The Embrace

The Embrace is the term used by vampires for the process of a vampire killing a mortal and resurrecting them again as one of them. Like many other vampiric phrases, it is a soft euphemism for romantic or sexual interactions, largely because referring to killing or turning a human being is considered both crass and rude. A vampire creating offspring this way is referred to as the new vampire's sire, and the new vampire is in turn referred to as the original vampire's childe.

The Process

In order to Embrace a new vampire, an existing vampire must first kill their victim, draining them completely of their blood (which they usually also consume). Once killed, the mortal's body can then be resurrected by feeding a substantial portion of the vampire's own vitae to it, either by pouring it down their throat or injecting it directly into their veins. This exchange of fluids must take place quickly; once a mortal has been dead for more than a few minutes, they remain that way permanently and can no longer be revived. The mortal, now a vampire, awakens within a few seconds of being successfully Embraced.

Newly Embraced vampires almost invariably enter frenzy as soon as they become conscious; having just died and then reawoken with a Beast that has never tasted blood before, they are little more than mindless monsters until they get their first meal. Most sires will try to provide something for the new childe ahead of time in order to be able to keep an eye on them, but some prefer to hunt with their frenzied childe to ensure they learn skills immediately, and still others just lock them in a cell or release them into the nearest shopping complex until they've either calmed down or been killed.

Vampires are "locked" into their state at the time of their Embrace, with the exception of injuries; hair length, tattoos, and body shape become immutable and cannot be changed later for more than a night, after which they revert to their original appearance the next time the vampire wakes up. They also expel all internal matter and substances that are not compatible with their new state, including reproductive fluids and any solid food that might still be in their system.

Side Effects

The Embrace comes with notable side effects. In addition to the usual downsides of the vampiric condition, such as being severely burned by fire and sunlight and being unable to stay awake during the day, the Embrace also causes significant physical and emotional stress to the person undergoing it. New vampires often develop derangements related to their Embrace, especially if it was particularly traumatic. Any mortal who is pregnant at the time of the Embrace almost always miscarries immediately as well (which is for the best, if the occasional apocryphal stories of hungry vampire fetuses chewing out of their parents' organs are to be believed).

Rarely, a new vampire may also gain a permanent physical disability as a result of their Embrace. Most commonly, such a disability takes the form of whatever injury killed them, which must be healed every night on awakening; occasionally other disabilities, such as the loss of one or more senses, may also occur. The exact cause and effect remains unknown, but elders theorize that attempting to Embrace someone who died too long ago or who has been too severely injured is more likely to result in vampires with permanent disabilities, and planned Embraces carried out swiftly and carefully are considered optimal in the hopes of avoiding such problems.

It should go without saying that newly-Embraced members of the Nosferatu clan and Gargoyle bloodline, along with others with similar extremely changed appearances, may also encounter additional problems related to their new forms.

Political Considerations

The Embrace is not a small consideration for most vampires, and as a result there are an enormous number of rules and customs in place regulating who can be Embraced by whom, how often, when and where, and what consequences might be levied if any of these laws are broken. Vampires in small, isolated communities, such as nomadic Independents, may be able to get away with Embracing largely as they please, but the larger sects have extensive and rigorous laws governing the practice.

Clan Requirements

Not every clan has formal requirements for new members, but many have unspoken guidelines; after all, a new vampire Embraced into Clan Toreador who has absolutely no artistic talent or a new vampire Embraced into the Giovanni clan who is deathly afraid of ghosts will probably have a very difficult time just surviving, let alone providing anything useful to their fellows. While clans and bloodlines do not formally have the power to approve or forbid an Embrace, a would-be sire who is considered to have chosen unwisely may find themself considered foolish or on the hook for their progeny's behavior for many decades to come.

Clan Tremere

As an exception to most clans, the Tremere very closely monitor their Embraces and require full permission from the Council of Seven before any new member can be created; anyone who breaks these rules is likely to see their new childe immediately cremated and to be in danger of following them if they don't have a good excuse.

All new Tremere are formally bloodbound to the Council in order to ensure that no members of the clan rebel against its leadership or attempt to prioritize other sects or groups above them. In the past, this often meant that Embraces were ritually performed in the council chambers themselves, but in more recent nights doing so at a pre-scheduled time in front of a chantry Regent who can provide them with the necessary vitae is considered acceptable for those who live too far away to realistically travel to Vienna.

Sect Requirements

Different sects have their own laws regarding the Embrace, ranging from draconian mandates of law to vague suggestions and customs. Most sects are simply too sprawlingly large for everyone in them to have the same rules for everything, so some sects may include multiple methods of handling the Embrace or see regional variations in generally matching laws.

In the Camarilla, the local Prince is the sovereign arbiter of whether or not a new vampire can be Embraced in their domain; anyone who does so without permission faces definite execution of the new childe and probable execution, or at least extensive punishment, of the would-be sire. Many Princes closely monitor Embrace requests in their territories in order to ensure that a rival clan does not become too powerful by creating new members, and may dole out permission to Embrace as a reward for those who please them or withhold it from others as a form of incentive.

