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[Reasor]

The Sabbat's pursuit of paths definitely has a spiritual component, Saulot's legendary status as a spiritual leader in ancient times involved ministering to his fellow vampires, and the Salubri Antitribu's primary motive was understandably revenge against the Tremere. I don't find the Sabbat to be a bad fit.

[Reasor]

I like the concept and your writing style.

Is this something you would consider eventually putting on Storyteller's Vault?

[Reasor]

I think that gets to the heart of how and why Scourges are useful characters. I don't know that it's ever stated so plainly in text, but they're the muscle of some of the most profoundly paranoid, insecure, and ruthless creatures walking on two legs....

[Reasor]

It's a vicious circle! Almost as if vampirism were some kind of curse.

[Reasor]

Having been badly burned by the her clan's defection to the Camarilla - she took a place on the Red List and traumatized herself by dropping her Humanity and taking on the Road of Night while trying to find a place for herself with these freaking people - I imagine she's waiting for the dust to settle before she tries dabbling in vampire politics again. I know I would.

[Reasor]

I dunno, do their souls really die? Or are they just buried under the stronger entity who took them in? What gauge would we use to measure that? There's clearly something junking up the diablerist's aura...

[Reasor]

Side tangent, but I absolutely love the fact that Saulot's soul's survival of his diablerie isn't unique anymore. It impacts the flavor of the World of Darkness in a way that I like if the immortal soul is beyond the ability of a mere vampire to actually destroy. It affirms that there are greater powers at work than the vampires, without getting outside the game's lane and requiring crossovers to work.

[Reasor]

The Raveners find the current state of things intolerable, and have given up on things getting better. They're essentially about despair and what hopelessness can turn us into if we let it. They've given up on finding any end to their own suffering, except provoking God into finishing them off. If they can vicariously lash out at mortals or Lucifer or their former comrades in arms for failing them, then that'll do for now.

Not saying I agree, I just... get it. Even escaping from the Abyss turned out to be a big disappointment for these creatures. There's some good tragedy in...

[Reasor]

I had not thought of Khay'tall, but if he is still around or waiting to be brought back from torpor, that diablerie attempt by Sarrasine might arguably fit Michael's stated criteria of a Kindred who was killed and brought back. That he has a history with Michael makes him all the better as a choice for Michael's third....

[Reasor]

One of the problems one encounters when tackling the concept of Golconda now is that the goalposts have already been repeatedly moved over the course of the game's many editions. When we talk about Golconda, we're no longer talking about one concept with one body of lore.

1st Edition V:tM sees the Kindred as already existing in a state of self-loathing, posthuman horror, and Golconda in that context is balance defined as a triumph over the inhumanity imposed by the curse. It's the natural end goal of what was at that point the only supported avenue of moral growth.

...

[Reasor]

"Damned and Deceived" does suggest that Faith can wear a lot of guises. Conspiracy theorists, diehard political partisans, and members of various fandoms can have a lot of potential, as they're already looking for something greater than themselves to identify with and belong to when the Fallen comes along into their lives.

Ideally, I think it should be a personal relationship in concept, in which the Demon learns enough about the potential Thrall to know what bait they won't say no to. This takes time and presents a roleplay opportunity, even with some subtle interrogation...

[Reasor]

I've had a problem with Quietus since I first saw it in Second Edition, for what I think is the intention of its design more than the execution.

The Banu Haqim's clan power set is: sneak in undetected, poison the target, and escape. That and an addiction to murdering other vampires were all there was to the clan when they were first introduced.

Someone has done a lot of heroic work in the years since then, retconning them as being meant to have been the judges of the damned and humanity's protectors, and adding some color to the concept by adding the Vizier and Sorcerer...

[Reasor]

I read it as the recipient mortal having epiphanies and breakthroughs that feel, subjectively, like they're coming from within. That's just what I imagine downloading information directing into a brain would feel like.

[Reasor]

I like this poster's threads! They make me reexamine things that I've taken for granted, allowing me to look at them with new eyes.

Anyhow, I submit for everyone's consideration that the Nosferatu were enthusiastic early adopters of modern espionage and electronic information warfare because, having existed as the ultimate outsiders since the dawn of history, the Nosferatu were the ones who didn't have a preexisting niche in undead society to otherwise occupy their time. The Nosferatu were the ones who were hungriest to finally have a role. The Nosferatu were the ones who already...

[Reasor]

BJD describes Michael as looking for a vampire who has died and been resurrected, as he and the Dracon have, for their third.

I like Mithras for the role, after he's finished emerging from within Monty Coven.

When I posted my first response to this thread, I wasn't aware that you were setting your game in the 16th Century. The status quo of each of these characters is liable to be very different, unless you're actively playing around with the timeline for your story. The revelation of Michael's survival of his diablerie and the rebirth of the Dracon from the body of...

[Reasor]

In Requiem 2nd Edition, the Nosferatu clan flaw imposes -2 to all Manipulation and Presence rolls, and turns every failure into a critical failure - only interactions with other vampires are exempt. The clan's exclusive discipline, Nightmare, requires a roll with either Manipulation or Presence for every power except the first. Nosferatu are objectively worse at scaring mortals than they are at scaring other vampires.

I've never seen the 1st Edition Vampire: the Masquerade books, but I've heard it said that Obfuscate had to be redesigned for 2nd Edition Masquerade because the Nosferatu...

[Reasor]

I'm not even a fan of Requiem's focus on bloodlines - at all - but here you've taken the core idea of the Therion bloodline from 1st Edition's book on Belial's Brood (counselors who work dark magic to keep frenzy-prone vampires lucid and functional) and turned it into something better developed, free of the juvenile sacrilege baggage, and acceptable in "polite" vampiric society, and it's too damn clever for me to fail to commend you. That's a really impressive bloodline design....

[Reasor]

Having the Fallen keep their secrets to themselves during the War sets them up to have to strike deals with each other in the modern day in order to learn out-of-house Lores, so I think that's definitely preferable for the roleplaying opportunities it creates. It's easy to imagine Faction loyalty or even geographical conveniece mattering more than House of origin when the modern Demon decides who their friends are, so sharing might be something they feel a little more free to do now as well as a good way of forming bonds and alliances.

That said, the Malefactors stand out. The Lore...

[Reasor]

That's some good digging from a source that I don't own. Double-checking BJD, though, Eshmunazar is described there as a Carthaginian Assamite, not a Brujah.

I'm stumped. It's possible the Methusaleh was created out of whole cloth just for this story about Mary, but BJD focuses so heavily on updating old plot threads that it would be an anomaly to throw a new factor in there.

[Reasor]

As things stand at the end of the Constantinople chapter of Beckett's Jyhad Diary, Mary and Michael are grappling for power within the same body and mind. Michael, still demented and stricken with delusions of divine grandeur, wants to recreate his Trinity, having already obtained the Dracon and now searching for a third - preferably one who has also died and been resurrected.

Mary is working on forming a dark Trinity of her own, hoping to create Hell on Earth to counter Michael's Heaven. She's settled on "Eshumanazar" (a Methusaleh who I can't recall ever having seen...