Canon Class: Vampires.

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Sections of this guide have been lifted from the White Wolf Wiki.




WHAT ARE VAMPIRES?

Vampires are created through the Embrace; during the Embrace, a vampire drains a candidate of all their blood and replaces it with a small amount (generally a single drop) of their own. This causes the corpse to rise as a new vampire, usually instantly. The vampire who initiates the Embrace is the Sire; the new vampire is the Sire's Childe.

In addition to the physical changes that they undergo, vampires experience extreme intellectual and emotional changes. The vampire is now a predator, and has a raging inner monster called the Beast. The Beast reacts to a variety of stimuli, notably hunger, anger, fear. The Beast continuously assaults the character, and if the Beast's demands exceed the character's own capacity to control it, will react in a Frenzy or Rötschreck. Vampires can permanently lose control to the Beast, entering Wassail, a state of permanent Frenzy. In this condition, all humanity is lost and the vampire becomes a draugr, a mindless killing machine.

Although they have no need or interest in sex, as the act of feeding replaces all physical urges, they can imitate the physical reactions if needed.

THE LINEAGES OF THE CREATED

There are five "great" Clans of Kindred, as well as a number of related sub-clans, known as Bloodlines. A vampire's clan is determined by the clan of his sire.

• Daeva: Vampires as seductive predators (Interview with the Vampire).
  
• Gangrel: Vampires as animalistic wanderers (Near Dark).
  
• Mekhet: Vampires as shadowy, skulking hunters (Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story).
  
• Nosferatu: Vampires as deformed monsters (Nosferatu).
  
• Ventrue: Vampires as deranged overlords (Dracula).
  

Each clan covers a broad range of vampiric archetypes. The Daeva, for instance, are both seductive and predatorial, evoking the image of vampires who glide through society as debonair hunters, much like Lestat in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. The Gangrel encompass the theme of the lone, savage and brutal hunters, much like the vampires of the Blade series. The Mekhet are conspiratorial occultists, vampires who hide in the shadows gathering lore and knowledge while manipulating others from afar. Nosferatu vampires are the alienated or disfigured monsters of legend (such as Count Orlok of their movie namesake), while the Ventrue represent vampires possessed of an aristocratic, lords of the night sensibility, like Bram Stoker's Dracula.

POWERS & ABILITIES

Vampiric powers and capabilities which have often given rise to old wives' tales of superhuman speed, strength and endurance possessed by the Damned, along with their piercing gaze, their hypnotic and seductive voices and the unholy power to vanish into shadows and shapeshift into bats, wolves and mist. [2]

Kindred (the word vampires use for themselves) can use a variety of supernatural powers called Disciplines. These are special abilities associated with their curse which, like their undead bodies, are "fed" in a way by the living blood they take from mortals. Many of the Disciplines provide Kindred with preternatural means of ensuring their continued existence, or of easing the process of hunting and stealing blood from mortals.

Disciplines are generally recognized as common (common place among the Kindred and more than one clan has an innate knack for them), unique (the proprietary abilities of each of the five clans), covenant (possessed only by a specific covenant and never shared with outsiders), and bloodline (known only to the members of a particular bloodline within a clan).

VAMPIRES IN TODAY'S VIGIL

The cloak of the evening and the keeping of secrets have always been what has preserved Vampires in general, shielding them from human eyes and obfuscating the truth from Deadwalkers. That the general majority of their number has always been relentless in the pursuit of self-gratification and spinning intrigues and influence to ensure their survival were two things that ended up biting the Kindred community horribly in the ass once the Veil collapsed. Many human governments, particularly those in the Americas and in Europe – were made aware of how civilization has, throughout history, been shaped and manipulated by vampires, bringing about a wave of perfect hatred that has not been seen since Adolf Hitler’s fanatical drive to eliminate the Jewish people. The many Final Deaths suffered by Kindred kind became stark reminders to the wayward of the Daywalker’s tenants, causing a good number of the Kindred populace to do their best to turn from their old ways. But that hasn’t stopped all of them.

The upper echelons of Kindred society are now attempting to ingratiate themselves to human governments, seeking to sweeten human-vampire relations in the interests of preserving themselves. Some do this because they have been genuinely inspired by the Daywalker’s example. Others, however, are simply biding their time, weathering the storm in the hopes of finding a better time to take advantage of their human victims. And unfortunately, that time might be coming soon: Riley Falner has returned to his Deep Slumber, and while his Golden Hand Barbara Gomez is strong, she’s no Daywalker.

NOTABLE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WHITE WOLF KINDRED AND WAKING THE DEAD KINDRED.

The Fifth World is a world that truly IS awake twenty-four hours day, seven days a week. It is much, much easier for a Vampire to make his way in the world, and live a normal life in Welcome to the New Age than it would be for a Vampire in the World of Darkness - but only if he's willing to follow the rules.

Beyond that, however, there are no notable differences with regard to game mechanics between Vampires in Welcome to the New Age and Vampires in White Wolf campaigns.

GOT QUESTIONS?

This is a canon class of White Wolf. Players who are interested in playing Vampires may refer to the rulebook and other reference links from White Wolf in order to learn more about them.

We will, however, have a guide on how to stat a Vampire character up soon! For the full document on general character creation, download our guide here.