Things are more freeform among the Anarchs, who consider Embraces to be more of a community issue. Anarchs tend to Embrace as they please, with the understanding that the local Baron and other members of the sect in the city may intercede if someone is Embracing too often, choosing childer who cause too many problems, or generally abusing the privilege. Otherwise, there are generally no consequences to an Anarch Embrace unless the new childe causes significant problems of safety or comfort to other vampires in the area; in such cases, a "three strikes rule" is often followed in which other members of the local Anarchs decide whether or not the offender needs to be exiled and whether their sire needs to be asked not to make another one like them. Of course, many Anarchs live in Camarilla territories, and as a result must abide by Camarilla rules while there or risk the wrath of the local authorities.

Members of the Sabbat generally don't keep track of Embraces, as every footsoldier helps their cause, unless a significant problem arises (for example, a low-ranking pack member who is mass-Embracing in an attempt to raise an army against a more powerful Sabbat member in the area is almost certain to be noticed and summarily deleted). The Embrace is cheap to the Sabbat, who are not invested in Camarilla ideas of its mystical potency and the need to bestow it only on the most worthy; in keeping with their more populist approach, they think everyone is equally worthy (although they aren't likely to save their childer from danger on the same theory, requiring them to prove that they deserve to exist).

On a more positive note, the Laibon and Jati actively celebrate Embraces; while they are no more frequent, it is because they are considered an enormous blessing to be bestowed upon the vampire in question and a decision never to be made lightly or in the heat of the moment. New childer are considered important as permanent parts of a House or clan going forward, and as a result the Embrace is often a ceremonial affair, with multiple vampires besides the sire observing the moment when a new addition to the sect is born. Both the Laibon and the Jati have complex kinship systems regarding what mortals can be considered for an Embrace, often based on historical systems such as the Indian caste system; while Embracing from outside your designated area was a cause for exile in most cases in the past, in modern times some more lenient Magaji have begun allowing such behavior (provided they are appropriately compensated for it, of course).

More restrictive systems exist among both the Ashirra and the Shining Kingdoms, each of which consider the Embrace of a new member momentous and require extensive waiting periods before any request can be granted (in the Ashirra, by the local Sultan; in the Shining Kingdoms, by the Governor in charge of the area), designed to give a potential sire time to continue teaching and observing their would-be childe and making sure that they are suitable and will be an asset once Embraced. Members of the Ashirra tend to do so in secrecy, observing their potential childer going about their lives by shadowing and researching them; vampires from the Shining Kingdoms sometimes take the idea even further by raising mortals from childhood and specifically grooming them to become vampires later, an old-fashioned practice that has recently come into conflict with many modern ideas about the level of secrecy vampires need to operate. Among the Shining Kingdoms, a potential childe's mortal lineage is also considered an indicator of how well they will be able to adjust to the demands of being undead, leading to multiple members of the same families often existing in the same clan or bloodline.

Among the vampires of the Quiet Nations, there are few hard-and-fast laws but several important customs, the most notable of which is the fact that sires attempt to Embrace only members of peoples native to the Americas, usually of the same nations that they themselves came from; because they are constantly fighting for their own territory and influence against the interlopers of the Camarilla, Anarchs, and Sabbat, they are deeply concerned about only inducting new members who recognize their plight and are unlikely to sympathize with the invaders. Non-Native people can and occasionally have been Embraced by the Quiet Nations, but generally only strategically, often to prevent another clan from doing so first and gaining influence over them. Because the clans and bloodlines of the Quiet Nations also tend to slightly warp new vampires' personalities to match their founders, potential sires also make an effort to choose childer who are already inclined toward certain traits to prevent them from suffering too much whiplash when Embraced.

Embraces are considered extremely serious business by the Cradle of Civilization and the Teteoh, who despite being halfway across the planet from one another share ideals regarding only Embracing especially skilled, important, or powerful candidates who will be equally powerful and important once they grow into their undead lives. Both sects consider convenience Embraces anathema and any sire who Embraces a less-than-impressive candidate to have revealed that they too did not deserve membership in the sect; either sin is likely to result in banishment in the Cradle, although members of the Teteoh may respond in various ways depending on what region they are in and which clans are ascendent there. Most sires only have one or perhaps two childer as a result of this policy of only accepting the very best, which may contribute to the comparatively low number of members when compared to other sects.

Finally, the Drowned Legacies have no formal rules regarding the Embrace at all. Since many members are semi-isolated or in hiding, Embraces are considered the private business of whomever is considering one, and similarly a failed or mistaken Embrace is considered the responsibility of the sire to find and put down before they cause too many problems.

