As promised, I present to you: The Architects of the Monolith and the Blood Sorcery of Gilded Cage. I recommend reading at least the first post of my Walking Shadows: More Crúac & Theban Sorcery Rituals so that you know what I'm talking about with ranged spells and Hanging Spells. As before, if I have seen far, is it because I have stood on the shoulders of giants -- I particularly applaud the people who actually came up with the Architects (Justin Achilli, Chuck Wendig, and the other creators of Bloodlines: Hidden), as well as Wordweaver05 for the Unofficial: More Gilded Cage rituals PDF, and to whoever created the long More Gilded Cage PDF I have on my computer, which is sadly lacking in credits. I created very few of these rituals -- they're mostly just modest tweaks to what has come before.
Architects of the Monolith
Motif
Secretive and grandiose, subtle and magnificent, the Architects of the Monolith emerged in the late 18th century in Paris, their founder a renegade Sanctified Cardinal known as Ermenjart la Charpentière. She believes that her lineage can make cities the focus of reality, turning both God and nature into mere trivialities banished to the shadow of her monolith. Bound by this mad and impossible vision, the bloodline works secretly and circumspectly. The result is a cult motivated by madness, backed by visions of conquest, and powered by esoteric sorcery.
The Architects of today tend to be drawn from the business and professional classes. Most are wealthy or at least well-off, most are connected in some fashion to architecture or city-planning, all dress well (usually in modern clothing of a conservative cut), all lair well (sixtieth story penthouses, sprawling villas, or at least grand apartments in mystically significant locations). The Architects often add a French flair to their work, hearkening back to their glory days during the Second Empire and the reconstruction of Paris by Baron Haussmann.
Architects also have a distinctly Masonic style to them, to the point where ‘Mason’ is an acceptable term for them. The symbolism of the Freemasons is common in their work, particularly the Eye of Providence and the Compass and Square, and the blood sorcery of the Gilded Cage uses decidedly Masonic implements to achieve its effects.
Theme
The Vampire as Urban Predator
The Architects of the Monolith believe that humanity is moving ever further away from nature and divinity, crafting new environments of steel and concrete where they can dwell in ever-growing multitudes. These artificial biospheres are perfectly suited to the Vampire, who is the apex predator over a teeming human herd. Architects manipulate the environment of the city to make it an ever more suitable dwelling-place for the Kindred.
In London
The Architects of the Monolith have had a troubled history in London. The entire London section of the bloodline was wiped out in the late 19th century by the Lancea et Sanctum. The Architects rebuilt, only to be destroyed once again by the Blitz, when an unfortunately aimed German munition blasted the la Charpentière’s emissary to atoms. So far as the main body of the bloodline knows, there’s nothing left of London's Masons.
In fact, one Architect survived, but Dr. Victoria Cutteridge has taken the classic ideology of the Architects and filtered it through her own medical training and research into Kindred Vitae. Dominating her worldview is the Métaphore Médicale, the idea that the City is a living organism, with the buildings and social structures the bones and flesh, humanity the blood, and the Kindred a parasite feeding on that blood.
Cutteridge and her estranged pupil and childe, Allie Newton, both espouse the Métaphore Médicale, though to their own ends. Cutteridge seeks to determine the nature of Vitae in the urban organism, the very life-essence of the City, and whether it is possible for a being such as a vampire to consume it. Allie, meanwhile, hopes to one day convert the supernatural (Kindred and otherwise) from being parasites upon the urban host to being symbiotes. In the meantime, both seek to push the urban host in their own directions – Cutteridge to make it more hospitable to the Kindred infection, Allie to make it healthier.
Clan: Ventrue
Bloodline Disciplines: Animalism, Dominate, Resilience, Auspex; Architects also know the Blood Sorcery of Gilded Cage
Bloodline Weakness: The Urban Curse
Architects are creatures of the city, and they feel markedly uncomfortable anywhere but in their chosen artificial environment -- each Architect chooses a single city as her home ground.
● An Architect anywhere but in the urban depths of her city feels uncomfortable and ill at ease, taking a (10-Humanity/2, rounded up) penalty to all Mental and Social rolls, and a -2 penalty to Frenzy. This penalty would apply in the suburbs, in other cities, or even in notably natural parts of her own city (overgrown parks and the like).
