#vtm lore

[storytellersnotebook]

-- The Traditions --

Believed by some Kindered to be handed down by Caine himself, The Traditions are the fundemental laws of The Camarilla, whom have historically been one of the most powerful groups since the 15th Century. Their influence is so wide that most Kindered cultures have been touched by The Traditions, such as presentation, the Blood Hunt, the parcelling of land and, most vitally, The Masquerade. A rough equivalent under the Sabbat is the Code of Milan and Anarch societies maintain order by following related, more mutable rules. In modern nights, the local Prince fulfills the role of the Elder.

First Tradition - The Masquerade -

'Thou shall not reveal thy true nature to those not of the blood.' Doing so shall renounce thy claims of the blood. [Hide the existance of vampires.]

Second Tradition - The Domain -

'Thy domain is thine own concern.' All others owe thee respect in it. None may challenge thy word in thy domain. [A Kindered's hunting ground is their own territory, and they rule is absolutely.]

Third Tradition - The Progeny -

'Thou shall only sire another with the permission of thy Elder.' If thou createth another without thine Elder's leave, both thou and thy progeny shall be slain. [Sire only with the permission of ones Elders.]

Fourth Tradition - The Accounting -

'Those thou create are thine own children.' Until thy progeny shall be released, thou shall command them in all things. Their sins are thine to endure. [Until childer are released, their actions are the responsibility of their sire, giving insentive to mentor them.]

Fifth Tradition - The Hospitality -

'Honour one another's domain.' When thou comest to a foreign city, present thyself to the one who ruleth there. Without the word of acceptance, thou art nothing. [Honour the domains of others, and present oneself to the ruler of any domain entered.]

Sixth Tradition - The Destruction -

'Thou art forbidden to destroy another of thy kind.' The right of destruction belongeth only to thine Elder. Only the Eldest amongst thee shall call the Blood Hunt. [The right to kill a Kindered is reserved for the Eldest in a community. Only they may call for a Blood Hunt.]

[edinburgh-by-night]

The Fringe Festival, known to cause Edinburgh's population to quadruple for an entire month has unwritten guidelines for residing Kindred when it arrives every August.

Performers are considered off-limits to being hunted or indeed embraced, due to the potential heat their disapperances could bring. Too many variables could be a Masquerade hazard. As such, they are protected and any Kindred that violates this rule will be punished with True Death, by decree of Camarilla elders. This protection does not, however, extend to stage crew or promotional staff.

Kindred are forbidden from participating in the Fringe Festival to entice victims. This is a performing arts festival, with many actual acts wishing to get noticed - completely going against the ethos of secrecy. Many broken Masquerade near-misses have been caused by too many bold and overly-ambitious Kindred.

Kindred are forbidden from feeding on more than three tourists for the entire month of August. There are a lot of vampires in Edinburgh and it is a tourist hotspot, but too many too quickly would eventually look suspicious.

Because of these tight restrictions, many local Kindred actually migrate away from the City Centre due to not wanting to walk on eggshells while hunting.

[veepadeep]

First tablet post! Ignore the hands, you don’t see them. It’s the *viibes*

My Trujah again! Gonna post more stuff about her later.

[priapocalypse]

Vampire: the Masquerade Musings:

The Hecata Curse

I find it interesting that the formation of the Hecata in V5 saw the Giovanni curse spread to the other clans of death (I know it didn't do this with every member, but still). The painful bite bane is not Cappadocian - it was inflicted on Augustus Giovanni by Lamia as he diablerized her. I'm omitting lore on who these people are, but I can go into detail if anyone wants it.

So... how did the other clans of death develop this bane? The antediluvian Cappadocius was the originator of the entire bloodline, so each clan except for the Giovanni and Nagaraja (who were Euthanatos mages that created themselves without Capp's specific blood) had a variation of their founder's curse that gave them the appearance of a corpse. What changed?

