Gatubarnen
The Urchins
A little boy finds a new friend, and she says she is the same age as him. She only seems to hang out at night, but she is friendly. Her dad doesn’t look like her, and is kind of mean. Despite that, hanging out with her is the most fun he has had, although she doesn’t like to come over unless invited well beforehand.
The little boy was bullied in class, and his new friend seemed really upset about this. Each week after, one of the bullies went missing. Some say its a serial killer. She came to him for help when her father died, blood coating her mouth. He invited her in.
Parent Clan: Mekhet
Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Dominate, Obfuscate
Nicknames: Orphans or Waifs (Neutral), Strays or Roaches(Insult)
Bloodline Bane: Despite often looking like children, the Urchins are not innocent. They are just as detached from the human condition as any other Mekhet, and keep the clan bane. They gain a bane when reaching Humanity 6 and treat humanity as one lower for banes, including sunlight and torpor.
The Urchins are also cast out from society. No one wants to deal with them or have them in their home. The threshold of a house is their own personal weakness. They are unable to enter a home without an invitation. Home is where the heart is, and this means that this only happens in places that people are strongly emotionally tied to. A box in an alleyway could be harder for them to enter than a penthouse suite that is visited once a year. In general though, a single point in the safeplace merit (Blood and Smoke: Page 123) should count as a home, but a person does not need a dot in safe place for their house to be a home. If an orphan enters a home without invitation they suffer damage as if they are in the sun. If an orphan is invited in, that invitation lasts for nights equal to humanity, unless the owner of the residence sets a different timeline, which can happen at any time during the Orphan’s stay. This makes resting in another person’s home always a risk. In addition, an Orphan is exempt from this bane at any place she has a safeplace.
Lastly, the final curse of the Urchin is also its own gift. All Urchins gain the small-framed merit (GMC: Page 165) upon introduction to the bloodline. This will be further explained in the bloodline gift section.
History and Culture: In 1710 Stockholm was ravaged by a plague. This plague killed thousands and eviscerated the local economy. During this time many vampires flocked to the city as the local populations was weak and would not suspect any random deaths as being unusual. The Lindqvidst family was hit especially hard as their father was a sailor and died early on in the outbreak.
Feeling despondent and mistreated the youngest daughter of the family, barely 17, fled from home. Her family never heard from her again. She was found by a vampire whose name she can no longer even remember. He took her in, feed her his blood, clothed her, and made her a blood doll. This was not the life she was trying to lead. Eventually he embraced her. After this he ordered her to dress as a child and obey his every order. Lindqvidst was disturbed, enraged, but most importantly scared. Her sire, however, found out her actual age, and since he was operating on the pretense that she was much younger, he was livid. He sent her out onto the streets, never having taught her how to hunt, kill, or survive. She was on her own again.
With a determination to no longer be a victim she steeled herself to others and never trusted again, unless she was clearly in power. She learned of a rumor in the vampire community. The rumors said that a vampire of significant age, or significant hunger, can become something more. Following this rumor, she eventually committed several acts of diablerie. She devoured four starving vampires who lost their feeding grounds to the dwindling population.
In 1789 she became the first Gatubarn. She found many poor and destitute vampires, the same type she used to be and the same type she used to prey on, and gave them her blood. She had one order for them. Spread her blood. Her bloodline quickly spread across Europe, and within ten years was found in Morocco to Persia. Within another ten years the bloodline was seen across the world.
Reputation: The orphans are taught to be invisible. Each sire has a story from a time when they were not, and it is not pleasant. For the most part, Orphans belong to either no covenant, or to multiple covenants at a time. Being tied down to one group is a surefire way to be exploited and abused. This often ends with them switching from one group to another whenever a Prince is dethroned and replaced, scurrying like roaches.
This general paranoia and fear of others leads them to Invictus more than any other covenant. That being said, they rarely have that much status within Invictus, or any other covenant they join, and instead prefer to ally themselves with higher up members. They much prefer to use their power in the covenant behind another vampire.
Ordo Dracul is second most popular to them, as they tend to enjoy the isolation that most Ordo Dracul members live in. Since the structure of this covenant tends to be individualistic study, a waif only has to fear someone trying to steal their research.
Carthians tend to appeal to them in theory, but in practice they avoid the covenant. The idea of fighting for change is great to them, but with so many people at roughly the same level of authority, it becomes hard to find someone on top. The one rare exception is when a Carthian is Prince.
