Clan C’Thrashi : The Progeny

[ThriceHonored]

The progeny are by far the most monstrous vampiric creatures in the world of darkness. There origins or shrouded in mystery, and they operate on the periphery of kindred Society. As it is sometimes the case, they may be so rare or so secretive that the kindred may not be aware of them at all.

To call them a separate clan is not entirely accurate. They are more akin to a divergent species. It may even be that they have no connection whatsoever other than a rather large handful of similarities to the kindred.

The C’Thrashi run the range of heights and weights common to baseline humanity. In the process of transformation they lose several human traits. The progeny are without body hair, fingernails, navels, and apparent biological sex. That is not to say that they do not retain masculine or feminine personality traits, but these seem to be left over from their mortal lives and may even begin to atrophy as their humanity fluctuates. The most notable feature of the C’Thrashi is there head, which resembles an octopus. Their heads are rounded with 4 to 6 tentacles hanging down concealing a lamprey-like mouth. The tentacles are of varying lengths. Some come down to where the navel used to be, and some have been known to come down past the knees. These tentacles are smooth and lack suction cups. There generally used to hold the head or neck of their victims securely while feeding. Skin colors range from violets and blues to several shades of greens and yellows.

[ThriceHonored]

Clan C’Thrash
“The children of Elder Gods”

Plural: C’Thrashi

Nickname: Progeny

Disciplines: Auspex, Obfuscate, Resilience

Choose intelligence or stamina

Why you want to be us: We can see every atom of your existence, and when you look back you only see what we want you to see. No mortal, no mystery, no bullet is going to put us down. Why do you want to be one of us? Your choice is not a factor.

Why you should fear us: We are the monsters among monsters. Do not mistake us for simple beasts. We are more than that. We become alien, unknowable. We can lay you bare with but a look and devour all of your secrets. The clearest sight most get of us is over their shoulders while they run like spooked cattle.

Why we should fear ourselves : Loss. The Progeny attract loss like a lightning rod. You lose your family, friends, appearance, and any semblance of human life. Alone even among abominations. Humanity so easily becomes such a distant memory. Like a dream. Like holding on to sand or water. The harder you try the more you will lose.

Curse: Hunger’s Edge. Whenever a C’Thrashi has five or fewer vitae it begins to emit psychic emissions that trigger irritating headaches in any human or animal within the vicinity. Until it feeds all social rolls (except intimidation) are capped by the character’s humanity.

Monstrous appearance : In addition to the curse mentioned above these creatures also suffer from being unable to interact normally with baseline humanity do to their inhuman countenance. This can be temporarily offset by the Blush Of Life ability, or through the use of ghouls.

Aklo : The bloodworm imparts upon its host an inborn understanding of a common language. This language has no human analog. It has had several names but is most commonly referred to as Aklo. It is unclear how this language evolves, if it does at all. A progeny embraced in Germany can perfectly understand one that was embraced in Brazil, though some claim that they notice a difference, although very slightly, in dialect from region to region. Scholars theorize this is due to the changes in the language being coded genetically and passed on by the bloodworm.


The Blush Of Life: While the kindred use this ability to appear alive the progeny use it to appear human. This variant allows one of the progeny to assume the form of the human they were before their transformation. This transformation lasts for one scene unless modified by other abilities or merits. This allows the progeny some limited ability to interact with baseline humanity. The transformation requires the expenditure of one vitae. This act is commonly referred to as “donning the mask.”

Reproduction: The process of reproduction for this type of vampiric creature is quite unique. The facial tentacles hold the head and neck in place while the lamprey-like mouth create some a hole in the victim. After all of the blood is drained the Progeny will create a bloodworm created from one vitae and an expenditure of a willpower dot. There’s bloodworm, which vary in length from 6 inches to over a foot long, enter the wound and transformed the house into a new C’Thrashi. This transformation can take 24 to 72 hours to complete. During this transformation the host enters into a twilight state that functions off of instinct. The first instinct is to find a safe place away from the light to incubate. It is common practice for the sire to either provide a safe place or to stay within the area to protect and indoctrinate the Neonate into their new life. This twilight state often behaves like a series of favor dreams. Every neonatal experiences this differently. Some believe this softened the impact of such a drastic transformation.

[ThriceHonored]

Possible origins:

There is a seemingly instinctual desire in the Progeny to be in low places. Deep underground, down in the valleys, below black cold water. This has given rise to a widely known myth that all C’Thrashi are but progeny of a vast underground aberration known commonly as “The Worm.” The Worm gave rise to the first of the Bloodworms, and for reasons no sane mind can fathom seeded the overworld with it’s brood.

The scholars of lost Irem left behind tattered and battered texts of a star that fell from the heavens. The great heavenly body struck the earth like an angry God’s frustration and from it sprang forth… nightmares. The oldest of mummies speak in hushed tones of a plague of worms birthing a legion of blood-starved abominations. The very oldest of mummies instructs his cult to keep his tomb in shallow ground for fear of what burrowed into the depths.

It all started with one disenfranchised monk. Cast out from his master’s home for indulging his lust where it was not welcome he ventured out into the wastes of Arabia. There he found secrets, nightmares, and tales of blasphemies from beyond the veil of stars. In a desperate attempt to avenge himself upon his former master and peers he made pacts with that which dreams beneath the sands. The pact was sealed in blood beneath the gibbous moon and into the darkness he dug himself. On the next night he rose. The first of a swarm. One of countless to give so much for so little.

[ThriceHonored]

Ventrue: Of all the actors there masks are the most grand, but look a little closer and you’ll see the ugly little thing behind it.

Daeva: In the nights of old they styled themselves as gods. There fall was meteoric and stings their pride still.

