So this is my first rewrite now that I've been back. This one is dedicated to @heywizards
The lore presented below is part of a much larger rewrite that is happening for how blood magic works, how the Balli work, how the Tremere work, and for how the Camarilla were formed.
This will be a long read and is in a very diff format than my others as I'm just returning to it. Feel free to critique me <3
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Lasombra have many nicknames. The kings / queens of shadow, the lords in purple, the shadow dancers. The Lasombra are one of the clans known to practice blood magic, with a specific branch of magic being all their own.
Obtenebration, shadow magic. This branch focuses on controlling and becoming one with the shadows and with leaving no trace. What makes this branch of blood sorcery so unique is that it is impossible to practice it without BEING a Lasombra!
Lasombra are not sired in the conventional sense. Like the Tremere, Lasombra are created via ritual. The ritual requires that the childe be a willing participant, but it also requires a human sacrifice. The willingness of this sacrifice is inconsequential to the ritual.
Another unique aspect about the creation of a Lasombra, is that they don't actually REQUIRE a sire! Some become Lasombra by having strange dreams, visions, and compulsions. These lead the person to prepare for and then perform the ritual, turning themselves without a sire at all! This is incredibly rare, however.
Another strange and much more common approach is that a person will have those dreams, visions and compulsions but they will instead be led to another Lasombra who will then lead them in the ritual and introduce them to the wider society. It's not common for a Lasombra to pick their own childe, instead waiting for someone to be led to them.
The Lasombra have no specific culture within their clan aside seeking out magical knowledge and artifacts and generally looking out for one another. The members of this clan come from a very diverse range of backgrounds, cultures, and ethnicity. A commonality however is that most members of the clan tend to be outcasts of the culture they originate from.
Lasombra tend to work to integrate themselves within other kindred groups in the area while maintaining a healthy respect for each other. The oldest Lasombra in an area will maintain a haven which the others can use as a meeting space, usually referred to as a "Sanctum".
Lasombra are unable to create ghouls, blood bond, or be bonded in the usual way. Instead, they must rely on a ritual from their Obtenebration. Ghouls created by this ritual always possess two dots of auspex. If their body is damaged it will not heal properly, instead growing tumors and growths, fish and insect like scales / chitin, additional mouths and eyes, and sometimes tentacles.
Obtenabration affects the soul of the user. Those who use it must do so carefully as they will otherwise lose touch to their humanity and go insane. It is for this reason that the Lasombra are known both as one of clans most capable of evil, and also as one of the kindest clans.
It would not be strange to see a Lasombra use several instances of Obtenabration in a night and become apathetic, allowing themselves to revel in being the monster, and then turning around to seek out others to offer solace, justice, and peace.
The Lasombra have two specific curses, and the lower their humanity the worse the curses become.
The first is Technology focused. Recording equipment, sensors, or anything decently high tech tend to not work properly around the Lasombra. They may appear as a grainy shape on recordings, metal detectors may go off randomly when a Lasombra is nearby, a computer may have sudden glitches that suddenly fix when the Lasombra leaves.
The second curse is more subtle. The reflection of a Lasombra always shows them and other Lasombra their "true form". A young and attractive looking Lasombra may look into a puddle and see themselves with void filled eyes, covered in blood, or perhaps seeing themselves as a mass of writhing flesh and shadow.
The reflection is unique per each Lasombra. For other kine and kindred, if they see the reflection of a Lasombra, there is always a small chance they catch a glimpse of this true form, the likelihood of catching a glimpse is higher in low light environment. The glimpse ends when the person looks away, and while looking at the reflection they may see it do strange things.
An example would be a Lasombra facing someone so that their back is reflected in a window. Someone looking at the window and seeing that the reflection is actually starring at them, facing the same direction as the Lasombra, only for the person to glance at the Lasombra to be sure and then, when they look back, the reflection is back to normal.
A Lasombra can choose to show their true form at will through any reflective surface.
Some Lasombra may also have a unique feeding method. They are able to feed on a person who is standing in shadow. This does not work if it's above a certain level of brightness, and the Lasombra or their shadow must be touching the person or the shadow they are standing in. This method of feeding still drains the person of life force, even if they keep all their blood, and the person can still die from it. Other kindred will get sick if they try to feed from this person before they've recovered.
The Lasombra clan has a psuedo religion they tend not to discuss with outsiders, though exceptions are made for those who've gained trust from the clan.
The clan "worships" an entity who has many titles but no name, with many members of the Lasombra simply referring to this being as "The Waiter at the Door" or just "The Shadow".
Each member of the clan is imbued with some portion of The Shadow, which is what leads them to their current vampiric state. The over all goal of the clan, for those who delve deep enough to discover this closely guarded secret, is the freeing of The Shadow from our world where it has been trapped, so that it may break through the veil and return home.
Lasombra within an area will meet at the Sanctum every new moon. The gatherings are miniature Elysiums where the Lasombra discuss how to help each other, share knowledge and resources, and will often work together to secure new magical knowledge and artifacts.
The oldest Lasombra in the area, the one who maintains the Sanctum, is known as the Keeper. The other Lasombra all pay dues to the keeper in order to maintain the safety and security of the Sanctum, especially as the Sanctum is often full of magical artifacts and knowledge. Being the Keeper is considered an incredible honor.
The Lasombra and Tremere clan once went to war with each other and still fued with each other to this day. The Tremere are a clan of Blood mages far younger than the Lasombra but who grew quickly in power and influence.
Allegedly, a Tremere chantry raided a Lasombra Sanctum, stealing many artifacts, tomes, and scrolls while also setting fire to the Sanctum and killing several members of the Lasombra.
The war that resulted from this started to pull in members from other clans, members who were ill prepared for contact with magical artifacts and magical warfare.
After some time the Lupin, the Fae, and even some mage orders got involved in an effort to end the fighting. This war lasted just over a decade and is known by kindred scholars as "The Great Culling" due to the sheer number of kindred who met their final death and the incredible reduction in the number of kindred through out Europe, north Asia, and the middle east.
This war was so disruptive to the status quo of the various hidden elements of the world that humans became involved en mass, leading to the creation of The Inquisition.
This all culminated in a drastic shift in not only kindred society, but in the society of many other beings as well. For kindred, it was those who were discreet, paranoid, and patient who survived the war. Those who were formerly powerful and boastful, who had reputations as strong fighters and rulers, were quickly brought low.
The culture of modern kindred reflects this, with a focus on operating through proxy and stealth, working hard to remain undetected and hiding ones reputation rather than gloating in the open. It was this war and its fallout which led to the formation of the Camarilla.
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Obtenebration and stains: Stains work different for this rewrite. However much humanity your Lasombra has is how many stains they can have. When you have an amount of stains equal to your humanity, you lose one humanity. Gaining a humanity will reset your stains. Some abilities in Obtenebration always give stains, others have a chance to give a stain.
Whenever you go to use a discipline other than Obtenebration, you can choose to roll for stains instead. 1 roll per each point of blood it would cost. (This gets into my whole blood, feeding, and discipline system rework)
You can take the special feeding method but it replaces your ability to feed as a normal kindred, meaning doing something like feeding from a blood bag will simply do nothing for you.
The Lasombra all have Obtenebration as a discipline.
Other disciplines they can choose from are: Auspex, Presence, Dominate, and of course paths of Thaumaturgy.
Thanks for reading, feel free to comment and share, I may edit later to make it easier to read! If anyone has a specific system they want to know about in my redesign, feel free to ask. Currently play testing it with two separate groups.