Becoming: While the orphans tend towards switching allegiances quickly, they do have a strong moral backing. They despise the abuse of those who cannot fight. Many orphans embrace others when they find out they are in an abusive relationship or in a more concrete form of imprisonment. This leads to many orphans having few social merits.
The other consideration for orphans is finding a strong ally, and they often take this literally. Another waif who can help you fight when you get in trouble is a great way to deflect danger. This leads to a lot of waifs with high physical attributes and merits in combat skills.
Bloodline Gift: All Orphans gain the small-framed merit (GMC: Page 165) when entering the bloodline. Normally the effect is painless and takes a couple of days of sleep to kick in. For those who have the giant merit (GMC: Page 165) the effect is rather painful. While they do not take damage, they do lose two health boxes as their giant merit is removed and their small-framed merit is added. This results in several days of vomiting blood and innards while sleeping.
In addition, orphans gain access to a unique 3 dot merit called Barndom.
Barndom (childhood) Merit 1 to 3 dot.
Devotions:
Coming Home: Sometimes when you enter a new city, you need to find someplace safe. While not every family is caring and loving, the ability to make someone think you are a family member is useful for an orphan. All the vampire has to do is get the victim to look them in the eye.
Experience Cost: 2
Most of my vampire bloodlines are based on various myths and legends from around the world. This one, however, was based on the book, movie adaptation, and American remake of Let the Right One In. Tell me what you guys think. Im especially interested in what you guys think about Barndom, as I currently think it is the weakest (design wise) part of the bloodline.
The Urchins
A little boy finds a new friend, and she says she is the same age as him. She only seems to hang out at night, but she is friendly. Her dad doesn’t look like her, and is kind of mean. Despite that, hanging out with her is the most fun he has had, although she doesn’t like to come over unless invited well beforehand.
The little boy was bullied in class, and his new friend seemed really upset about this. Each week after, one of the bullies went missing. Some say its a serial killer. She came to him for help when her father died, blood coating her mouth. He invited her in.
Parent Clan: Mekhet
Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Dominate, Obfuscate
Nicknames: Orphans or Waifs (Neutral), Strays or Roaches(Insult)
Bloodline Bane: Despite often looking like children, the Urchins are not innocent. They are just as detached from the human condition as any other Mekhet, and keep the clan bane. They gain a bane when reaching Humanity 6 and treat humanity as one lower for banes, including sunlight and torpor.
The Urchins are also cast out from society. No one wants to deal with them or have them in their home. The threshold of a house is their own personal weakness. They are unable to enter a home without an invitation. Home is where the heart is, and this means that this only happens in places that people are strongly emotionally tied to. A box in an alleyway could be harder for them to enter than a penthouse suite that is visited once a year. In general though, a single point in the safeplace merit (Blood and Smoke: Page 123) should count as a home, but a person does not need a dot in safe place for their house to be a home. If an orphan enters a home without invitation they suffer damage as if they are in the sun. If an orphan is invited in, that invitation lasts for nights equal to humanity, unless the owner of the residence sets a different timeline, which can happen at any time during the Orphan’s stay. This makes resting in another person’s home always a risk. In addition, an Orphan is exempt from this bane at any place she has a safeplace.
Lastly, the final curse of the Urchin is also its own gift. All Urchins gain the small-framed merit (GMC: Page 165) upon introduction to the bloodline. This will be further explained in the bloodline gift section.
History and Culture: In 1710 Stockholm was ravaged by a plague. This plague killed thousands and eviscerated the local economy. During this time many vampires flocked to the city as the local populations was weak and would not suspect any random deaths as being unusual. The Lindqvidst family was hit especially hard as their father was a sailor and died early on in the outbreak.
Feeling despondent and mistreated the youngest daughter of the family, barely 17, fled from home. Her family never heard from her again. She was found by a vampire whose name she can no longer even remember. He took her in, feed her his blood, clothed her, and made her a blood doll. This was not the life she was trying to lead. Eventually he embraced her. After this he ordered her to dress as a child and obey his every order. Lindqvidst was disturbed, enraged, but most importantly scared. Her sire, however, found out her actual age, and since he was operating on the pretense that she was much younger, he was livid. He sent her out onto the streets, never having taught her how to hunt, kill, or survive. She was on her own again.