Mekhet: They know a great deal about a great many things. I admire this, and if they learn how little it is they truly know then I will respect them as well.

Gangrel: The beast in any form is a burden. What they call embracing their beast, a keener intellect might call surrendering.

Nosferatu: Kindred spirits. They understand what it’s like to lose your place and have to rebuild your life with broken tools.

Werewolves: The biggest difference between us and them is that our beast never gets to hide. It is a luxury to walk unnoticed amongst mortals.

Changelings: We call them flighty and foolish but the truth is most of us would give everything to be able to hide our faces like they do so nonchalantly.

Mages: Mortals cursed with insight. Fallen world indeed.

Geist: A great many of us envy their second chance at truly living. I dare say more of us are guilty of this than anyone thinks.

Mummies: These beings confront the alien and unknowable every time they slumber. They are not to be trifled with.

Unchained: For artificial beings without souls they seem to make more convincing human beings than we ever did. What they lack in true humanity they make up for with thorough reconnaissance.

Deviants: It’s no small trauma to be made into something else against your will. There stories are always bitter to the taste.

Beasts: Children who have not yet learned to see their mother for what she really is.

Prometheans: If something that was never human can come so close to humanity, is there hope for us as well?

Hunters: trying to pull the Dragon’s tale is fun, that is until you actually catch it.

[ThriceHonored]

Good so far, or complete drivel?

[Spectre9924]

The progeny are by far the most monstrous vampiric creatures in the world of darkness. There origins or shrouded in mystery, and they operate on the periphery of kindred Society. As it is sometimes the case, they may be so rare or so secretive that the kindred may not be aware of them at all.

To call them a separate clan is not entirely accurate. They are more akin to a divergent species. It may even be that they have no connection whatsoever other than a rather large handful of similarities to the kindred.

The C’Thrashi run the range of heights and weights common to baseline humanity. In the process of transformation they lose several human traits. The progeny are without body hair, fingernails, navels, and apparent biological sex. That is not to say that they do not retain masculine or feminine personality traits, but these seem to be left over from their mortal lives and may even begin to atrophy as their humanity fluctuates. The most notable feature of the C’Thrashi is there head, which resembles an octopus. Their heads are rounded with 4 to 6 tentacles hanging down concealing a lamprey-like mouth. The tentacles are of varying lengths. Some come down to where the navel used to be, and some have been known to come down past the knees. These tentacles are smooth and lack suction cups. There generally used to hold the head or neck of their victims securely while feeding. Skin colors range from violets and blues to several shades of greens and yellows.

Sounds more like a Night Horror that a Kindred

[ThriceHonored]

You do have a point

[Ventrue Life]

I second Spectre9924

This is awesome, no doubt, but as a Night Horror thing.

I do think you might wanna give this a second pass though. You give these guys a lot of awesome weaknesses, but then also some very easy workarounds. They're all super hideous? Awesome! Then why would Blush of Life make them look normal? That's lame. The Nosferatu don't get that, so why would the C'Tharshi? I'd totally allow them to appear like a normal human with Obfuscate 4: The Familiar Stranger, but not with Blush of Life. Blush of Life makes a vampire look alive, it doesn't make them look normal.

[ThriceHonored]

Hm. You have a good point. To be honest I had forgotten about this thread, mostly because I thought it was a dud. I may give it a second chance though.

I agree with this concept being far more similar to a night horror. An idea I really liked is the concept of having to be more reliant on a ghoulDue to monstrous appearance. I do believe you are correct about repurposing the blush of life. Changing one’s appearance should instead be handled by disciplines or possibly a devotion. Perhaps blush of life should be phased out of this concept or perhaps do something different.

Thank you Spectre and Ventrue, I had thought this idea was possibly complete crap, but I feel somewhat optimistic about revamping it. No pun intended.

[Ventrue Life]

Changing one’s appearance should instead be handled by disciplines or possibly a devotion.

Well, as a pointed out, the fourth dot of Obfuscate basically already does what you're looking for. At least based on your original write up it seems like Obfuscate 4 does what you want these monsters to be able to do. And honestly all the Obfuscate powers seem to be right up these guy's allies, so if they're a Night Horror concept, you can easily say that every C'Tharsh has 5 dots in Obfuscate, or have it depend on their rank (if you want to work with that system) or Blood Potency.

Definitely check out the list of Numina from Chronicles of Darkness (starting at page 136) and see if you can use some of those powers. I'm sure some of the Numina found there work well for the C'Tharshi. If you're going to turn this into a Night Horror, you can practically do whatever you want. So get creative!

[Spectre9924]

I second Ventrue Life . As a Night Horror, they can better embody the Lovecraftian themes with a more varied array of powers. This is in no way a dud. Just needs a polishing.

[ThriceHonored]

How exactly does a night horror differ? They all seem widely varied in what they do and how they do it

[Draconis]

They're referring to Night Horrors: the Wicked Dead, a book that had a whole bunch of rules for non-Kindred vampires (and introduced the Strix to the modern nights). The intent is basically "this is a cool idea, but it doesn't seem to fit well into the mold of a Clan; it would probably work better being something entirely separate from the Kindred, like the Penanggalan and the Strix".

[Draconis]

(Or alternately, they're talking about Horrors from the 2e corebook, the simplified rules for antagonists that focuses on the things the ST needs rather than the things a player needs.)

[ThriceHonored]

While I think they would make good npc’s My intent was always to make them pc’s. I noticed a lot of the 1E creatures have no bp 0, though it doesn’t seem like a hard and fast rule. And some have disciplines or nominate. Is that to mean there’s not really set rules?