Vampire: The Masquerade Discussion

(this wiki is your best friend. always refer to the articles that are for The Masquerade)


Welcome, kindred (vampire). Whether you were recently embraced (became a vampire), or have been around for a century, I feel it is in our best interest to remind you of our traditions. I remind you of these facts as an Elder.

• Masquerade: Hide the existence of vampires.
• Domain: A kindred's hunting ground is his own territory, and he rules it absolutely.
• Progeny: Sire (embrace a mortal) only with permission of one's elders.
• Accounting: Until childer (a mortal who was recently embraced) are released, their actions are the responsibility of their sire (one who embraced them).
• Hospitality: Honor the domains of others, and present oneself to the ruler of any domain you visit.
• Destruction: The right to kill Kindred is reserved for the Elder of a community. Only an elder may call a Blood Hunt.

Most of these should be self explanatory, however, I will explain what The Masquerade is and why we enforce it. We cannot allow the mortal humans to be aware that vampires exist and endanger our society. The Masquerade must be maintained at all times, and each individual is responsible for keeping it intact and repairing it when breached. To ensure we are hidden, you may not display your powers to a human. Under absolutely no circumstance will an exception exist. If you feed off of a human, you must be sure that no one watches you. You may have to use your disciplines to coerce or intimidate the mortals to ensure our obscurity.

The Masquerade and its politics are enforced by The Camarilla. The best way for us to survive is to live in secret amongst the mortals. A breach of the Masquerade is a threat to each and every one of us.

As you know, each major city has its own Camarilla. Each one is headed by a Prince, the particular kindred that rules over that domain.

The Camarilla is not the only sect that exists. While the most prominent, there are two other major ones: the Sabbat and the Anarchs. The Sabbat reject The Camarilla's philosophy and instead believe all humans to be inferior to kindred. They are loosely organized and do not believe in hiding themselves from mortals. Often times a city's Camarilla has to fight and cover up the Sabbat's tracks to ensure The Masquerade remains intact.

The Anarchs disagree with The Camarilla's hierarchical structure and believes all are equal and cooperation should be encouraged. They often work in the shadow of the Camarilla and try to change it from within.

Now, a brief description of the clans:

Spoiler:  

• Brujah - The rebels and punks. They're seen as the miscreants of The Camarilla. They are passionate about their beliefs. They're the more brutish kindred and rely on their physical prowess.
• Malkavians - The Malkavians are a clan cursed with insanity. They all have some derangement, such as an OCD involving collecting a certain type of item for a few months and then moving onto something else. They're known for being both seers and jokers.
• Nosferatu - The Nosferatu are physically deformed, and tend to live underground in the sewers. As a result they are not very social.
• Toreador - They care very much about their appearance. They are artists and innovators. They may fall in love easily, but its more lust than love. They're arguably the most human-like of the clans.
• Tremere - One of the youngest clans; they have a strict hierarchical structure. They have mastered Thaumaturgy (Blood magic). Tremeres tend to be the power-hungry ones who seek to garner more influence. They care a lot for their clan's appearance.
• Ventrue - The most noble and honorable of the clans. They seek to guard their own power and typically support The Camarilla. They value dignity and revere the traditions and basically run The Camarilla.
  
  
  The Sabbat
  
  Lasombra - The leaders of the Sabbat. Darwinists, predators, elegant and inhuman. Firm believers in the worthy ruling and the unworthy serving, the Lasombra have maintained their traditions even as they have turned the Sabbat to their own purposes. They are predatory, fascinated with chess, and view humans as lesser beings.
  
  Tzimisce - Once a powerful clan, they've fallen to the shadows recently. They value the appearance of things such as honor and authority, and find beauty in the horrific. They rule over each other strictly.

Character rubric:




Name:

Age: (how old they really are, PC characters should be somewhere between recently embraced to roughly 300 years old)

Apparent Age: (age they were embraced and therefore are stuck in)

Gender:

Appearance:

Clan:

Allegiance: (Camarilla or Sabbat)

Disciplines:

Skills

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Items

Sire/Childers (Childer if applicable, and include at the very least a small description of them)

Personality:

History:

This post will contain relevant information to the roleplay. Florina is helping me run this, and she's also more knowledgeable than I.

Setting/story

The roleplay is in Seattle. The Prince has called various kindred together to execute five kindred and call a blood hunt against Kayla Cracik of Clan Brujah.
Magnus Marangos is the Ventrue Prince of Seattle.

