| Contents |
| History • Strongholds • Advantages and Weaknesses • The Putanesca in DC • Putanesca Characters |
| Putanesca | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Pseudonyms | Fuckers |
| Sect | Independents |
| Disciplines | Auspex Fortitude Potence |
| Rarity | Rare |
In every criminal organization there must be footsoldiers and muscle-for-hire, and the Putanesca are the undead answer to that need among the ranks of their parent clan, the Giovanni. A bloodline that arose in the late seventeenth century to allow part of the clan to split off and focus on physical matters and logistics instead of hauntings and necromancy, they are consummate criminals, unstoppable avengers of wrongs, and excellent assassins (as long as you don't mind if things get a little messy, anyway).
History
The First Putanesca
According to an apocryphal tale, the Putanesca were not really created in order to give the Giovanni an enforcer wing; they were created as part of a revenge vendetta. A Giovanni elder, suffering from enraged grief after human hunters killed her grandson and planned future childe, called upon all her necromantic powers to bring the souls of wraiths with powers over the spirit to attend her. She chose her largest, strongest, most uncompromising ghoul bodyguard and Embraced him, and as she did called upon her ghostly servants to forge his soul during the process, descending on him during the brief moment of his dead and ripping nascent necromancy away, leaving behind a burning well of violent, powerful spirit with nowhere to go. According to the story, this became the source of the famous Putanesca revenge impulse, and the newly Embraced founder of the bloodline found and destroyed his former mistress's enemies in short order.
The official Giovanni party line story is a little different: they claim that, seeing a need for a class of soldiers utterly loyal to the Giovanni and without the ability to interfere in their necromantic pursuits, Augustus Giovanni himself created the first of the Putanesca by overseeing the performance of an Embrace and similarly calling up powerful ghosts to change the dying Putanesca's soul at the critical moment in the process. The Putanesca are somewhat split about whether they believe the first or the second story (or either), often lining up with their level of loyalty to the Giovanni, but most of them can agree that the second story smacks of pro-Giovanni propaganda even if it is true.
Modern Nights
The Putanesca spent a couple of centuries as extremely effective muscle for the Giovanni, shoring up and in many cases single-handedly carrying their seafaring operations and smuggling trade thanks to their expertise in intimidation and general roughing-up. By the late nineteenth century, however, they had begun to chafe under Giovanni rule, pointing out that other bloodlines were autonomous and arguing that even if they did come from Giovanni efforts, they were under no obligation to remain undead servants forever. A few bloody eruptions in various areas of Europe convinced the Giovanni that attempting to crack down by bloodbonding or otherwise threatening the bloodline tended to have explosive consequences, and so by the Victorian era the Putanesca had become grudgingly considered semi-free agents. (Of course, most Giovanni will immediately agree that the Putanesca belong to them and are dependent on them, and the Putanesca themselves tend to have a variety of different opinions on how much they should or want to help the Giovanni as opposed to creating their own new spheres of influence.)
The Putanesca are something of a second-class bloodline; even when compared to other small bloodlines, they are generally considered low-class and brutish no matter who they actually are or what they're actually doing. The Giovanni consider them essentially low-rent tools that they can use for their own ends, leading to frequent clashes between Putanesca footsoldiers and Giovanni neonates who wrongly think they should automatically be considered more important by virtue of their clan. The fact that the Putanesca do not have access to the Necromancy blood sorcery is both a mark in their favor, since the entire point of the bloodline was to be able to do things without needing a death wizard, and an indelible stain that forever causes the Giovanni to think of them as stunted and thuggish.
Other clans don't tend to be any better; being attached to the Giovanni is hardly a positive factor among most vampires in other sects, especially in the Camarilla. Putanesca who escape the shadow of their parent clan still find themselves generally treated as small and insignificant, since the bloodline lacks the numbers to meaningfully impact most political situations even if they managed to unify.
Strongholds
The Putanesca are not designed to have a stronghold; scattered and largely not considered leadership material, they mostly form small communities in whatever area they live and defer to the eldest among them as a sort of informal boss. If anywhere is a Putanesca stronghold, it is always somewhere others don't want to be: the underbelly of Devil's Acre, the slums of Bushwick, or the desperate inner city surrounding Skid Row.
Advantages and Weaknesses
Advantages
The Putanesca bring their own family reputation with them, even outside of the Giovanni, and most vampires know that to cross them is to risk being in the crosshairs of their legendary quests for vengeance. As a result, they often have an easier time in social situations than other oppressed bloodlines, simply because they are often too intimidating for others to haze them as much as they otherwise might.
As a group that always works together, Putanesca can also always call for backup from the bloodline; if they do, they can expect a handful of Putanesca from whatever cities are closest to arrive within the next night, ready for action with baseball bats and homemade silencers and probably not too worried about what exactly the goal is.
Disadvantages
No matter what, the Putanesca will have their revenge. Any Putanesca who feels they have been wronged immediately becomes dedicated to taking vengeance on the guilty party, dropping other long-range goals in favor of this one and often taking actions that are detrimental to themselves just to make sure that their nemesis doesn't get away with it. It doesn't matter whether the slight was an accident, had extenuating circumstances, or has been made amends for (or even didn't exist in the first place because the Putanesca in question misunderstood something) - nothing mollifies a Putanesca's need for vengeance. A Putanesca hot on the trail of someone they are intent on punishing can do anything to them that seems to fit the crime in order to satisfy their need, which often results in very creative crime scenes for mortal authorities to puzzle over later.
A Putanesca who cannot successfully enact vengeance against someone, either because they attempt and irrevocably fail or because they cannot find or affect them, begins to suffer severe behavioral problems, becoming more prone to bursting into Frenzy at the sight of their enemy until they become completely unrestrainable. Such vampires often end up with permanent derangements, even if they eventually do manage to address the wrong done to them.
The Putanesca in DC
There are currently no Putanesca in Washington, DC, although members of the bloodline have been known to remark that under the new Prince, Marcus Vitel, there may be opportunities for a scrappy young clan to get influence before the Giovanni do for once...
Putanesca Characters
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| Belladonna Putanesca |
Drago Putanesca |
Romeo Putanesca |
Salvatore Putanesca |