanni family both acknowledges and disregards the contempt in which other Mekhet hold the bloodline. Members of the family, living, dead and undead, maintain degenerate traditions honed through centuries of incest and black magic.

Nickname: Necromancers (among themselves), Necrophiles (to everyone else)

Covenant: Ostensibly Lancea Sanctum.

Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Cattiveria, Celerity, Obfuscate

Weakness: In addition to the Mekhet weakness, Sangiovanni are tainted by their close contact with the energies of death, and their social die pools are capped at two lower than their Humanity rating. Observing Kindred tend to misinterpret the Sangiovanni's closeness to the Beast.

Character Generation: Limited - While a relatively local bloodline, the majority of the Sangiovanni are organized into a close-knit family originating in Venice, and the line is largely considered to be an embarassment to those who associate them for their deranged sexuality and kinship with the dead.

Members:

Source: Bloodlines: the Chosen, p. 65

Description: The Tismanu are the hands and voices of the Ordo Dracul's Damned faith, and holy traitors against blessed order of the papacy. They are agents of atonement for the Dragons, bred from the religious philosophy of Wallachia's Christian churches and the bloodthirsty brutality of Dracula's crusades. Were it not for the historical supernatural ties that bind them to the Ordo Dracul, they would surely be in league with the Lancea Sanctum tonight. Whereas the Lancea Sanctum takes its lead from Catholic traditions, the pious kindred known as Dragon Abbots follow a variation of Eastern Orthodox beliefs.

Nickname: In Vienna, Dragon Abbots

Covenant: Ordo Dracul

Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Eupraxia, Majesty

Weakness: Mekhet weakness, in addition Tismanu suffer 1 additional point of damage from fire and sunlight. Tismanu also need to have as many or more dots in Haven Merit than they have Blood Potency. A Tismanu who has less dots in Haven than Blood Potency or sleeps anywhere but his own haven suffers a -2 penalty on all actions except reflexive actions until he raised his Haven merit respectively spent at least one day asleep in his haven.

Character Generation: Standard - The Tismanu's history is tightly tied with that of Vienna – the city having been capital of both, Wallachia and Transylvania in the past. The relation between Abbots and Sanctified also resembles the history of Catholics and Protestants in the region somewhat. Furthermore, Prague and Capathian mountains - two of the three locations of monasteries of the Dragon Abbots – are but hours away, making them no strangers to the city of Vienna.

Members:

Source: Ordo Dracul, p. 164