Important Things to Know about Vampires

- sunlight kills you. Avoid it. Fire burns like a mofo.
- All vampires have a domain, where they can sleep and be protected from enemies and the sun's rays.
- You must feed on blood. Humans are best, but other creatures can suffice as well.
- Each vampire has "the beast". Basically the inner animal. Vampires are always in a struggle between being clear headed, moralistic people, and resisting the temptation to become a frenzied killer and giving in.

Name: Vance Lexington

Age: 31
Apparent Age: 23
Generation: Tenth

Gender: Male

Appearance: Thin and stands at 5"9'. Straight brown hair, swept to the side slightly and touching the tip of his brow. The sides just about cover his ears and the back hangs just above his neck. Thick eyebrows, clear green eyes, and a chiseled face. Likes to dress in dark, buttoned up shirts and jeans. He has a stud on his bottom lip, left side. He wears this necklace.

Clan: Toreador

Allegiance: Camarilla

Disciplines: Auspex (3), Celerity(1), Presence (3)

Skills: Vance is an excellent artist who never found fame, quite possibly due to his affinity towards painting gruesome, horrifying things.

Strengths: Holds a powerful visage and has a knack for persuasion.

Weaknesses: Vance finds many, many things to be truly beautiful and as a result runs the risk of being entranced often. As a result he is emotionally unpredictable.

Items/possessions: Owns a house just barely outside Seattle. He has many of his paintings around, in addition to having select pieces from other artists. He has various keepsakes that he's collected over the past years from people, for various reasons.

Sire: Helen. Has been released from her but he doesn't know where she is.

Ghouls: Chloe Blackburn. She appears to be 16 years old, but in actuality is twenty-two. She stands at 6" even and has wavy, dark-red hair that sits on her shoulders. She dresses in a combination of punk and gothic.

Adriana Blackburn. She too appears to be 16, but is of twenty-two years. Like her twin, she is about 6" tall and has straight, black hair that rests on her shoulders. While she dresses like her sister, she tends to be more conservative and not go as far.

Vance is kind and liberal with them. His only requirements of them are to live in the apartment above his gallery and ensure it is open 24/7. Before Vance turned them into Ghouls, they were high school dropouts with no direction in their lives. Vance took pity on them and they are now his. He gives them the freedom to do as they please so long as his gallery is always open and one of them inside. Both of them actually enjoy being Ghouls and think it's a lot cooler than going to college and working a ♥♥♥♥ty job.

Personality: Vance is a fan of artwork and has a keen eye for it, and as such loves to visit galleries and find those with similar values. He struggles greatly with his inner beast and it's common for him to have two or three outbursts a week. These usually follow up as a result of him finding many things in the world beautiful, and being reminded of his humanity. Nevertheless he hides his feelings in public and would only allow those extremely close to him to witness these rampages, if possible.

History: Vance Lexington lived an average life in Seattle. Born into an upper middle class family, he was given the luxury of freedom and was allowed to explore and find himself throughout his youth. At a young age he came upon gothic and horror writings - especially the works of Poe and Lovecraft. From then on he found his inspiration in the macabre and put his brush to the canvas. Over they years he developed his skill and became a master artist. Unfortunately, many galleries were reluctant to accept his work, and not many were interested in buying such intense, gruesome pieces. His true artwork has never been on display save for a few select galleries, but he has drawn lighter things in order to have them displayed in a larger number of galleries.

He was of twenty-three years when his life was interrupted. A beautiful woman had begun chatting him up at an after party following an exhibit in which his horror pieces were shown. There was some flirting, some alcohol consumed, and soon they were back at her apartment and going at it. Amidst the passion she had bitten him, and Vance became embraced. The ordeal was shocking and almost too much to bear; he contemplated killing himself the very night. However, Helen was surprisingly kind and supportive. She saw the beauty in his work and in his person and was convinced that he must live on. For the next two years she was his friend, guiding him through life and transitioning from human to Kindred. Vance learned the traditions quickly and attended meetings in the Camarilla.

Then one day she was gone. Helen released Vance and without so much as a kiss goodbye disappeared from the city. With no way to contact her and feeling reluctant to pursue her, he let it go and continued with his life. The only thing he has to remember her by is a picture of her, smiling, next to a painting of his depicting a blood-covered tentacle squeezing the life out of a screaming child. A truly beautiful photograph.

Name: Mr. Morris

Age: 6th Generation. Looks to be about 40.

Gender: Male

Appearance:
A tall lean man with a rather impressive mustache. He has longish dark auburn hair that comes to about the shoulders. Often rather well dressed in suits or sportcoats. Is rather fond of a monocle. Since hes a bit nearsighted in the right eye, it suits him.

Clan: Malkavian

Allegiance:(Camarilla or Sabbat)
Camarilla (for the most part)

Disciplines:
Auspex, Dementation, Dominate.

