Blood Bond

The blood of vampires, commonly referred to as vitae, is exceptionally strong, and carries various properties unique to the undead. The most notable of these is the blood bond or bloodbond, which refers to the ability of vampiric blood to create long-lasting emotional connections with others who consume it, even to the point of causing addiction and indentured servitude.

Bloodbonding

This process is referred to as bloodbonding, and occurs when any living being consumes at least a few drops of blood from a vampire. The blood bond increases in strength with each additional day that the same being consumes more blood from the same vampire, although multiple drinks in the same day do not have any additional effect. Depending on how many times they have drunk from a vampire, they develop a strong emotional connection to the vampire whose blood they imbibed, separated into three distinct stages:

• Step One: The drinker of the vampire's blood develops a strong crush on the vampire, and frequently daydreams about them, tries to be in their presence, or seeks to gain their attention in some way.
• Step Two: The drinker of the vampire's blood becomes extremely attached to the vampire, considering them equivalent to a best friend, lover, or family member regardless of how well they knew them before that point. They have difficulty denying them anything or making them unhappy, and try to be with them as much as possible.
• Step Three: The drinker of the vampire's blood falls deeply, inescapably in love with the vampire, becoming obsessed with them, superceding all other relationships. They are utterly devoted to them and will do anything they ask, even if it is disastrous or fatal to themself, and are completely incapable of trying to do anything that might hurt or upset them.

These feelings seem completely natural and normal to the person affected, and many may not even realize that they have been bloodbound at all, mistaking the emotions for their own; even those who know enough to recognize the signs are helpless to try to ignore them. It is possible to be bloodbound to multiple vampires at once if a being drinks the blood of several different ones, although a given person can only be bound at the third step to a single vampire. Blood bonds do not technically grant any additional psychic awareness, but many people bound to vampires over the ages have reported feeling as though they could sense their moods to a limited extent.

Blood Bonds and Other Vampires

Vampires frequently bloodbond one another for a variety of reasons, although doing so is often a matter of subterfuge and subtlety. Sires frequently bloodbond their childer in order to ensure that they remain loyal to them and don't step out of line, while Princes may attempt to bloodbond some members of their cabinet for similar reasons. Bloodbonds are also occasionally levied as a punishment, since they force an offender to become obedient to a master chosen for them for the duration of their existence. A few vampires choose to enter into a mutual bloodbond to one another as part of an agreement or pact, or in order to ensure that they cannot be fully bound to anyone else other than the person they already trust.

For the most part, vampires are extremely wary about bloodbonds, which represent one of the few sure ways to strip them of their free will without them even realizing it. Many vampires refuse point-blank to drink any blood that did not come from a trusted source, and attempts to trick other vampires into imbibing blood - by planting a ghoul as a feeding decoy, spiking drinks at public occasions, or even ambushing someone in an alley - are not uncommon. For the most part, discussion of bloodbonds is considered uncouth among the Camarilla and irrelevant among the Sabbat (who have their own version of the bond, the Vinculum), and therefore is seldom discussed out loud.

Blood Bonds and Ghouls

Ghouls are the result of bloodbonds levied upon mortals, who generally have little to no ability to even think about resisting their supernatural masters once they have been bound. The vast majority of ghouls are bound all three steps to their masters, since they must frequently drink from them in order to renew their bond, and only very new ghouls or ghouls who have lost their masters are likely to be less firmly connected to them.

Because a ghoul's blood carries the taint of their vampiric master, any other vampire who feeds from them may in turn also be bound to their master without realizing it if the ghoul has ingested blood very recently. For this reason, ghouls are often used as stealth carries of the bloodbond to others, although doing so is of course a significant risk to any ghoul used this way.

Breaking the Bond

Bloodbonds decay naturally over time, but they are powerful enough that they do not do so quickly. In the vast majority of cases, a bloodbond with only a single step naturally wears off after a year, while a two-step bloodbond requires two years, and a three-step bond a full three years. Any blood drunk from the same vampire during that time refreshes the bond and starts this countdown over.

Bloodbonds are also broken if the vampire to whom a person is bound dies, although how noticeable and traumatic this is depends on how many steps the bond between them was. Those bound only one or two steps are likely to feel a sense of loss but to ultimately only realize what has happened over a a long period of soul-searching; those bound three steps, however, actually feel the vampire die, and are often reduced to hysteria or depression as a result.

Some outside powers may be able to occasionally break a bloodbond, although these tend to be rare and are almost never performed without a hefty price. Some powers in the Thaumaturgy Discipline may be able to create, break, or manipulate a bond, while Mages and Hunters have been known to find ways to remove themselves from a vampire's influence.