Vampire: The Requiem

Vampire: the Requiem
RPG published by White Wolf/Onyx Path
Rule System	Storytelling System
Authors	Justin Achilli et al
First Publication	2004

This article related to the World of Darkness is a stub. You can help 1d4chan by expanding it

Vampire: The Requiem is the flagship title of White Wolf's New World of Darkness line, and, as its name suggests, the counterpart to the Old World of Darkness's Vampire: The Masquerade. The changes include the following (naturally, both oWoD and nWoD fans believe their way to be the true way):

• Five clans replace the thirteen, each embodying broad vampire archetypes. Whereas Masquerade's clans had well-researched histories and tracked their lineages to the first vampire, the five clans' true histories are shrouded in myth, legend, and falsehood. Each clan also hosts numerous bloodlines, which are mechanically similar to Masquerade bloodlines.
• Seven covenants replace the Camarilla and Sabbat (five of which are intended for player characters) and are significantly more important to a vampire's nightly existence than clan. Some covenants have goals and outlooks that put them at odds with others (most notably the Invictus, representing the status quo, clash with the Carthian Movement, representing progress).
• Embracing a new vampire costs a dot of Humanity. Gone are the nights of the Sabbat's "mass Embrace" tactics in normal circumstances; while the Ordo Dracula has discovered a means for performing a mass Embrace, the vampires created during said mass Embrace often turn out...wrong. as in "you had better be prepared to run the fuck away as soon as it's done" wrong.
• Blood Potency replaces Generation. Kindred can increase their Blood Potency easier than they could Generation, but as a vampire's blood strengthens, they lose the ability to draw Vitae from lesser creatures; at the highest levels, a vampire can only gain Vitae from other vampires. Eventually, their blood overpowers them and they must enter torpor, during which time their blood thins and they tend to lose their memories (a phenomenon dubbed the Fog of Eternity). Because of this, nobody knows vampiric history for sure, even though some Kindred keep Requiem diaries of what they remembered (which can easily be in code or deliberately falsified, which is bad when the source vampire forgets the code or the truth).
• A new group of antagonists called the Strix are added. They aren't exactly vampires, but instead are shadowy, demonic owl-like beings that despise all forms of life and Humanity (to the point where they consider a Humanity 0 vampire too human) and claim to be a physical manifestation of the Beast. While they don't normally possess physical forms, they can possess corpses and unfortunate vampires to use as meat-puppets.
• Humanity is tweaked; in addition to the typical sins as breaking points, events that remind a vampire how inhuman he/she is can also cause a roll for "detachment", as it's now known. Reading your own obituary in the newspaper, existing longer than a century, seeing a culture that wasn't around while you were mortal- that sort of stuff.

There are all sorts of splats and expansions, including one for playing in the Roman Empire, one for various other historical settings (WW1 to Ancient Egypt), one for playing as a ghoul, and one for the Eighties (I am deadly serious).

Now into its second edition (originally released under the title of "Blood & Smoke"), which gave vampires a fairly big boost. For example, they no longer only downgrade bullets to bashing; they downgrade all lethal damage to bashing unless they're full of bashing damage.

The Clans

Nobody knows exactly how the clans came into being or if they even have a common ancestor at all. In fact, the fluff strongly suggests that each clan is effectively its own species of vampire, with their common traits being a byproduct of convergent evolution rather than being a sign of any direct relation.

Regardless of their origins, each one reflects one aspect of vampirism in some way or another. Additionally, each clan possess a staggering number of bloodlines, each with their own unique abilities and weaknesses added onto the original clan's own. Most of the V:tM clans which didn't make the jump to V:tR have been reclassified as bloodlines if they haven't been removed (e.g. the Malkavian clan is now the Malkovian bloodline, as well as a peculiar mind-virus called Malkavia that drives any vampire that catches it hopelessly insane).