Skills:
Rather good with numbers. Knows quite a bit about the occult (but can never remember the origins of such information). Is well spoken. Can (usually) blend in rather nicely.

Strengths:
Can at least throw a mean right hook. Can manage finances rather well. Is a bit skilled with subterfuge. Knows how to weild a firearm. Seems to be able to tap into the Madness Network/Cobweb. (but doesnt realize it most of the time)

Weaknesses:
Schizophrenic and prone to Fugue. Has terrible lapses in the long term memory. Really cannot remember his own origins. Tends to go into trance like states.
Isnt the most fantastic of brawlers. Cannot work a lot of technology to safe his life. "Damned new fangled devices!"

Items:
A rather nice flat in London. A small but servicable flat in Seattle. A Bentley that he "aquired" rather recently. A small handgun. Some banknotes and credit cards.

Sire/Childers (if applicable, and include at the very least a small description of them)
He cant remember his sire. (See History) But he indeed has a Ghoul by the name of Harold Germain. A rather gangly, but not unattractive man around 35. Sandy blond hair and large eyes. Helps him keep "sane".

Personality:
Seemingly an amiable and pleasant man on the surface. Loves books and reading and chatting away at youths in coffee bars. His schizophrenia however, tends to make him start talking to himself (to voices he hears) and this tends to frighten people a bit. Loves to get into battles of wits and more often than not, comes out the victor. Really enjoys the company of his Ghoul, Harold and his cat who goes by the name of "Madame Fluffbelly".

History:
Was once a member of the court during the reign of King Charles II during mortal life as an Earl. His original name was Reginald Bryce. He was Embraced by the Mad Duke of Essex who had been rumored to be meddling in the occult at court. Essex's reasoning was "I think it would suit Bryce just fine. It never hurts to have another 'informant'." Bryce had left court after the death of the King and travelled for many years. His sire, The Mad Duke had gone inexplicably missing and it was thought he was diablerized by members of the Sabbat. There was no confirming this however. Bryce had entered in service to the Camarilla full time at the behest of the Prince of London. He had remained there more or less, ever since. Occasionally travelling to different lands gathering information.

Not that he remembers any of this! His furthest memory these days is sometime in the 1950s. The last time he came out of his lapse of memory, he was in the middle of enjoying a Jane Wyman film.

Name: Gladys Florentine

Age: 97

Apparent Age: 7

Generation: Ninth

Gender: Female

Appearance: Gladys is small, as befitting her age prior to being embraced, standing just under four feet tall. Her skin is pallid and her hair is a very pale red, almost light pink, and is very straight; it is neatly and evenly cut above her shoulders, with bangs right above her soft, powder blue eyes. Gladys has a black ribbon in her hair, tied into a large black bow which sits slightly to the left of her head. She dresses in clothes which are on the one hand colorful, frilly, elaborate, and somewhat gaudy and on the other hand dirty, stained, torn, and somewhat worn.

Although Gladys doesn't seem to care much for personal hygiene, often wearing soiled clothing and going without washing hair or body, she decorates herself with makeup and jewelry. The makeup she wears is dark in color (black, blue, or violet) and is applied rather sloppily, on a good day. The jewelry she wears includes a silver chain necklace with a large heart-shaped ruby pendant and small silver earrings with similar ruby pendants, these shaped like tear (or blood) drops.

Gladys often carries a highly decorative black lace parasol and generally hides herself in its shade, even at night. She has a black leather purse with silver ornamentation that she holds various possessions in.

Clan: Malkavian

Allegiance: Camarilla (Anarch)

Disciplines: Auspex (4), Obfuscate (5), Dementation (1)

Skills: Frighteningly dexterous with her dagger and fairly good with words; spends her spare time writing poetry, some of which is surprisingly insightful and most of which is completely incomprehensible. Gladys attributes most of her poetry (especially the insightful, more understandable ones) to her stuffed bear, King Leon Clarence I.

Strengths: Skilled with knife combat, good at hiding or going unseen, somewhat in tune with the Malkavian madness network (which is usually relayed to her through King Clarence and often used as inspiration for her poetry which, often unbeknownst to her, makes much of her poetry somewhat prophetic). She is practiced in the art of cold reading.

Weaknesses: Mad as a hatter, as Malkavians are prone to be; Gladys believes her rather ordinary toy stuffed bear, whom she has named King Leon Clarence I, is actually alive and can talk to her. She is highly possessive and protective of this stuffed bear, never letting it leave her sight, and would resort to committing violence against anyone who would threaten to take it from her, as absolutely nothing is more dear to her.