With a determination to no longer be a victim she steeled herself to others and never trusted again, unless she was clearly in power. She learned of a rumor in the vampire community. The rumors said that a vampire of significant age, or significant hunger, can become something more. Following this rumor, she eventually committed several acts of diablerie. She devoured four starving vampires who lost their feeding grounds to the dwindling population.
In 1789 she became the first Gatubarn. She found many poor and destitute vampires, the same type she used to be and the same type she used to prey on, and gave them her blood. She had one order for them. Spread her blood. Her bloodline quickly spread across Europe, and within ten years was found in Morocco to Persia. Within another ten years the bloodline was seen across the world.
Reputation: The orphans are taught to be invisible. Each sire has a story from a time when they were not, and it is not pleasant. For the most part, Orphans belong to either no covenant, or to multiple covenants at a time. Being tied down to one group is a surefire way to be exploited and abused. This often ends with them switching from one group to another whenever a Prince is dethroned and replaced, scurrying like roaches.
This general paranoia and fear of others leads them to Invictus more than any other covenant. That being said, they rarely have that much status within Invictus, or any other covenant they join, and instead prefer to ally themselves with higher up members. They much prefer to use their power in the covenant behind another vampire.
Ordo Dracul is second most popular to them, as they tend to enjoy the isolation that most Ordo Dracul members live in. Since the structure of this covenant tends to be individualistic study, a waif only has to fear someone trying to steal their research.
Carthians tend to appeal to them in theory, but in practice they avoid the covenant. The idea of fighting for change is great to them, but with so many people at roughly the same level of authority, it becomes hard to find someone on top. The one rare exception is when a Carthian is Prince.
Becoming: While the orphans tend towards switching allegiances quickly, they do have a strong moral backing. They despise the abuse of those who cannot fight. Many orphans embrace others when they find out they are in an abusive relationship or in a more concrete form of imprisonment. This leads to many orphans having few social merits.
The other consideration for orphans is finding a strong ally, and they often take this literally. Another waif who can help you fight when you get in trouble is a great way to deflect danger. This leads to a lot of waifs with high physical attributes and merits in combat skills.
Bloodline Gift: All Orphans gain the small-framed merit (GMC: Page 165) when entering the bloodline. Normally the effect is painless and takes a couple of days of sleep to kick in. For those who have the giant merit (GMC: Page 165) the effect is rather painful. While they do not take damage, they do lose two health boxes as their giant merit is removed and their small-framed merit is added. This results in several days of vomiting blood and innards while sleeping.
In addition, orphans gain access to a unique 3 dot merit called Barndom.
Barndom (childhood) Merit 1 to 3 dot.
- Each dot in this merit makes the orphan look more innocent and childlike. This manifest mechanically as a bonus equal to merit dots for empathy, subterfuge, and persuasion checks when acting like a child, but as a negative penalty to intimidation checks at all times.
Devotions:
Coming Home: Sometimes when you enter a new city, you need to find someplace safe. While not every family is caring and loving, the ability to make someone think you are a family member is useful for an orphan. All the vampire has to do is get the victim to look them in the eye.
- Cost: 1 Vitae
- Wits+Expression+Dominate vs. target’s Resolve+Blood Potency
- Action: Instant
- Dramatic Failure: The victim know you are not related to them in any way. In fact, they now distrust you. Any social rolls against them take a -2 penalty.
- Failure: The person is unconvinced.
- Success: The way you talk, the way you walk, everything about you reminds them of the child that they lost, or a sibling who they lost touch with, or maybe a friend they thought left the country. Either way you are invited in for days equal to successes, and the only thing that can take that away is if someone were to dispel the devotion’s effect. Any attempts to convince the owner of the residence that their new ward is lying must exceed the successes of this devotion. In addition, for the whole time you are invited you can treat the host as an ally at 2 dots, these dots are not protected by the sanctity of merits. The downside is that you can only use this power on one household at a time. This also does not affect the memories of those who do not live in the house.
- Exceptional Success: Extra days are its own reward.
Experience Cost: 2
Most of my vampire bloodlines are based on various myths and legends from around the world. This one, however, was based on the book, movie adaptation, and American remake of Let the Right One In. Tell me what you guys think. Im especially interested in what you guys think about Barndom, as I currently think it is the weakest (design wise) part of the bloodline.
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