Vampires
Name for themselves: Kindred
Vampires are created when one of them (called the sire) embraces or turns (the terms are interchangeable) a normal human being. The newly turned vampire is referred to as a “childe.” Upon turning, a new vampire gains the clan of his sire and all the powers that go with it.
Those powers include varying degrees of super-strength, super-speed, invulnerability, and super-senses. In addition, they also have other powers that develop over time.
- Emotional Manipulation - Known formally as “Majesty.” Allows a vampire to alter or manipulate the feelings of others. Usually to incite passion or attraction in another.
- Mesmerism - Known formally as “Dominate.” Allows a vampire to directly control the actions of another through verbal commands. This is the old “look into my eyes” bit from the old Dracula movies.
- Animal Control - Known formally as “Animalism.” Like Dominate and Majesty combined, but only with animals and baser creatures.
- Physical transformation - Known formally as “Protean.” Allows a vampire to take on animal or monstrous characteristics like claws or shapeshift into the form of a beast. Vampires that turn into bats or other creatures use this power to do so.
- Stealth - Known formally as “Obfuscate.” Allows a vampire to vanish from sight, turn invisible, or disguise themselves as another person.
- Terror - Known formally as “Nightmare.” Allows a vampire to inflict fear and terror on another. Can cause insanity or even physical injury at its highest levels.
- Sight beyond Sight - Known formally as “Auspex.” Allows a vampire to sense what cannot otherwise be sensed: Things invisible, things in the spiritual realm, the thoughts of others, and events of the past or future.
Each clan specializes in a particular power
- Daeva - Seductive and sexy. Masters of Majesty.
- Gangrel - Feral and bestial. Masters of Protean and Animalism.
- Mehket - Mysterious and stealthy. Masters of Obfuscate and Auspex.
- Nosferatu - Terrifying and monstrous. Masters of Nightmare and Obfuscate.
- Ventrue - Domineering and powerful. Masters of Dominate.
Vampires also have other more informal powers and weaknesses..
- They can regenerate from almost any injury. Only fire, sunlight, or extreme body trauma (including, but not limited to, decapitation) can truly kill them. Otherwise, they enter a death-like sleep known as torpor.
- Vampires can cling to any vertical or inverted surface like an insect.
- They can bind others to their service by feeding them their blood three times. This is known as a “thrall-bond” or “blood-bond.” Mages and werewolves are immune to this, but not other vampires.
- Some vampires have mastered varying degrees of “blood magic.” There are three major schools of blood magic, each taught by the Ordo Dracul, Lancea Sanctum, and Circle of the Crone covenants.
- Vampires are functionally immortal. They stop aging like humans at the moment of their embrace, but continue to grow in power as time goes on. Eventually this increased strength means they can no longer feed from mortal blood. They then must enter a voluntary torpor of many decades to “reduce their age” to allow them to function again. These torpors also have the side-effect of erasing or altering memory, making the long years of eternity more bearable.
- Vampires are truly monsters and are “infected” in a sense by a powerful animalistic spirit. This spirit is referred to as “The Beast Within” or simply “The Beast.” In moments of extreme duress, the Beast can assume control of a vampire’s body and force him or her to do acts of unspeakable barbarism. This is called “frenzy.” The more vile the morality of the vampire, the easier it is for the Beast to take control.
- Vampires can shortcut the aging process by “soul-drinking” a more powerful kindred. Known formally as “diablerie” or “amaranth,” this gives a vampire power very quickly, but is considered among the most heinous of crimes.
Vampires organize socially into six “covenants.”
- Lancea Sanctum - Religious (Pseudo-Christian) and rigid.
- Invictus - Feudalistic and hierarchical.
- Carthian - Democratic and modern.
- Circle of the Crone - Pagan and libertine.
- Ordo Dracul - Scholarly and insular.
- Unaligned - “None of the above”
A group of vampires is called a "coterie." All the vampires of a given city are led by an overlord known as a “Prince.”
Mages
Name for themselves: None formally. Also known as wizards and will-workers.
Mages are largely created by happenstance. A normal human suddenly “awakens” to the broader implications of the wider world and gains the capability to manipulate reality. This typically takes the form of a vision involving a “watchtower.” The particulars of the vision determine what sort of mage that person will become.
Mages can theoretically do anything with their magic. Their powers have their limitations however. The first of which is the strength of will of the mage himself. Novice mages are only able to bend reality in subtle and minute ways. As they grow in knowledge and strength, they are able to do more. Their biggest obstacle is what is called “unbelief,” the collective will of normal ordinary people that reality should stay the way it should. Unbelief is harder to overcome the more ordinary people are able to witness the mage using magic and is easier when the mage is isolated or in the company of other supernatural entities.
Mages subdivide into five schools of study, known as “Paths.” Which school one studies is determined by their watchtower vision.
- Acanthus - Free-spirits and libertines. Masters of manipulating time and fate (probability and luck).
- Mastigos - Deceptive and controlling. Masters of mental magic and spatial reality (distance, place, etc.)
- Moros - Grim and macabre. Masters of manipulating the power of death and physical matter.
- Obrimos - Scholarly and powerful. Masters of manipulating energy (light, gravity, kinetics, etc) and the raw stuff of magic itself (known as “Prime”)
- Thyrsus - Wild and shamanistic. Masters of life, healing, and the spiritual realms.
Mages also have a few other characteristics.
- They are still physically human, which means they do not regenerate injury or illness any better than an ordinary person. They also have a normal human lifespan. Magic can heal, cure, or extend life, but it cannot alter these truths in any fundamental way.