In times of stress, she uses the stuffed bear as a security blanket, an object which gives her psychological comfort. If the stress is great enough she might go into a regressive state, mentally reverting to the child she was when she was embraced and acting much more self-centered, much less disciplined and responsible, and much less understanding of the effects her actions have.

Items: Gladys' most precious possession is King Leon Clarence I, an old, dirty, and ratty stuffed bear, which is worse for wear due to being just as old as Gladys but obviously lacking the restorative properties of her vampirism. She also has an elaborately crafted dagger, with a shiny silver hilt encrusted with rubies and with a large heart-shaped pommel. It is sheathed in a scabbard with a gold frame inlaid with blood-red felt.

As part of an interest in fortune-telling, which is Gladys' primary occupation and source of income, she has quite a collection of tools of the trade, such as a crystal ball, a deck of Tarot cards, several dice, or anything else she thinks will do the job (and convince the customer). Many of these she carries in her purse, which also contains her wallet, filled with whatever money she's earned.

Sire/Childer: Gladys' sire was a madman, distracted by his paranoid thoughts and vivid hallucinations, who abandoned her shortly after embracing her and left her to figure things out on her own. Eventually she took on a childe of her own, a thirty-something year old man with thinning black hair named James Wilder. Wilder, who is still in Gladys' care, often plays the part of her guardian whenever Gladys needs him to, since it would attract attention or trouble for a little girl to be living alone.

Wilder dresses very formally most of the time, in a black tuxedo, even going as far as wearing a top hat and carrying a cane for special events. He suffers from bipolar disorder (manic-depression) and can swing from agitated to gloomy at the drop of a hat.

Tenth Generation - Auspex (1), Obfuscate (1), Dementation (3)

Personality: Gladys is noted for her grim and morbid attitude. She can be severely cynical and pessimistic, which makes her very little fun to talk to unless you share her unusual interests (which seem to change almost weekly—one week she'll be obsessed with sharks, spending all her time reading about them, collecting shark teeth, etc.; the next it will be teapots, or keys, or stars, or roses). She doesn't much care for the presence of other people, preferring to have long conversations with King Clarence about anything and everything.

When she isn't talking to Leon she's writing poetry, or playing/practicing with her dagger, or conning people out of their money as a psychic, fortune-teller, and medium. She often shifts between believing in her own psychic abilities (in which case she usually thinks Leon is the source of the divination) and just making it up as she goes along, to convince and satisfy her patrons.

Although not irredeemably sadistic, Gladys enjoys much pleasure in witnessing a good humorous, ironic, or karmic tragedy, and often pulls pranks to achieve these ends.

History: Gladys has spent most of her life as a vampire rather than a human and hardly remembers what human life was like anymore. Born in Seattle in 1915, Gladys was an only child living in meager conditions. Her father worked at a shipyard, building and repairing ships for the World War, while her mother raised her at home as best she could. When Gladys was only seven years old, a vampire broke into their house at night, killed both her parents, and then embraced her. Her sire stuck around only long enough to introduce her to the Camarilla and then abandoned her, probably eventually getting himself killed due to his reckless ways.

Gladys spent the next ninety years getting used to being a vampire and learning the traditions of the Camarilla. She grew to detest the way the Camarilla was run but kept her concerns quiet, not wishing to cause any trouble and mostly just wanting to keep to herself. For a while she lived in her old home but eventually the authorities discovered that her parents had died and nobody owned the apartment anymore, sending her off to an orphanage. She stayed there for a while before running away and living on the streets, breaking into apartments and feeding upon their owners when she needed someplace to sleep away the day.

When that became too much trouble, she decided to create a childe. She looked around for a while until she found the perfect candidate—James Wilder, a man easily old enough to pass as her father who lived alone and wouldn't be missed. He didn't have a job, living entirely off of his parent's inheritance, and didn't have any family or friends. He owns a luxurious house on Elliott Bay, which Gladys now claims as her domain. As her childe, Wilder obeys Gladys unquestioningly (and often quite fearfully) and refers to her exclusively as "milady", per her orders.

At night Gladys sometimes sets up her fortune-telling equipment in the Pike Place Market, attracting a small but steady number of customers for psychic readings, fortunes, or even messages from the dead. She has made a bit of a name for herself, as Gladys the Eye, becoming a fairly well-known psychic in the right circles. It doesn't make her a ton of money, but she mostly does it out of an interest than a living. Her eclectic sense of fashion, morbid attitude, and odd behaviors don't seem to hurt her business—if anything, they only lend her credibility as a mystic.

http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/...ml#post4691652

Talk, establish yourselves, etc.

