Vampires
I’ve been a fan of WoD for a few years. Here’s my personal take on vampires as presented in the setting.
At their best a vampire is to be pitied. At their worst, they are to be hated.
They’re also all batshit insane weirods.
All take the embrace willingly, seeking escape from reality or a shortcut to their goals. The only vampire forced into his cursed was Caine, who split his brothers skull with an axe and made love to his father’s first wife. His treachery's against the world caused the day to reject him and his body to warp, to be wounded but never heal, to hunger but never to eat, to love but never touch.
Cain hated his brother and was jealous of him having grazing land and more wives, including Lilith as per the tradition of the land went. Like any Neolithic human he figured out you can take a sharp rock and tie it to a stick, smashing it over the head of Abel and eloping with Lilith. After his night with Lilith, he felt the life drain from him and ran off screaming into the darkness.
He stalked the earth for eons cursing and laughing at the world, growing his congregation with his lovers and their children. Slaves and Kings alike came to him and joined his ranks, building their city of Nod high to the heavens. It, like all cities, was reduced to nothing but dreams after the age of monsters came to a crashing end with the Flood.
Nod, arguably, was the worst place to live in the history of the world. No one wanted to clean up after themselves so there were half-drunk carcasses littering the streets and animal dung clinging to the shoes of the highest noble. It’s no wonder god wanted that place gone.
The 13 remaining vampires, the Antediluvians, ate the flesh of their fellows to survive. The built rafts of corpses and spears of bone. When the seas receded they were left scattered across the earth, whence they built their congregations and clans, ruling the earth in castle spires.
There’s way too many vampires before the renaissance. Dracula? Yeah he was a vampire, so was Frederick Barbarossa, Critias and Nefretiti. At some point it becomes surprising if a famous historical figure wasn’t a vampire. In all honesty though they were probably a werewolf or wizard or some other freak.
This age of decadence came once again crashing down, however its cause came from inside their own ranks, as a self loathing youth stormed the citadels with her horde of fanatics, driving countless elders to their doom.
It sucked to be a fledgling vampire before the Anarch revolt. Most were thrown into giant pits Sparta-style if they turned out to be too stupid or not dedicated to the idea of sacrificing the self to become a predator of the night. Naturally, it would be pretty appealing to your average blood-sucker when Tyler showed up, shat on the carpet and told everyone she was going to kill the elders.
Those who feared her formed the Camarilla, swearing never to show their faces and hide in eternal masquerade. The followers of the original revolt became the Sabbat, who grew mad and fanatical in their faith: to crush the Old and replace the world with a vampire dynasty. Any whom rebel against this dichotomy are labeled with the name of the first revolt: Anarchs.
Every faction sucks, pun not intended. To sit at a Camarilla conclave is like the worst rich people dinner party you’ve ever been in. Every elder and Methuselah are guffawing and chortling at how miserable everyone else is, while the younger childer and scrolling in their phones just completely out of it. Conversely, Sabbat gatherings are just constant evangelical sermons talking about how we should bomb Iran raid a blood bank. The Sabbat give their members blood-losenges after screaming their lungs out as part of the communion. Anarchs are like worst kind of book club you can image. They spend all night bickering if it’s “ethical” to be a vampire in the first world due to being born into oil baron wealth while sticking their thumbs into the eyes of anyone who sees them and ripping their heads off for good measure.
The 13 Antediluvians established Clans to peruse their goals, with countless splinters and fractions inside the great masquerade.
There are way to many vampires for me to count, so bloodlines are out the window but I am counting the salubri. Also kuei-Jin are probably real, they’re probably just Chinese venture or something jury’s still out on that one.
There is a vampire in every dark place. Where you can leave humanity behind, a vampire will grow. They prowl naked under the stars in fields, squabbles like crows in concrete rookeries and rave in nightclubs, desperate to forget that they are what they are: a beast.
All vampires are massive clowns. They all dress like freaks and act the part: there’s straight up wizards and Ancient Egyptians and furries and so much more. It’s ridiculous, but that’s why I love vampire and WoD: because it’s unabashed in its eccentricity and embraces it. Maybe that’s why I love Changeling and Mage the most.