• Daeva - The Succubi
  • Notable Bloodlines: Toreador, Erzsébet
  • Favored Disciplines: Celerity, Majesty, Vigor
  • Favored Attributes: Dexterity and Manipulation

The Daeva are beautiful, but the adage "beauty is only skin deep" is very much in effect for them. For all their lustful attitudes, superficial charm, and espoused love of beauty, they're emotionally dead even by the standards of other vampires. This emotional deadening in turn leads many of their number to grow jaded and hedonistic, seeking ever-greater ways of indulging their vices in a desperate attempt to remember what it means to feel again. At the same time, they are more than willing to exploit their beauty and charm to manipulate both Kindred and kine alike.

In 2e, their weakness was modified somewhat - now they have a tendency to grow addicted to a given person's blood if they feed on him/her more than once. The only way to break this addiction is via the death of the mortal in question.

• Gangrel - The Savages
  • Notable Bloodlines: Bruja, Dead Wolves
  • Favored Disciplines: Animalism, Protean, Resilience
  • Favored Attributes: Composure and Stamina

The Gangrel are still the same nature-vampires they were in VtM, but in spite of their close connection to the Beast (or perhaps because of it) they have established themselves as scholars and philosophers of the Kindred's unique condition. That doesn't mean they won't tear you limb from limb if you piss one off, though.

While they've lost their vulnerability to Frenzying, they do have trouble thinking rationally at times as their minds become more bestial and they don't function very well in human or Kindred society.

• Mekhet - The Shadows
  • Notable Bloodlines: Morbus, Sangiovanni
  • Favored Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Obfuscate
  • Favored Attributes: Intelligence and Wits

The Mekhet are particularly attuned to shadows and darkness, and translate this attunement into a degree of finesse regardless of what they set their minds to. They're particularly adept at scholarly pursuits and infiltration but in many cases can branch out to do a little bit of everything. However, their connection to darkness also exacerbates the typical vampiric weaknesses to fire and sunlight, and with no natural talent for controlling animals or people they have to make extra effort to keep their interference in mortal affairs as shadowy as themselves.

Complicating this further is a tendency to develop banes more easily- esoteric weaknesses like growing confused when approaching a crossroads or not being able to enter a house without being invited.

• Nosferatu - The Haunts
  • Notable Bloodlines: Baddacelli, Usiri
  • Favored Disciplines: Nightmare, Obfuscate, Vigor
  • Favored Attributes: Composure and Strength

Like in VtM, the Nosferatu are monstrous (usually this means they're ugly, but in some Nosferatu it may take more subtle forms like an unnerving voice, a repulsive odor that never seems to go away, or a shadow that seems to move on its own), but compensate for it with a knack for stealth and an alarming amount of strength when provoked. They're also good record-keepers and many Nosferatu are capable of communicating with ghosts. Some can even bend them to their will.

In Blood and Smoke, their Touchstones, mortal people they're close to that keep them tethered to their humanity, are now immune to their evil appearances, so there's that at least.

• Ventrue - The Lords
  • Notable Bloodlines: Malkovians, Gorgons
  • Favored Disciplines: Animalism, Dominate, Resilience
  • Favored Attributes: Presence and Resolve

Still the same stuck-up egotistical assholes that they were in VtM, and also the clan whose members are most likely to be either in positions of power or actively scheming to attain those positions of power. Their mind-control powers are just as good at helping them fulfill their ambitions as they were in VtM, but it also tends to make them particularly vulnerable to acquiring derangements. After all, power corrupts, even among the undead.

2e changes their weakness slightly to a greater risk of losing their Touchstones - the people or things that remind vampires what it was like to be humans. Losing these Touchstones weakens a vampire's ability to resist detachment, and if they're all lost the vampire feels a sudden and overwhelming urge to enter Torpor.

• Julii - The Founders (extinct)
  • Notable Bloodlines: Ventrue (rumored)
  • Favored Disciplines: Animalism, Dominate, Resilience
  • Favored Attributes: Presence or Resolve

The Julii ruled the Camarilla. They invented the modern Masquerade, a derivation of the Mekhet concept, but merely hid the fact of their existence as creatures of the night, rather than completely disappearing from mortal view. They claim descent from Aulus Julius, childe of Remus. Remus was never Embraced, but had become a vampire in a pact with the Striges in exchange for serving them after his brother Romulus left him for dead after their dispute over where to found the city that would go on to become Rome. This clan died with the Camarilla during the fall of the Roman Empire. They all disappeared over time and were completely extinct by AD 418. Their tenuous grip on their humanity (a side effect of the pact Remus made) probably contributed to their decline, as did their unwise decision to betray the Striges.