Shovelheads

A shovelhead is a vampire who has been Embraced as part of a Sabbat mass-Embrace event, so-called because a popular way of performing such an Embrace is forcing a mortal to dig a grave and then killing them in it with their own shovel (or, if time is a factor, digging a mass grave and then just swatting people into it with the shovel). Shovelheads are typically Embraced with a melange of blood from whatever Sabbat vampires are available and then buried before being abandoned by their sires, who make no effort to help them transition or even to remember what they looked like. The new vampire then awakens underground and is forced to claw their way free to the surface. According to the Sabbat, any vampire that cannot do so would not survive as a member of the Sabbat anyway, and presumably many failed shovelheads simply return to being corpses or fall into torpor without ever making it above ground.

Shovelheads are usually severely traumatized by their experience and are likely to not only emerge in a violent frenzy but also to have long-lasting derangements and struggles as a result. Since most shovelheads are Embraced to be disposable shock troops, this is not considered an issue for the Sabbat, who don't as a sect particularly care if they all die a few hours after getting up as long as they did a little damage first. Those few shovelheads who survive the ordeal and manage to become part of Sabbat society as a whole are considered to have proven themselves worthy to be undead, although the sect's ruthless approach means that they can never rest on their laurels for long.

Embraces Gone Wrong

As noted above, Embraces do not always result in a perfect new vampire full of wonder for the nighttime world they are about to experience. The Embrace literally kills a mortal and then subjects them to enormous psychological stress in order to revive them; it's no surprise that, in addition to the possibility of inflicting derangements and disabilities on them, it may also cause other problems.

Stillbirths

In some cases, a vampire's Embrace simply fails. This is a tragic event; most of the time, a vampire who attempts to revive a dead mortal only to discover that they are unresponsive will be at the very least upset and cheated as they have lost a potential resource, and at worst emotionally devastated as they realize that they have killed a loved one and cannot bring them back.

Stillbirths are rare, and in most cases appear to be the result of an individual vampire having infertile vitae or otherwise not being powerful enough to successfully Embrace their victim. There are occasional apocryphal stories of vampires being able to correct this inability to reproduce with powerful magical rituals, but no concrete proof of any has ever been widely recognized.

Thin-Bloods

A vampire who is Embraced but has exceptionally weak vitae and powers is referred to as Thin-Blooded. Such a vampire possesses some characteristics inherited from their sire, but their blood is so weak that they do not show the particular powers or skills of their clan, nor can they ever compete with other vampires on an even playing field. Thin-Blooded vampires also often have delayed Embraces, requiring several hours before awakening instead of the instant awareness that most childer have on becoming undead.

Thin-Blooded vampires often result when an especially high-generation vampire attempts to Embrace, but they can result from any Embrace, even when their sires are exceptionally potent themselves. Again, it is unsure why this occasional glitch occurs in vampires who should have power levels closer to those of others of a similar generation and parentage; many vampires believe it represents some hidden weakness on the part of the sire, and as a result most Thin-Blooded vampires are banished or killed by their own sires shortly after coming into being.

Supernatural Embraces

Supernatural beings do not always respond to the Embrace as well as mortals do, with competing powers and sources of energy combining to cause sometimes explosive results. Most vampires would never attempt to Embrace a supernatural being in the first place for this reason, but it still occasionally happens in cases of experimentation, overwhelming emotional attachment, or mistaken identity.

All varieties of mortals, including those with additional powers such as hunters, mages, or ghouls, can be equally effectively Embraced; no matter how powerful they may be, they are still at heart human beings and just as susceptible to vitae. Hunters, mages, sorcerers, and demonic thralls do however lose all supernatural powers they had in their former life, and must start over from scratch with vampiric disciplines. Mortals with a trace of supernatural blood, such as kinfolk and kinain, are equally easily Embraced and also lose their link to those outside powers they were once connected to.

Results are mixed for other supernatural beings, however. Many simply cannot be Embraced at all; demons, Kuei-Jin, and mummies are impossible to Embrace, as they are already being sustained by a force other than traditional "life", and the most a vampire attempting to do so is likely to get for their trouble is a mouthful of sand and a punch to the face. Ghosts, of course, cannot be Embraced due to their lack of a corporeal body to attempt the process with. Fairies are invariably stillborn when Embraced, as the shock of severing them from the Dreaming and plunging them so deeply into banality simply kills them outright.

Some shapeshifters can be Embraced by vampires, but this is frowned upon by all parties involved. Embraces of shapeshifters are dangerous, as about half the time the attempt fails and kills the victim due to their uncontrollable and violent response to being invaded by the powers of death and chaos. Those who do survive become Abominations, severely disabled vampires capable of shapeshifting but not of passing as remotely human anymore, and those that don't commit suicide tend to be solitary and severely mentally ill. Other shapeshifters cannot be effectively Embraced; the Corax, Kitsune, and Mokolé gain power from the sun and die by the end of the night they are Embraced as a result, and Embraced Ratkin fail to gain the unchanging flesh of most vampires, continuing to rot like the corpses they are until they can no longer move. For all shapeshifters, life as an Abomination is an exercise in marking time until they inevitably lose the last of their gnosis and become wights shortly thereafter.