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Revision as of 18:00, 10 March 2021

Vampires

Vampires are the classic undead of myth and literature. Undying, semi-immortal creatures that stalk only at night, preying on living human beings whose blood they must drink to survive, they are bringers of both nightmares and fantasies. While few mortals know they exist and even fewer know much about them, they come in many different shapes and from many different sources, spreading all over the world to any place where there are mortals to feed from.

Clans

European Clans

Vampire society as most know it is centered around clans, genetically-related groups of vampires who pass their traits, skills, and powers on to others they create. Such clans often have goals and philosophies in common, and tend to be insular and likely to consider other clans threatening rather than to want to cooperate with them. In the grand political scheme of the Camarilla, the European clans are the most powerful and numerous, using centuries of political acumen and collective vision (and oppression of clans from elsewhere) to shape the world around them.

BrujahSmall.png CappadocianSmall.png GangrelSmall.png GiovanniSmall.png
Brujah Cappadocians Gangrel Giovanni
LasombraSmall.png MalkaviansSmall.png NosferatuSmall.png ToreadorSmall.png TremereSmall.png TzimisceSmall.png VentrueSmall.png
Lasombra Malkavians Nosferatu Toreador Tremere Tzimisce Ventrue

African Clans

The African vampire clans, collectively referred to by their northern neighbors as the Laibon after the name they used in diplomatic negotiations during the Middle Ages, are entirely separate from their European kin. More firmly tied to and drawing power from their native lands, they have their own political societies and concerns and seldom allow northern vampires to do more than establish a foothold in their territories. Their powers reflect traditional African vampire lore, making them distinct as bloodlines even when they bear a passing resemblance to the Indo-European clans.

AkunanseSmall.png
Akunanse
SetitesSmall.png GuruhiSmall.png KinyonyiSmall.png NagloperSmall.png OseboSmall.png ShangoSmall.png XiDunduSmall.png
Followers of Set Guruhi Kinyonyi Naglopers Osebo Shango Xi Dundu

American Clans

The American vampire clans are elusive, living as they do mostly off of the indigenous peoples with whom they have a close bond and the fringes of large cities, seldom making their domains in the midst of the mortals. They are less centrally organized than the clans across the sea, preferring to each hold individual territories and kingdoms. European vampire society refers to the American clans as the Drowned Legacies, considering them largely wiped out and powerless enough to ignore. They are incorrect, but seldom do any of them who intrude into their stronghold territories survive to tell anyone else the truth.

100px 100px BaykoshSmall.png CipactliSmall.png KalkuSmall.png KaraiPyhareSmall.png
Ærquic Ahcinkxat Baykosh Cipactli Kalku Karai Pyhare
LepweokanSmall.png LostundoSmall.png MaxinkwelesewakanSmall.png PishtacoSmall.png TitlacauanSmall.png UnhudoSmall.png UtluntaSmall.png
Lëpweokàn Lostundo Maxinkwelësëwakàn Pishtaco Titlacauan Unhudo U'tlun'ta

Asian Clans

The Asian vampire clans are among the rarest and most elusive, originating and largely living as they do in the dangerous territories of the far more powerful and widespread Kuei-Jin. While some of them claim ancestry from immigrants from the European clans, having developed themselves into a distinct bloodline with time and isolation, others make it clear that the idea that there are no vampires native to Asia is perhaps more of a story the Kuei-Jin like to tell rather than a reality.

AssamitesSmall.png AswangSmall.png IshtarriSmall.png JiangShiSmall.png PenanggalanSmall.png RavnosSmall.png SalubriSmall.png
Assamites Aswang Ishtarri Jiang Shi Penanggalan Ravnos Salubri

Bloodlines

European Bloodlines

The Indo-European clans have given rise to a number of bloodlines, smaller groups of vampires that have developed unique features and powers as a group that differ from the regular clan's. Most bloodlines are still identifiably related to the clan that gave rise to them and often represent cultural differences in different parts of the world. Because of their comparative rarity, most vampires from bloodlines have a hard time rising to political power or being taken seriously as a group, even to the point that most vampires of the major clans remain unaware of the existence of the majority of bloodlines.

AhrimanSmall.png AnankeSmall.png AngellisAterSmall.png BloodBrotherSmall.png CarrierSmall.png
Ahrimanes Ananke Angellis Ater Blood Brothers Carriers
CoyoteSmall.png DaughterofCacophanySmall.png DraculSmall.png DunsirnSmall.png EloiSmall.png GargoyleSmall.png GorgonSmall.png
Coyotes Daughters of
Cacophony
Dracul Dunsirns Eloi Gargoyles Gorgons
HarbingerofSkullsSmall.png KiasydSmall.png KoldunSmall.png LamiaSmall.png LhiannanSmall.png MarinerSmall.png NephilimSmall.png
Harbingers
of Skulls
Kiasyd Kolduns Lamiae Lhiannan Mariners Nephilim
NictukuSmall.png NoiadSmall.png PutanescaSmall.png RosseliniSmall.png TelyavSmall.png VolgirreSmall.png ZoidionSmall.png
Nictuku Noiades Putanesca Rosselini Telyavs Volgirre Zoidones

African Bloodlines

The African bloodlines, on the other hand, represent groups of vampires whose ecological niches and connection to their homelands has been damaged, most often as a result of European colonization. Several of them differ from the main clans only in that there are far fewer of them, making them unable to affect the same kind of broad influence. Indo-European vampires tend to assume, if they are aware of the African bloodlines at all, that they represent offshoots of the main clans the way theirs do.