The specific similarities between the Julii and Ventrue and the fact that the Ventrue didn't seem to exist during the Camarilla's reign lead many to believe that the Ventrue are descended from the Julii, but anything that might hint at the truth has long vanished to the Fog of Eternity.

Covenants

With no Camarilla to give the Kindred a unifying organization to rally around anymore, Kindred instead identify with different Covenants, organizations that are in effect a cross between a political party, a nation-state, and a religion. While the covenants' goals and ideologies are often greatly divergent if not mutually irreconcilable, their unwillingness to threaten the Masquerade keeps their conflicts bloodless and infrequent more often than not. On the other hand, internal strife within covenants is not unheard of either and can in some cases be more intense than conflicts between different covenants.

• Invictus - The closest thing to the Camarilla of VtM, they consider themselves the rightful leaders of vampiric society, while everyone else considers them to be a bunch of insufferable pricks. While they give lip service to the idea that they're a meritocracy, in practice the elders of the covenant hold all the power and have a vested interest in making sure that if the younger members try to advance in position that it'll be on their terms. They may be oppressive and tyrannical, but even their rivals begrudgingly admit that they do a good job of keeping the Masquerade going. Plus, they've got a ton of cash and influence built up over the ages, which the vampire on top get to enjoy for all it's worth. They were descended from the remnants of the Senex, the leadership wing of the old Camarilla, and even in those days their main interest was in keeping as much power for themselves as possible.

• Circle of the Crone - A quasi-pagan Covenant that pledges its loyalty to a goddess-like figure they refer to as the Crone. While the specifics of their beliefs vary widely between its different sects (as do the other deities and spirits they venerate), they all agree that vampirism is a natural state of existence and that any vampire who wishes to seek enlightenment can do so if they are willing to suffer for it. That said, their practice of Crúac - a form of ritual blood magic that occasionally requires sacrificial victims to work - has raised more than a few eyebrows in vampire society for its tendency to rouse the Beast, and the fact the Strix can use it too hasn't helped.

• Lancea Sanctum - Christianity for vampires. According to their traditions, they descend from Longinius, the Roman centurion who pierced Christ's side with a spear as he was dying on the cross; when His blood dripped upon him, Longinius was cursed with vampirism for his faithlesness and cruelty. Being religiously inclined doesn't mean that the Sanctified are pacifists or averse to their nature as vampires; on the contrary, they see their damnation as a necessary part of their role as a way of putting the fear of God into mortals and are notoriously zealous in their drive to convert unbelievers within vampiric society. This is made much easier for them by virtue of their practice of Theban Sorcery, which is best described as a blend of magic and miracles. The Lancea came to prominence within the Camarilla during the Roman Empire.

• Carthians - The wide-eyed idealists of the vampire world, the Carthians see no reason why the status quo should remain unchallenged and are intent on challenging its concentration of power within the hands of a small number of elders. Needless to say, ideas like "democratic rule" and "acceptance of change" has made them bitter rivals of the Invictus, who see them as little more than rabble-rousers. The fact that they themselves can't agree on what the status quo should be replaced with doesn't help. But on the bright side, their affinity towards mortal laws and ordinances somehow allows them to gain special boons via their own "laws".

• Ordo Dracul - If you hadn't guessed by the name, Dracula himself founded this Covenant. Compared to the more religious or political bent of the others, its focus is more on the relatively scientific aspects of vampirism- more specifically, its search for a way to transcend the natural limitations of vampirism. Towards this end, it has developed a set of esoteric teachings called the Coils of the Dragon; while they have yet to fully transcend their vampiric state, the Coils are indisputably effective at mitigating many of the typical vampire weaknesses (e.g. a greater ability to resist Frenzy, reducing the damaging effects of sunlight during dawn and dusk, etc.) They're absolutely obsessed with furthering their studies of the vampiric condition, and don't particularly care about who they hurt if it means another step closer to perfecting themselves. Ironically, this means the vampire splat best-able to make themselves into something that's less dangerous to ordinary, innocent people is the least interested in doing so.

