The Blood

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Generation

All vampires gain their unholy prowess from the Blood, but not all Blood is equal. The closer a vampire is to their mythic progenitor Caine, the greater the potential of their vitae. Vampires talk of generation, with Caine (and perhaps Lilith) as the mythic progenitor of the First Generation. Following a vampire’s Embrace, they rise from death one generation higher – one generation weaker – than their sire. Thus the Antediluvians, childer of childer of Caine, comprise the Third Generation, their childer becoming the Fourth Generation. A vampire’s Embrace sets their generation. Only through the forbidden act of diablerie, by consuming the Blood and very spirit of another vampire, can it be changed.

A vampire’s generation does not necessarily indicate their age. An elder might have sired a vampire of the 10th Generation when Columbus sailed; a methuselah could have begotten a vampire of the Sixth Generation last year.

Caine and the Second Generation: Myths

The first vampires remain almost entirely the province of legend and theological speculation. Perhaps most vampires who believe in this myth identify Caine with the Cain of the Bible, but anything might have happened under the cover of the first nights.

Third Generation: Antediluvians

The founders of the 13 vampire clans, the Antediluvians, somehow brought about the biblical flood – or were its target. Their bloodlines continue to shape the Kindred to this night, even as the plots they set into motion millennia ago still drive the endless Jyhad of vampire-kind. For the last thousand years, many Kindred assumed the Antediluvians were asleep; only a few believed they continued their struggle in subterfuge, conspiracy, and guile deep behind the scenes even of secret history. The Camarilla insisted the Antediluvians were long-dead, or even mythical, until the Sabbat forced their hand. The Sabbat at least seeks to end the Jyhad. The Sword of Caine declared war on the Antediluvians in the name of the frst vampire, unleashing Gehenna and slowly rousing the Third Generation from their torpid retreat in primordial labyrinths and passage-tombs. The Antediluvians now call their descendants to their defense, sounding a clamor in the Blood that younger vampires term the Beckoning.

Fourth and Fifth Generations: Methuselahs

Nearly as powerful as the Antediluvians, the methuselahs withdrew from the Jyhad in its earliest millennia – their power made them favored tools and chosen targets. Many methuselahs remain asleep beneath older human cities, tended by devoted cults or forgotten entirely. Others become Inconnu, withdrawing completely from vampire society and from the Jyhad.

Sixth through Ninth Generations: Elders

Mostly Embraced before the modern age, vampires of these generations long-held the ruling places in both the Camarilla and the Anarch Movement, continuing squabbles old when the Renaissance began. The Beckoning calls them from their towers and nests, toward the front lines of the Gehenna War. A few elders hold out or claim not to hear the call of their Blood, gripping their cities ever-tighter. Ironically, after centuries of condescension, the Ninth Generation finds itself accounted true elders: they, too, hear the Beckoning.

10th and 11th Generations: Ancillae

Typically, older ancillae eventually convince the hierarchy to include them, or they anger the hierarchy into eliminating them. Between this winnowing effect and the boom in global population, most vampires of these generations can mark less than 250 years of age. Long-excluded from elder status, thus acting as intermediaries between court and street, ancillae have nevertheless cut their teeth (so to speak) in the World of Darkness. The lowest-generation player characters in this game book come from the ranks of the ancillae.

12th and 13th Generations: Neonates

Even more than the generations just below them, the 12th and 13th Generations dwindled slowly for centuries before exploding in modern nights. Most members of these generations have relatively little experience of the curse of vampirism, but slightly more understanding of technological and social change. Stodgy Camarilla elders blame the renewed Anarch Revolt on the influx of these generation.

14th through 16th Generations: Thin-bloods

Many Kindred scholars look with fear on the flood of these generations, so far from Caine that both curse and gifts weaken into nothingness. The Book of Nod speaks of the “Time of Thin Blood” as precursor to Gehenna, the rising of the Antediluvians, and the end of vampire-kind.

Gifts of the Blood

Blush of Life

Unless intentionally brought to a semblance of life, the body of a vampire is functionally dead. Undeath signifies its presence in pale or ashy skin, cold flesh, and lack of breath (except to speak) or a heartbeat. By sending their Blood through the dead capillaries of their skin and into their shrivelled heart, a vampire can appear completely human for a night, including but not limited to a heartbeat, body temperature, and breath. The vampire can even pass a cursory medical examination, though they still fail more intrusive screenings for minute tells such as the absence of intestinal flora.

Non thin-blooded vampires must use Blush of Life to use touch screens – such as those on smart phones – unaided, which don’t work without the skin moisture and conductivity of the living.

Blush of Life generally allows a vampire to consume food and drink without vomiting for up to an hour. Without it, vampires must make an immediate Composure + Stamina test (Difficulty 3) to be able to get outside or to a bathroom in time.

Depending on their Humanity, vampires can fake or sometimes even enjoy sexual intercourse while Blush of Life is active (see p. 236.)

At Humanity 9 or higher, vampires appear ill or “heroin chic” rather than dead; their heartbeat, pulse, and breath seem thready but detectable. They do not need to use Blush of Life for other than cosmetic purposes.

Bringing on the Blush of Life requires a Rouse Check.

Blood Surge

Any vampire can call upon their Blood to temporarily augment their Attributes, whether Physical, Social, or Mental. When the character wills a Blood Surge, the player can add a number of dice to a dice pool incorporating an Attribute. The number of dice a Blood Surge adds depends on the character’s Blood Potency; characters can only use Blood Surge once per roll.

A Blood Surge requires a Rouse Check.