- Before awakening, mages will often have random odd events occur in their life that often prelude their eventual path. A future Acanthus might be very lucky or a future Moros might have insects die after biting her.
Mages band together socially to share magical secrets and to jointly unlock the secrets of the universe. The leader of a group of mages is called a Hierarch.
Werewolves
Name for themselves: Uratha
Werewolves are born, the product of a werewolf mating with a normal human. Many offspring of such unions grow up to be mostly-normal humans, although these “kin-touched” have affinities and immunities to werewolf powers that ordinary humans do not. The rest become werewolves themselves, having their “first change” in their mid to late teens.
The primary power of a werewolf is the ability to shapeshift. It takes five different forms.
- Human - Self explanatory.
- Wolf-man - Think Lon Chaney in his wolf makeup. Still mostly human, just bigger and hairier.
- Battle form - Massive combination of wolf and man. See above illustration. Big, mean, and (usually) out of control.
- Dire wolf - Oversized wolf. Much too big to be anything ordinary or natural.
- Wolf - Standard sized wolf. Can pass for a natural animal.
Werewolves have a number of other powers and drawbacks.
- They are nearly invulnerable to damage. Only silver or massive body trauma (like decapitation or explosives) can kill them. Otherwise, they will regenerate to full health in a short time. They are virtually immune to disease and their resistance to toxins and drugs (including alcohol) is prodigious.
- Despite their regenerative powers, their lifespan is no longer than normal humans.
- Many werewolves know a form of spirit magic, trading favors with various nature spirits for aid or knowledge.
- Like vampires, werewolves are cursed with an inner beast (unsurprisingly, they call this “the wolf”) which can take control of them when under extreme duress. Like it is with vampires, this loss of control is called “frenzy.”
- Humans instinctively fear werewolves on a primal level. When they witness a werewolf in anything but human or wolf form, a type of madness descends upon them, clouding their memories and causing them to flee. This is called Lunacy. Some humans (such as hunters or kintouched) have some resistance to this effect.
- Werewolves are not allowed to mate with their own kind. The offspring of such unions is an accursed and destructive spirit of nature. Werewolf-on-werewolf romance is forbidden.
The moon under which a werewolf is born has an impact on their personality and role in society.
- New Moon – Scouts and rogues.
- Cresent Moon – Shamans and spirit-walkers.
- Half-moon - Diplomats and peace-makers.
- Gibbous moon - Scholars and storytellers.
- Full moon - Warriors.
Werewolves divide socially into “tribes” and “packs.” Individual uratha that claim no formal membership in either are called “ghost wolves” or simply “ghosts.” The leader of a werewolf group is called an Alpha (or in some cases, a Chief.)
Changelings
Name for themselves: The Lost (also Fae-touched)
Changelings are abducted, normal humans taken by the powerful and mysterious Fae to their native realm of Arcadia. The motives and mentality of the Fae are incomprehensible to humankind. People are abducted for myriad reasons, none of which make much sense even to the changeling. Changelings are those humans who manage to escape (or are let go) and return to Earth. The spiritual barrier between Arcadia and Earth is known as the Hedge.
Each changeling takes on some aspect of the Fae that abducted them. Since Fae are so diverse, this means that changelings can take virtually any form. To most observers, they appear as human, but with some odd trait normally associated with creatures of mythology. They have aspects of pixies, trolls, gnomes, elves, dwarves, elementals, and other such fantasy creatures.
Changeling powers are as diverse as their appearance, but often relates again to their abductor. A changeling taken by a beautiful snow elf might show powers related to charm and frost, while a troll abductee might be able to frighten or eat most anything.
There are a few commonalities however.
- Changelings are injured in much the same way as normal humans, although weapons forged of raw iron inflict extreme injury upon them. Their lifespans vary from human norms to many centuries.
- Changelings gain power through emotion and dreams, so they often reside near places where humans will feel passionate emotions or where their imaginations will take flight.
- The Fae often leave behind a duplicate of their abductee, known as a “Fetch,” when they capture a human. The Fetch lives the abductee’s life and knows their every memory. Very few normal humans can tell the difference between the Fetch and the real person.
Changelings gather together socially in large part out of fear of their Fae captors. The overriding emotion in a changeling community is paranoia, worry that their Fae abductors will come and take them away again. Most changeling communities take on a feudal character, with a king and queen as leader.
Hunters
Name for themselves: None
Hunters are normal humans who have been exposed to the dark secrets of the world and have decided to kill it with fire. The number of normal people who are aware of the supernatural world is quite small; most people who are exposed to the shadows ignore the truths they tell them (out of fear) and go on with their lives pretending it isn't real. To do otherwise is to invite mockery and scorn from society. But a few risk that and their very lives to challenge the dark powers.
Most hunters are independent. However, some hunters band together due to a common foe or common origin. These hunter groups (sometimes called compacts or conspiracies) can possess greater resources than solo hunters and can be quite the threat.
The hunter groups seen in VbN/PbN so far are...
- The Long Night - Fundamentalist and evangelical Christians that band together to destroy monsters and wizards because they believe them all to be the spawn of Satan.
- The Malleus Malificarum - Similar to the Long Night, only the MM has its origins in Roman Catholicism and is a much older order of hunters. The MM uses a form of hedge magic based on prayer and ritual that can be quite potent against the denizens of the night.
- The Children of the Earth - Hippies and flower children that despise mages in particular, seeing them as corruptors of nature's divine purity.
- Task Force Valkyrie - James Bond meets the X-files meets the Men in Black. This super-secret government agency is tasked with keeping the supernatural out of mortal government affairs.
- The Ashwood Abbey - Bored and rich dilettantes who hunt monsters purely for the sport of it. A hellfire club of the old order.