• Belial's Brood - The Infernalists of VtM without the organization, Belial's Brood is little more than a pack of devil-worshipping madmen that have voluntarily given themselves up to the Beast. Although they are divided into numerous factions with their own competing ideologies, they are all crudely united in their disregard for everyone besides themselves and their single-minded thirst for destruction.

• VII - Next to nothing is known about them; even their name is a presumed one based only on the image of the Roman numeral they leave behind after their attacks on other Kindred. All that's confirmed about them is that they seek to destroy all other Kindred, which they can sense through the presence of what they call a "Mark of the Betrayer." Bizarrely, their members never run the risk of Frenzy when meeting other Kindred, and even when forced to speak the truth through supernatural compulsion its members can't explain what VII really is. Even mind-reading attempts reveal nothing but an image of the Roman numeral "VII." They may have some kind of connection to the Strix, but nobody knows if they're allies or enemies to the Owls.

• Camarilla - The Camarilla was the ruling covenant of Roman Kindred during the time of the Republic and Empire until it fell to ruin during the Visigoths' sacking of Rome in AD 410. It was divided into four wings: the Senex (the government and nobility), the Legio Mortuum (the police and military), the Cult of Augurs (the priests and soothsayers in theory, but in practice they were mostly con artists and false prophets), and the Peregrine Collegia (immigrants, felons, slaves, and other such outcasts and undesirables), with an offshoot of the Peregrine Collegia barely recognized as the Lance et Sanctum (what would later become the Lancea Sanctum). They maintained three Traditions, which have survived in a heavily modified form into modern vampiric society: Dominion (the Camarilla rules the world and divides it into domains as they see fit), Destruction (only the Camarilla's Senex can sentence Kindred to Final Death), and Amaranth (no Kindred may commit diablerie).

Ghouls

As in Masquerade, a Ghoul is a human who's been fed vampire blood to turn them into an unaging toady. Unlike in Masquerade, being a ghoul is a whole lot less fun, and far less of a free power-up for humans.

See, vampire blood - Vitae - is incredibly addictive. It's like cocaine mixed with liquid orgasm. But more than that, it carries a mystical compulsion, making you increasingly enthralled to the vampire you drunk it from. Drink three times from one vampire, and you're hooked. And this blood bond, this Viniculum, is all but impossible to break on your own - if a human can stay off the Vitae for a year, then it'll fade on its own, but just one taste and they're compelled to serve indefinitely.

To turn somebody into a ghoul, a vampire feeds them a point's worth of Vitae and spends a point of Willpower - naturally, they tend to wait until their future ghoul has a full-blown Viniculum developed. Once that happens, bam, they're a ghoul. They immediately stop aging and gain a single dot in Celerity, Vigor or Resilience - exactly which Discipline is chosen by their vampiric creator. They can learn further Disciplines, but at double the cost of a vampire learning them, although they're considered Blood Potency 0, can only spend 1 point of Vitae per turn, and their "Vitae Pool" is equal to their Stamina dots. They can also burn Vitae to augment their physical prowess and to heal wounds, just like a vampire.

Ghouls need to feed regularly, as only the presence of vitae in their system sustains their existence; this requires drinking a point's worth of Vitae from a vampire, with either the vampire or the ghoul spending a Willpower point to "charge" the Vitae, once per month. They can technically "fast" by simply not using their Powers - so long as a ghoul has at least 1 unspent point of Vitae in their system, they still count as a ghoul, no matter how long it's been since they last fed - but if they ever have to spend their last Vitae point, then they immediately lose the powers of the ghoul. The state itself isn't lost permanently, a fresh drink of Vitae will bring them back to the eternal night, but they can't use any of their Disciplines, and time starts catching up on them. As in, they age a year for each day they go without feeding. And if they do manage to find fresh Vitae, they don't reset the clock, they just pause it at a new point.

Needless to say, the longer a ghoul has been around, the more dependent they are on drinking Vitae - age will turn them into dust if they've been alive long enough.