● An Architect in an outright rural environment, or in the wilderness, takes a (10-Humanity) penalty to all Mental and Social rolls and a -4 penalty to Frenzy checks. Such an Architect is likely to be rather wild-eyed, if not outright panicked.
Architects of the Monolith
Motif
Secretive and grandiose, subtle and magnificent, the Architects of the Monolith emerged in the late 18th century in Paris, their founder a renegade Sanctified Cardinal known as Ermenjart la Charpentière. She believes that her lineage can make cities the focus of reality, turning both God and nature into mere trivialities banished to the shadow of her monolith. Bound by this mad and impossible vision, the bloodline works secretly and circumspectly. The result is a cult motivated by madness, backed by visions of conquest, and powered by esoteric sorcery.
The Architects of today tend to be drawn from the business and professional classes. Most are wealthy or at least well-off, most are connected in some fashion to architecture or city-planning, all dress well (usually in modern clothing of a conservative cut), all lair well (sixtieth story penthouses, sprawling villas, or at least grand apartments in mystically significant locations). The Architects often add a French flair to their work, hearkening back to their glory days during the Second Empire and the reconstruction of Paris by Baron Haussmann.
Architects also have a distinctly Masonic style to them, to the point where ‘Mason’ is an acceptable term for them. The symbolism of the Freemasons is common in their work, particularly the Eye of Providence and the Compass and Square, and the blood sorcery of the Gilded Cage uses decidedly Masonic implements to achieve its effects.
Theme
The Vampire as Urban Predator
The Architects of the Monolith believe that humanity is moving ever further away from nature and divinity, crafting new environments of steel and concrete where they can dwell in ever-growing multitudes. These artificial biospheres are perfectly suited to the Vampire, who is the apex predator over a teeming human herd. Architects manipulate the environment of the city to make it an ever more suitable dwelling-place for the Kindred.
In London
The Architects of the Monolith have had a troubled history in London. The entire London section of the bloodline was wiped out in the late 19th century by the Lancea et Sanctum. The Architects rebuilt, only to be destroyed once again by the Blitz, when an unfortunately aimed German munition blasted the la Charpentière’s emissary to atoms. So far as the main body of the bloodline knows, there’s nothing left of London's Masons.
In fact, one Architect survived, but Dr. Victoria Cutteridge has taken the classic ideology of the Architects and filtered it through her own medical training and research into Kindred Vitae. Dominating her worldview is the Métaphore Médicale, the idea that the City is a living organism, with the buildings and social structures the bones and flesh, humanity the blood, and the Kindred a parasite feeding on that blood.
Cutteridge and her estranged pupil and childe, Allie Newton, both espouse the Métaphore Médicale, though to their own ends. Cutteridge seeks to determine the nature of Vitae in the urban organism, the very life-essence of the City, and whether it is possible for a being such as a vampire to consume it. Allie, meanwhile, hopes to one day convert the supernatural (Kindred and otherwise) from being parasites upon the urban host to being symbiotes. In the meantime, both seek to push the urban host in their own directions – Cutteridge to make it more hospitable to the Kindred infection, Allie to make it healthier.
Clan: Ventrue
Bloodline Disciplines: Animalism, Dominate, Resilience, Auspex; Architects also know the Blood Sorcery of Gilded Cage
Bloodline Weakness: The Urban Curse
Architects are creatures of the city, and they feel markedly uncomfortable anywhere but in their chosen artificial environment -- each Architect chooses a single city as her home ground.
● An Architect anywhere but in the urban depths of her city feels uncomfortable and ill at ease, taking a (10-Humanity/2, rounded up) penalty to all Mental and Social rolls, and a -2 penalty to Frenzy. This penalty would apply in the suburbs, in other cities, or even in notably natural parts of her own city (overgrown parks and the like).
● An Architect in an outright rural environment, or in the wilderness, takes a (10-Humanity) penalty to all Mental and Social rolls and a -4 penalty to Frenzy checks. Such an Architect is likely to be rather wild-eyed, if not outright panicked.
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