| Assamite |
Even though most Assamites claim independence from the sects, they still collaborate with both the Camarilla and the Sabbat whenever such an alliance suits their purposes. Over time a few Assamite factions have permanently defected to the sects however, notably the antitribu (who joined the Sabbat) and the smaller group of Schismatics that sought protection in the Camarilla.
The Assamites clan Discipline is Quietus, which alters the internal chemistry and alchemical balance of the vitae (or blood) of the practitioner or his/her victims. The Discipline was developed as a tool for carrying out the Clan's original purpose as defined by its founder Haqim as judges and police to their fellow Cainites during the age of the First City of Enoch. The Discipline's effects range from the novice ability to use one's blood as a potent poison to causing an entire Cainite bloodline to "weep" blood. |
| Brujah |
| The Brujah were not always so anarchic: in the past, they were warrior-philosophers, and they engineered the creation of Carthage, the fabled city where Kindred and kine walked freely amongst each other. However, the dream would not be realized, as the city was destroyed by forces within and without; the Brujah of the modern nights primarily blame the Ventrue, Toreador and Malkavians for Carthage's fall, though they are also suspicious of the Lasombra for a suspected role in the fall of their city. Many, if not all Brujah dream of re-making their fabled Carthage, unfortunately most of the Brujah have a very different vision of what it should be. Of course the utopia that the Brujah aspire to may not be all that the clan elders describe, with rumors of links to the diabolic Baali and their infernal practices. |
| Caitiff(The Clanless) |
Since they are clanless, they do not specialize in any particular discipline, but have the freedom to learn any discipline or develop their own. However, finding a mentor for such a pursuit can be difficult.
Clanlessness can stem from many circumstances - the sire rejected the individual, the embrace went wrong, their blood is too thin to develop the peculiar characteristics of the sire's clan, or the sire was also a caitiff.
Some take great pride in lacking a clan, claiming to be descended directly from Caine. Since Caine was the first vampire, he lacked the flaws of his descendants who founded various clans and bloodlines. Caitiff tend to be thin-blooded; far removed from Caine, 13th generation or worse, they can be viewed as omens of Gehenna. Most clans tolerate the Caitiff, as long as they maintain the Masquerade, honor the traditions, and stay out of politics. Still, there are exceptions to this rule; Muktar Bey, the Caitiff Prince of Cairo, has ruled for over 500 years.
Passages of the Book of Nod allude to the Time of Thin Blood, when the clanless will come to rule. The increasing number of Caitiff and their strange powers and insights into the Jyhad has many elders worried. |
| Cappadocian |
| The Cappadocians were marked by a desire to understand the limits between life and death. Some of them meticulously studied death and decay; others chose to focus on the possibility of bringing life back into a dead body. Their clan Discipline, Mortis, gave them the power to animate corpses (or parts thereof). As their interests met, some Cappadocians shared information with scholars of the occult from the Tremere clan; others kept correspondence with Jewish Kabbalists regarding the powers inherent in the name of God (the manufacture of golems from inert matter might be an example). |
| Gangrel |
The Gangrel are associated with Gypsies, transmogrification, and vagrants. As a symbol, Gangrel often use a wolf's head. The Gangrel clan's magical Discipline, Protean, allows them to assume partial or complete animal forms. Their mastery of Protean is so much greater than any other Clan that Gangrel can assume virtually any animal form, providing it is a scavenger or a predator. Other vampires with the Protean Discipline are limited to the forms of Wolf and Bat; no one (not even the Gangrel) know why this is so.
In the Dark Ages, the Gangrel were the vampires most commonly associated with the Road of the Beast, which dictates a life based on instinct, similar to that of an animal (living in the immediate present, having no morality, killing whenever necessary but only then). |
| Lasombra |
The Lasombra clan's unique discipline is Obtenebration, which allows them to manipulate shadows and even the unformed substance of the primordial void, known as the Abyss. The effects they can create range from causing flittering shadows which have actual substance, transforming their own bodies into an expression of darkness and emptiness, and even the ability to temporarily submerge a small area of the immediate environment into the Abyss itself.
Some Lasombra share with their clan founder's affinity for the ocean, often staring at the ocean or taking long sea voyages. |
| Malkavian |
As with all the vampire clans in the World of Darkness setting, Malkavians suffer from a specific flaw: in this case, they are incurably insane. However, many Malkavians believe their insanity to be a strength rather than a weakness. Exactly why they all suffer from insanity is unknown, but according to the Book of Nod, all third-generation vampires were cursed by Caine after the second-generation vampires were destroyed. One of these third-generation vampires was Malkav, from whom Malkavians come.