That's not to say that rogue ghouls don't happen. Usually, it's because somebody else killed a ghoul's master and left the ghoul alive. But any Hunter cell stupid enough to try turning themselves into ghouls to become better vampire hunters, ala the Society of Leopold? They're up shit creek without a paddle. Or even a boat.

In 2nd edition, these rules are tweaked slightly. For starters, that monthly feeding of preservative Vitae no longer requires either party spending a Willpower point, and they can't be knocked unconscious by Bashing damage. That's the good news. The bad news? A ghoul whose failed to upkeep themselves can't halt the decay by taking just one sip of precious Vitae anymore. Nope, now they keep aging until they've ingested Vitae equal to the Blood Potency of the last vampire they drank from before they missed their monthly dose.

The 1e "Ghouls" sourcebook also covers things like Ghoul Families - akin to Masquerade's Revenants, animal ghouls, and plant ghouls.

Larvae & Revenants

Larvae appeared in 1e and are basically a nod to the Sabbat's love of Mass Embrace as a weapon in Masquerade. A larva was only partially embraced (Willpower point insted of Willpower dot), and as such rises from its grave as a Blood Potency 0, Humanity 0 monster - more of a blood-drinking, sun-fearing "rage zombie" than a vampire proper. They can mature into proper vampires if they diablerize one or manage to survive 50 years. Until then... they're basically extremely dangerous to everybody, and very hard to control.

Revenants are a 2e invention who arguably have replaced Larvae. Less of a clan and more of a mistake, Revenants are "spontaneous vampires", occasionally created when someone with vitae in their system dies or is exasanguinated by a low Humanity Kindred. They are a miserable lot, constantly bleeding out their vitae during daysleep and frequently suffering Hunger Frenzy because of it. They have all the weaknesses of vampirism and very little of the strength, and they are often forced to become walking Masquerade breaches out of necessity. Unless, of course, some other vampire decides to fully Embrace them, giving them a clan and with it, some degree of ability to use their lemons to make lemonade.

Blood-Drinking Kin

Vampires who aren't Kindred, brought-up in the book Wicked Dead. Their Blood Potency is 0, so each time they meet a "true" vampire, they cower in fear.

Ghûls: Arabian mages who have gained immortality, as well as alchemy and a few other powers, at the expense of cannibalism. They're also... not undead. In fact, they probably have it better than Kindred.

Jiang Shi: Chinese hopping corpses, formerly human mages as well. They only have access to Celerity, Resilience, and Vigor, but in return they're not destroyed by anything other than fire (upon "death," they teleport to their graves, torpid, at full health). They are like ghosts in that they cannot stray too far from their anchors, otherwise they'd teleport back. Of course, they can use living beings as anchors...There's actually two varieties of them, one from Wicked Dead (aforementioned), and one from Blood & Smoke/2e, who are more like a clan of true Kindred, not being as invulnerable to everything but far more mobile. They'd be a sixth great clan, were it not for the fact that (A), they need two deaths, one of a genuine Nice Guy, to raise another of their number, and (B), the Kiss of the Vampire is denied to them (it feels more like a particularly painless frostbite when they chow down), so they have to be really clever and subtle about feeding. Still, there's cities where they've thrived, even joined with the other Kindred - it's not like the whole two deaths thing is anywhere near the worst thing Kindred in general have to do to keep living...

Fomorsae: Emotion eaters who feed on self-loathing and body issues. Getting fed on by them causes a person to look more and more beautiful... at the cost of their life force, leading as many times as not to a beautifully preserved corpse. Ironically, the Vitae so gained is stored in fatty deposits, meaning that the Fomorsae are, to the last vamp, horrendously obese and ugly themselves. They're also the exception that proves the rule of Blood Potency 0, since they do have one or higher points in it... and they know Dominate.