Name: Kandice Neviah

Age: 24

Apparent Age: 22

Gender: Female
Generation: Thirteenth

Appearance: Has brown hair that falls just above the shoulders. She had blonde highlights which blend into her hair, although it is constantly hidden under a bandana. The bandana will change colors which will match her outfit, but her favorite color is blue, the same color as her eyes. She dresses for the weather, but no matter what she wears, it just screams "rebel." She also has a pair of black noise-cancelling headphones which she wears around her neck.

Clan: Malkavian

Allegiance: Camarilla
Disciplines: Auspex (4), Obfuscate (1), Dementation (1)

Skills: She can make any type of alcoholic drink you want and she has no issue looking into the future due to the fact she was a clairvoyant even before she became a vampire.

Whenever she 'kisses' somebody, she can see their future.

Strengths: She can pretty much out argue anybody due to years of practice. In addition, she knows how to defend herself against unwanted advances.

Weaknesses: She doesn't know when to drop an argument and will cut off her nose despite her face. Also, she has the compulsive need to buy a decorative egg when she needs one. Oddly enough, she hates the real things.

In addition, whenever she hears music, she hears prophetic voices which she cannot make heads or tails of, much to her annoyance. As a result, whenever she hears music, she puts on the headphones she carries around so she doesn't have to deal with it.

Items: She has a small apartment in Seattle that she lives in not too far from the bar. She has everything she needs to survive by herself in the city: credit cards, money, etc. She also has a large collection of decorative eggs.

Sire/Childers: Anthony Belmont. (Twelfth generation) A rather attractive man in his early 30s. He has short brown hair and sports a mustache a beard; think young Harrison Ford. He has brown eyes and pretty much dresses like Indiana Jones without the whip, hat, bag and coat. As such the patrons at his bar that he own calls him "Indie" as a joke.

Disciplines: Auspex (1), Obfuscate (2),Dominate (4)

Spoiler:  

Personality: She is a young woman who never seemed to grow out of the "rebellious teenager" phase. She is intelligent, a weapon she uses with her ability to see into the future in her arguments.

Due to her argumentative personality, she has gotten into a few scuffles with some people who didn't exactly like what she was saying. As such, she knows how to defend herself.


History: She was born in Lily Dale, New York. Like the rest of the people who live in her community, she was in tune to the supernatural, but she specialized in clairvoyance. She showed a lot of potential, and was one of the more talented members of the community.

When she wasn't giving out predictions, she was out wherever the nearest bar was, getting roaring drunk. This is where her sire, Anthony Belmont found her. Her friends had gone home for the night and she was still at the bar taking shots. Belmont was at Lily Dale earlier and recognized her vast talents as a clairvoyant. Deciding that letting somebody who was already naturally talented into looking the future walk away was a waste, he decided to embrace her.

That was two years ago. She has since moved to Seattle with him and works in the bar he owns, doing "fortunes" for drunks (whose blood she prefers) by "kissing" them in a back room.

While she has learned the society of vampires for the most part, she has still trouble of the idea of keeping on the "down low." As such he still keeps an eye on her, although she is more or less independent.

I would appreciate it so if you wouldn't write dialogue for my character, Florina. I find it rather so inappropriate. It's all quite incorrect really, not in character at all.

OK; that I shall do.

Wait. Am I editing this or not?

No, don't worry. Lys and I will roll with it.

All right; but if I do need to edit anything don't hold back and tell me. Or if I'm not acting like a proper Malkevian or whatever.

No, it was just an issue with Florina using Gladys. But it's all sorted out.

The RP just had a small fart, but proper ventilation has been installed now.

I would point out that you probably wouldn't look at King Leon Clarence I and think it's "well taken care of." It's a ratty old thing that she's been carrying around for almost a hundred years and it's definitely showing its age.

Also don't worry about ten PM. I've written up a story post for all of that and we'll get to it tomorrow most likely. The Prince gives a speech of sorts and some things happen that you can write into your next post that your character can react to/give thought to.


p.s. in case you haven't looked up any terms that have been used, a Primogen is the eldest of a clan in the city.

I hate to nitpick and correct but I have looked up a few terms and I can't help but notice that some of you are misusing "childe" and "childer". The latter is the plural form of the former.

Good catch.

So, I'm having a hard time deciding what the Prince's reward would be. Magic items don't exist in this world, at least not anything noteworthy. I suppose I could come up with some bull♥♥♥♥ though.

Only other thing I can think of is him giving us a large house, or something.

well I know neither Indie nor Kandice will get it xD

what about just...money? Or some kind of position of honor or prestige, although I don't know enough about the Camarilla to know if that makes any sense.