Well, in lore, it's strongly implied that Cappadocius was not actually diablerized, but instead became a power wraith in the Shadowlands, where he could further his quest to diablerize God (#goals), and that during the 6th Great Maelstrom in 1999, he was finally destroyed (there's a bit in one of the wraith books about a "captain doshus" or something). That's also the time when Augustus disappeared and the Harbingers broke free of their prison in Kaymakli.

Skip forward to the V5 timeline. Augustus is supposedly dead, and Lamia *may* have been resurrected. Why did Augustus' specific curse appear in all the clans who formed the Hecata? Did Uncle Auggie really die, or did he finally succeed in diablerizing Cappi and become head of the bloodline? Or did Lamia inflict her curse anew, spreading to all clans of the Hecata, even the Nagaraja? Ooor, is Lamia the actual founder of the bloodline? So many interesting questions. I have theories, but I'd love to hear what others think!

[tzimisce-suggest]

The Salubri were innocent

You don‘t have to tell us. It was Clan Tzimisce that extended their hospitality to Clan Salubri when the Usurpers started their witch-hunt against them.

[royal-mortician]

on the ventrue clan curse...

it’s a commonly held misconception that ventrue need to feed on kine with a high social status.

ventrue develop discerning tastes on an individual basis. a single ventrue will “lock onto” a particular type of blood as long as it’s specific enough (”I only eat doctors” “I only eat lawyers”, young men, virgins, etc). it’s not based on the kine’s pedigree or net worth, but rather the idea that only this particular type of person has blood that can satisfy the ventrue’s thirst. true enough, the ventrue antediluvian was cursed with the following words:

Behold, my proudest childe whose

own pride betrayed him.

Let the blood of the humble

sicken him and give him no

substenance.

but the chief idea here is exclusivity. some ventrue will go as far as to deny their clan weakness being a curse at all, but rather simply rarified tastes that the “lesser” clans simply “don’t get”. the supposed existence of truly devastating obsessions among some ventrue - to the point of only being able to feed on a single individual, period - probably says otherwise.

the clan curse does not extend to vampiric vitae, however. diablerie is always possible, even if the only mortal blood one can drink is “mailmen cowboys who lost their memory by being shot in the head but surviving”

[nosferatu-suggest]

hey i have a question about vtmb if you don't mind. i've played this game so many times but i just now wondered, what determines a vampires clan? like would a toreador sure choose someone that was already very artistic in their human life or does that not matter? sorry if this is a really dumb question i've just never heard anyone else talk about it before lol

Sorry for the late reply. Things have been a bit hectic in the warrens lately. That’s not a silly question at all. I’ll do my best to be comprehensive.

A kindred’s clan is determined by the clan of their sire. A clan is basically a set of disciplines or traits tied to a specific bloodline that can be traced back to an antediluvian. Someone might choose a mortal to embrace because they have desirable traits like artistic ability but that’s not always the case. A person may be sired out of necessity, love, hate, or to further political goals.

While a person’s clan limits what abilities they can inherit there’s still a lot of variation within clans.The blood can enhance certain abilities like dexterity or intelligence so in that way it could make someone a better artist but it can’t give someone artistic knowledge or experience and it’s still up to the individual to choose what talents they explore.

[storytellersnotebook]

-- The Masquerade --

Briefly mentioned in my notes on the Traditions of the Camarilla, The Masquerade is an organised campaign that relies primarily on imitation, manipulation, and disinformation in order to convince humans that Kindered and many other supernatural beings do not exist.

The Masquerade is the foundational strategy for Kindered survival; without it, the Kine would undoubtedly rise up and exterminate all undead. Thus, this pillar of vampire society has been consistently turned to throughout the ages. It is the Camarilla's primary policy and their management of breaches is perhaps the most brutal, though Anarchs and Sabbat groupings have similarly severe punishments.

The Masquerade is mostly enforced through self-policing and harsh penalties, because breaches are often much like mutually assured distruction for all Kindered. Threats like the First and Second Inquisitions can be said to have been respectively triggered by the carelessness of vampires who did not pay enough attention to The Masquerade.