Aswang: Actually several kinds of blood-drinking shapechanging supernatural beastie from the Phillipines, with one variety from World of Darkness: Antagonists and three from Night Horrors: The Wicked Dead. All share the common trait of being Technically Living Vampires, and thus suffering no effect from sunlight other than reverting to their human form during the day. The "vanilla" Aswang is a One-Gender Race of Always Female blood-suckers who never smile with their teeth because they have four pairs of canine teeth instead of the human two pairs. At night, they revert to the forms of ugly, haggish versions of themselves with Femme Fatalons and elongated, fang-like teeth, who use their hypnotically beautiful voices to lure prey into their reach, as they must feed regularly or be trapped in their monstrous form even during the day. The Halimaw assumes the form of a demonic Winged Humanoid at night and feeds with its mawful of jagged fangs and ripping claws, as well as being prone to suffering from a split personality that makes it actually delude itself about being human during the day. The Tik-Tik becomes a monstrous blood-sucking bat/mosquito hybrid. The Sigbin becomes a fang-mouthed hornless goat that lulls people into a trance by clapping its oversized ears together. All forms of Aswang are hated by the Kindred, as they don't make any attempt to uphold The Masquerade and so "real" vampires have to work harder to cover up for them.

Baykosh: A (mercifully) unique ghost who hunts down and murders people who have survived conflict in order to feed on their cut-short lifespan.

Bhuta: Ghosts so desperate to experience life once more that they possess human beings, even knowing that this will A: damn them to an incessant craving for human blood and flesh whilst they are so incarnated, and B: result in the inevitable destruction of their host body.

Penanggalan: A Malaysian variety of vampire that can exist as a relatively normal human during the day. At night, its head lifts up from its body, dragging along its internal organs and leaving its hollowed-out body behind as it goes hunting. To keep the body from rotting whilst the head and guts are away, it has to pickle it, and so even in human form it tends to stink of vinegar (or sometimes booze). It loves the blood of pregnant women and children, and so it prefers to go after these prey. It can be killed by burning it, exposing its head-and-guts form to sunlight, or stuffing its hollowed torso full of blades, broken glass, thorns, etc. so that it tears its entrails apart when it squeezes inside at dawn. A sadistic end, perhaps, but unfortunately perhaps the best; the bite of the Penanggalan contains a vicious wasting illness that often kills people the vampire would much rather leave alive (and in particularly bad cases, even Embraces them spontaneously as new Penanggalan). The only known cure is the initial vector's liver-something they are understandably reluctant to part with, even given the Healing Factor.

Chihuateteo: An ancient cult composed of witch-priestesses of Tezcatlipoca in his aspect as a god of malice and mischief. Each one is a woman who has suffered a stillbirth (which, ironically, makes them the opposite of the honored-if-dangerous ghosts they take their name from) and was found by the other Chihuateteo and offered a way to give the tragedy meaning and never have to face the spectre of death personally again. Should she accept (and destroy something dear to her to show her willingness), they initiate her into the order and she becomes a claw-fingered spectre that looks like the unholy lovechild of a human and the world's largest owl. With her new vocation, she gains the ability to turn into one or gain an owl's talons as well, the secret Rites of the Crossroads they use to cause their god's holy chaos, Age Without Youth..and the Disciplines of Majesty and Obsfucate, as well as a Beast of her own. She can't generate Vitae herself despite being fully alive (she has to steal breath instead), and her Beast is a tame one (it only risks frenzy in response to anger and is easy to bring to heel before it gets that far), but Kindred wise in the ways of Strix look at the Chihuateteo and wonder. Also, they're Mexican ultranationalists.

Rizzetti Apparatus: This thing isn't undead, on the basis it was never alive-or even mobile. The Rizzetti Apparatus is an old clockwork device from the heyday of Victorian Science, one of the first blood transfusion devices ever created (if not the first). It never went into full production, though-besides its titular inventor being murdered by his first patient, there's a very rare vital component of coral (and the bacteria that live in it) that only grows in one very specific lagoon-and that the impurity filtering process invariably pits said impurities in the donor, killing them. As for the patient, not so much-in fact, the bacteria-filtered and infused blood is not only never rejected, but supernaturally potent. The patient ceases to age, and for a while, is effectively in the prime of youth. Then the bacteria invariably reproduce faster than the body keep up, becoming an impurity themselves, one that consumes the patient's blood. To survive, they need another transfusion. And another. And another...

See Also

• Vampire the Requiem Homebrew Bloodlines