Blood Surge applies only to a single roll of the dice. (Dice added in a Blood Surge remain throughout any Willpower re-rolls.) Characters cannot use a Blood Surge for Willpower or Humanity rolls, for rolls that apply to more than one scene, in One-Roll Combat (p. 296), or whenever else the Storyteller disallows them. Do not apply automatic wins (p. 120) or “Take Half” to rolls augmented by a Blood Surge.

Vampiric Mending

Being dead, vampires do not heal naturally. Their unliving frames can still knit themselves together, given enough effort.

Mending Superficial Health Damage
Depending on their Blood Potency, a vampire can mend one or more points of Superficial Health damage with a single Rouse Check. Vampires can make one Rouse Check per turn to mend Superficial Health damage.

Mending Aggravated Health Damage
To mend Aggravated Damage, a vampire must wait until the next nightfall and make three Rouse Checks, in addition to the regular Rouse Check made when rising.

This process removes one point of Aggravated damage as well as one Crippling Injury or similar impairment. A vampire can only mend one point of Aggravated damage per night.

As with awakening, if these Rouse Checks raise the vampire’s Hunger above Hunger 5, they fall into torpor rather than testing for hunger frenzy.

Disciplines

The raw power of the Blood fuels all but the most basic Discipline powers, many of which require multiple Rouse Checks. Every turn, a vampire can activate one Discipline power, regardless of that power’s duration.

There is no limit to the number of Discipline powers a vampire can have active simultaneously.

At higher levels of Blood Potency, the player rolls two dice for each Rouse Check to activate some Discipline powers, keeping the higher die result. As noted in the table (p. 216), the greater the vampire’s Blood Potency, the higher the levels of power they can activate this way.

In a single turn, a vampire could activate one power of a discipline, take on the Blush of Life, increase an Attribute pool with a Blood Surge, and mend Superficial damage. This process would, however, require at least three Rouse Checks in addition to the cost of the discipline power.

Prices of the Blood

Despite all of the gifts bestowed by their condition, the Blood extracts a heavy toll. A number of terrible curses afflict a vampire, each one an enemy waiting just beneath the skin.

Awakening

Every night a vampire rises from day-sleep they must make a Rouse Check. If failing this Rouse Check would raise the vampire’s Hunger above 5, a failure sends the vampire into torpor instead of forcing a test for hunger frenzy.

During the day, vampire Blood becomes quiescent, even gelid. Awakening during the day requires a Humanity roll at a Difficulty depending on the level of crisis. A fire or other life-threatening situation is Difficulty 3; an urgent message or decision is Difficulty 4; an inconvenience to deal with is Difficulty 5 or higher.

Once awakened from day-sleep, a vampire can only act for a single scene. At the end of that period, to remain awake longer, they must make a Humanity roll at Difficulty 3; a win permits an additional scene. A critical win lets them stay awake for as long as needed. If a Kindred acts during daylight hours, the maximum dice pool they can roll equals their Humanity rating.

Frenzy

(for the new players to find out during the game)

Blood Bonds

Feared by those who have known it, the Blood Bond creates and enforces the most severe allegiances within the Camarilla, both between Kindred and from their mortal servants. The Anarchs generally philosophically reject Blood Bonds between vampires (although exceptions must sometimes be made for the good of the Movement) and some radicals even refuse to Blood Bond mortals. Anyone who drinks the Blood of a vampire becomes progressively more attached to their donor until finally, after three drinks or more, the Bond reduces them to servile lackeys when in the donor’s presence. Vampires call the one Bonded the thrall, and term the source of the Bond the regnant. When under a completed Blood Bond, the thrall experiences a sense of loyalty, sometimes even infatuation, toward their regnant. They attempt to please their master, becoming wary and eventually even terrified of angering them. Unlike many Disciplines, nothing prevents a vampire employing a Bond against a vampire of lower generation or one whose Blood is more potent. Many Kindred do not even acknowledge that they’ve been Bound, believing their feelings to be true and even noble. A mutual Blood Bond, sometimes called a Blood wedding, is not love – it’s obsession and addiction. Abusive and dysfunctional doesn’t even begin to describe how nasty these blood-enforced affairs tend to get after a few centuries, and they are frowned upon (to say the least) in Camarilla society.

Just as in the Embrace, the Blood consumed must be taken directly from the vein of the donor, as it loses its power to Bond in a matter of seconds unless drunk. The drinker must repeat the act on three separate nights with no more than a year between drinks for the Bond to fully form. (During their first year, a childe remains one third of the way Bound to their sire, having already tasted their Blood once.) A regnant can have as many vampire thralls as they have dots of Blood Potency, and a thrall can only have one regnant, becoming immune to other Bonding attempts while Bound. If a regnant Bonds another thrall above their maximum Blood Potency limit, their oldest Bond with a thrall fades over the course of a week.

Blood Bond System

The Blood Bond gains a Bond Strength equal to the number of times the thrall has consumed the regnant’s Blood (up to a maximum of 6) and decreases by one for each month during which the thrall consumes none of the regnant’s Blood. To attempt something against their regnant’s wishes, the thrall must succeed in a contest of Resolve + Intelligence vs. Bond Strength. If in the presence of the regnant, such defiance requires the test once per turn; if outside the regnant’s perception, the thrall need only make a defiance test once per scene.

Breaking the Bond requires the thrall to reduce the Bond Strength to 0 (zero) by avoiding their regnant for an extended time. They must successfully make a defiance roll once per session to do so (or more often, if the Storyteller judges that something has recalled the regnant to the thrall’s mind). Few thralls can resist this long, especially if their regnant actively comes looking for them.