Alternate names for clans (those taken from masquerade specifically)

[Maitrecorbo]

Context:
So in the game i've just started one of my players expressed the desire to play a king of thieves sort of character. He stated as inspirations for his character Varis from Game of Thrones and the Beggar King in John Wick 2. I really like the concept and okayed it and when asked what clan of vampire he wants his character to belong to he goes for gangrel. Now any concept can fit in any of the clan. The clan chosen just mean that a few themes are gonna be put in highlights more than others. In the case of the gangrel i talk with the player if he is interested in exploring themes of savagery (perhaps how he rules his thieves/beggars court) and loss of control. He tells me that he really isn't interested in those themes and that he chose the gangrel clan only to have animalism so as to create a information network with rats, bats and pigeons. He also said that he wants his character to learn dominate as early as possible. So i inform him that there is another great option that both include animalism and dominate as in clan discipline and that is the ventrue. The player looked very confused at that, and he also said that ventrue wouldn't work since they would not embrace an orphan or someone very low on the societal pole (especially in a dark age setting). The confusion, and the use of the term dark age, made me realize that this is my one player who has prior experience with Masquerade and this must've colored how he looked at clans like the ventrue and the gangrel.

So that brought to my mind that maybe i should try and change the names of the Ventrue, Gangrel and Nosferatu to see if that dispel some of the confusion. The name ventrue really doesnt bring to my mind someone that is commanding, especially since in french (which we all speak at my table) ventrue just means big-bellied. In a way i feel that even the word clan isn't entirely fitting as clans in Requiem are much less united and ... clannish than in Masquerade.

Did you guys encounter similar issues and have you thought of alternate names ? Or is it entirely in my mind?

[Tessie]

Unless you'll use them for background in the setting you could use Julii for Ventrue.

[saibot]

On another note, it might also help to showcase some highlights from the Clan books (if you have them available). The Ventrue Clanbook has some fine examples of characters who display Ventrue spirit without being CEOs, Old Money or "modern Kings". King Rat is of course a perfect example very close to what your player wants to do, but others like The Lord of Paradise Lake or the Witch of the Weeds are more examples of Ventrues that someone coming from Masquerade might not identify as Ventrue. As a side note, it might be interesting to bring in the way how the Ventrue title is explained in that book as well.

More on topic, you could just highlight the common nicknames over the more fancy Clan names. In fact, that seems to be more common in the in-character fiction anyway.

[Live Bait]

I think part of the problem is that they haven't realised that covenant isn't going to be the same as it was in Masquerade. As I understand it certain clans used to be sect (I believe this to be the term) exclusive and from that had a fixed culture (along with much more solidarity in general in masquerade) so a Carthian Ventrue for example may be too big a leap for him.

[Elfive]

Honestly I think "spider" would be a perfectly good moniker for the ventrue. Varys is Ventrue as fuck.

[Maitrecorbo]

I just reread the ventrue clanbook (great idea btw) and i'll probably show the player the characters that dont exactly fit the mold he has in his mind. First impression are a tough things to break tho.

So far, I like the Julii for the Ventrue and after reading the clanbook i though of perhaps using Lare.
For the gangrel, i'm perhaps thinking of using Draugr instead, but then i'll have to find another word for humanity 0 (i'm afraid of starting a congo line of name changes :P )

[Charlaquin]

Lares is a really good one for Ventrue, and has the added bonus of not necessitating any change of the Julii name if they ever come up in the game.

For Nosferatu, Orlochs might be low-handing fruit, but it fits the bill.

For Gangrel, I might actually go with Strigoi. Moroi would technically be a better choice for a Romanian name, but it's already the name of a Bloodline.

[Maitrecorbo]

For Gangrel, I might actually go with Strigoi. Moroi would technically be a better choice for a Romanian name, but it's already the name of a Bloodline.

Would you feel that strigoi is a bit to close to strix?

[LostLight]

Perhaps instead of Clan Lares, you could use instead Clan Manea? I don't know why, but the "s" in the name feels to me a bit awkward, and it gets worse if you use the singular form. Manea (or Mania) seems to fit, as she is a candidate to the "Mother of the Lares", and her dual nature of being both the mother of gods of civilization and a goddess of insanity does sounds Ventrue to me.

As for the Gangrel- while the Strigoi is close to the Strix (I think the words come from the same root, if I'm not mistaken), it may not be a problem as the Gangrel has always been said to be closer to the Beast than the other Clans. If you dislike it, perhaps you could use Clan Vyrkolaka, which could play nicely with the connection between those mythological vampires and their relationship with Werewolves as an expression of the Gangrel's Protean. Nosferatu could use Vjesci, also.

If you don;t find another name you like, you could always take one from a Bloodline and replace between them. After all, there are already enough Bloodlines which share names with Masquerade, and as not all Bloodlines come up in all games the chances are it won't cause too much problems (like, for example, using the name Annunaku to the Gangrel)

[Maitrecorbo]

All great suggestions.
So after a few research here is what i'm thinking of going with.

Ventrue: Lares of the line of Manea the first of the Lare
Nosferatu: Moroi (from what i saw it can also mean nightmares so i think it is fitting for the nosferatu)
Gangrel: Draugr (i'll figure something out for the zero humanity)

What about the word clan? Do you guys feel it is still appropriate in Requiem as the denomination to distinguish between types of vampire?
Honestly i could go either way with that. I dont think its a perfect fit but i also dont think its a bad fit. In the modern day i would probably use something like Strains, but it would be a very modern term that older kindred simply wouldnt use.

[Live Bait]

I think Clan is as good a term as any, if you try and come up with the perfect word then be ready to look at Latin, Greek etc. words and go mad trying to decide which one would become the predominant one at which point in history and how usage would spread.
Or maybe that just happens to me.

[Sethnacht]

Instead of Clan, I sometimes used Curse - it still connects Kindred of the same lineage ("We share the same curse"), but doesn´t imply a social or political unity between them.

As for Draugr, we simply called them the "Lost" at our table, as in "lost to the Beast/Hunger".

[Live Bait]

Instead of Clan, I sometimes used Curse - it still connects Kindred of the same lineage ("We share the same curse&quot, but doesn´t imply a social or political unity between them.

As for Draugr, we simply called them the "Lost" at our table, as in "lost to the Beast/Hunger".

Those are both very good ideas and I will probably use them at some point.

[Charlaquin]

Perhaps instead of Clan Lares, you could use instead Clan Manea? I don't know why, but the "s" in the name feels to me a bit awkward, and it gets worse if you use the singular form.

Singular would be Lar. Similar to how Julii is the plural of Julius.

[Charlaquin]

Would you feel that strigoi is a bit to close to strix?

I think that's appropriate, as in the Gangrel Clan book it's suggested that the Gangrel are somehow connected to the Strix. One character is even convinced that the Gangrel are literally the Strix. And it plays into the Julii/Ventrue/Gangrel connection, which I'm a big fan of.