According to Malkavian legend, when Malkav was killed, all his childer came to his corpse and drank the blood of their father, thus collectively diablerizing Malkav. He is said to speak inside each and every Malkavian's soul and connects them into one collective consciousness. This "hive mind" is sometimes called "the Cobweb" or "the Malkavian Madness Network", which contains each thought and memory that any Malkavian in the world has ever had (and sometimes is about to have). |
| Nosferatu |
They are uniformly hideous as a result of the flaw in their vampiric bloodline, though each individual's physical monstrosity is unique. Nosferatu frequently reside in catacombs, cemeteries, and sewers. The Nosferatu, also referred to as 'Nossies' or 'Sewer Rats,' are highly regarded as information-brokers.
Frustrated over their monstrous appearance, many Nosferatu will Embrace the very vain and/or very beautiful out of spite. Vampires Embraced in this way are often referred to as Cleopatras, named after the character from Freaks. |
| Ravnos |
Appearance: Ravnos are usually embraced from the homeless, vagrant, or derelict and tend to dress more for functionality than form. Many of the older Ravnos originate from Roma (Gypsie) or Indian descent, and so have the appropriate physical features.
Background: Potential Ravnos are selected because they have a quick mind and an ability to deceive. In India, potential childer are selected according to social caste. |
| Temere |
| The Tremere were originally a group of human mages from House Tremere of the Order of Hermes. When they found their magical life-extending elixirs started failing due to the growing lack of belief in magic, they started looking elsewhere. They captured vampires of the Tzimisce clan and conducted experiments on their bodies and blood, and they found how to become immortal with the help of a fellow patron named the Comte de Saint Germain. The fact is, they became immortal as promised but in exchange, they turned into vampires. |
| Toreador |
The Toreador typically have an obsession with anything artistic, exquisite or (superficially) beautiful. They are hedonists and self-indulgent artists. As expectable, the Toreador find the Nosferatu to be especially revolting, and vice versa. Their attraction to beauty is so strong that they have to force themselves not to stop at the sight of an aesthetically appealing work.
Their Antediluvian founder was believed to be an artist in the first city (Enoch) named Arikel, or possibly Ishtar. At Caine's request she created a beautiful mural which showed the vampires' eternal struggle with the beast and unveiled it before him and one of his childer. In his fury at the depiction, Caine and his childe never saw the final panel which showed how she believed that vampires could live at peace with their beast. Caine destroyed the mural and ordered his childe to drain Arikel dry. As he looked down at the dying artist he cursed her to forever be distracted by beauty and ordered his childe to embrace her. His power was such that his curse lingers in the blood of all Toreador. |
| Tzimisce |
The Tzimisce consider themselves apart from and superior to other Kindred, by dint of their unique Disciplines, unnatural ethical views and the inner-structure of their Clan. Many Tzmisce are warriors or religious leaders within the Sabbat, though many lead existences devoid of other Vampiric contact, instead surrounding themselves with servants and slaves. They are obsessed with their birthplaces and graves, usually possessing some of the soil from the location of their Embrace, over which they are fiercely territorial.
The Tzimisce are known for their body altering technique, called Vicissitude or, less formally, "fleshcrafting". Tzimisce can supernaturally alter the bodies of living and undead organisms, even to the point of melting them. For this clan, body alteration is an art and a philosophy. In the modern ages, most Tzimisce are simultaneously radical transhumanists, posthumanists, and prescriptive social Darwinists. Sooner or later, many Tzimisce become totally lost in this detatched and inhuman way of thinking, often losing all contact with the concepts of mercy, compassion, or moral or ethical value as understood by the human mind. |
| Ventrue |
The Ventrue are the rulers, leaders and politicos of the Camarilla, sometimes known as the Patrician Clan or the Kingship Clan. In Ancient Rome, they were generals and warlords of the Empire, and in the Dark Ages, they were knights and barons, leading crusades and conquests. In modern times the Ventrue still have great ambition and see themselves as conquerors, but their ways have changed, using courts and companies instead of feifdoms and mighty armies. Targets for Embrace by the Ventrue have always been people in positions of power, whether these people were aristocracy or company CEOs. The Ventrue perceive themselves as the most powerful of the vampiric clans thanks to their wealth, social influence, and powers over the thoughts and feelings of mortals. The clan as a whole is typified as conservative, be it in actions or customs. The Ventrue have their own nigh-inviolable code of etiquette. The clan's Elders have been known to punish violations of these unwritten rules with greater ferocity and resolve than the Traditions of the Camarilla.
The Ventrue claim that ruling vampires is their duty, their burden, a task which is interlocked with their fate, given by Caine himself (if he ever existed). The reality is that excessive pride and ambition seem a more convenient explanation as to why they strive to expand their already vast influence and assert themselves over other Kindred. They tend to be politicians, businessmen, military officers, crime lords, important members of powerful religions, sects and cults. |
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