BonsamSmall.png ChildrenofOsirisSmall.png DamballahnSmall.png
Bonsam Children of Osiris Damballahns
GlyconiteSmall.png ImpunduluSmall.png MlaWatuSmall.png NkuluZaoSmall.png NomadSmall.png RamangaSmall.png ViperSmall.png
Glyconites Impundulu Mla Watu Nkulu Zao Nomads Ramanga Vipers

American Bloodlines

It can be difficult to distinguish between the American clans and their bloodlines, as they have much less difference in population and secrecy than their counterparts on other continents; endangered by the invasion of the European bloodlines, they have very few members and even less inclination to let anyone know about them. Seldom seen, they still operate in the shadows of their traditional territories, invisible to any they do not choose to show themselves to.

BohagandeSmall.png CihuateteoSmall.png 100px PisanobSmall.png SamediSmall.png 100px TlaciqueSmall.png
Bohagande Cihuateto Coconeh Pochtli Pisanobs Samedi Sta-Au Tlacique

Asian Bloodlines

There are very few members of any of the Asian bloodlines, some of them hardly more than a handful of survivors who have managed to escape the depredations of the Kuei-Jin. This means that they tend to have very little organization or connection with others of their bloodlines, who are likely to be isolated and at least partly in hiding; many members of the more major clans are completely unaware that any of them exist, even when they live in the very same territories.

AndaSmall.png AzanealiSmall.png BaaliSmall.png BushiSmall.png CourtiersSmall.png DaityaSmall.png DanavaSmall.png
Anda Azaneali Baali Bushi Courtiers Daitya Danava
GakiSmall.png KinSlayerSmall.png MagiSmall.png NagarajaSmall.png PhuriDaeSmall.png VizierSmall.png WuZaoSmall.png
Gaki Kin-Slayers Magi Nagaraja Phuri Dae Viziers Wu Zao

Antitribu

Antitribu, or counter-clans, are those members of larger clans who have rejected the complex political landscape of the rest of their clanmates and stand as the antithesis to their mainstream views and practices (often, though not always, as a result of membership in the Sabbat). While they technically have the same genetic powers and features as the clans proper, they often manifest in very different ways or give rise to strange mutations as a result of the wildly different ways that they use their powers and interact with the world. It is possible for antitribu to become "regular" members of their clan and vice versa, but it is uncommon due to the extreme prejudice on both sides.

AssamiteAntiSmall.png BrujahAntiSmall.png GangrelAntiSmall.png LasombraAntiSmall.png MalkavianAntiSmall.png NosferatuAntiSmall.png
Assamite
Antitribu
Brujah
Antitribu
Gangrel
Antitribu
Lasombra
Antitribu
Malkavian
Antitribu
Nosferatu
Antitribu
RavnosAntiSmall.png SalubriAntiSmall.png SerpentoftheLightSmall.png ToreadorantiSmall.png TremereAntiSmall.png TzimisceAntiSmall.png VentrueAntiSmall.png
Ravnos
Antitribu
Salubri
Antitribu
Serpents
of the Light
Toreador
Antitribu
Tremere
Antitribu
Tzimisce
Antitribu
Ventrue
Antitribu

The Clanless

Occasionally, a vampire may be created who has no blood connection to a clan. Most of the time, this is a genetic mutation or error, caused by anything from impurities in the former human's blood to instability in the sire's powers to simple weakening of the clan line. Vampires with no clan are viciously marginalized, often completely excluded from society, heavily mistreated, or even hunted on sight, and some as a result attempt to blend in with the major clans, passing themselves off as a member of whatever clan is most suited to their temperament.

AbominationSmall.png CaitiffSmall.png DhampirSmall.png MaegharSmall.png PanderSmall.png ThinBloodedSmall.png
Abominations Caitiff Dhampir Maeghar Panders Thin-Blooded

The World Beyond

As huge as the World of Darkness is, it's almost inevitable that there must be more creatures lingering in the shadows than have yet allowed themselves to be discovered by others. Since the vast majority of vampires in Europe and the Americas are of European descent, they tend to assume that parts of the world they consider "exotic" are empty and just waiting for them to colonize them - in other words, they shape their own history around themselves just as much as humans of European descent do.

Given this, it's almost certain that vampire clans and bloodlines exist beyond those listed above, although it is very unlikely that any of them would be interested in revealing their existence to others that they do not trust implicitly.