Now Available on STV: Bloodlines: The Ageless

[Yossarian]

Alright, let's get alchemical with the Geihemen.

The first thing you'll notice is the name change. For that, I'll quote the author, who's a native German speaker:

One issue the Geheim have is that their very Bloodline name is really silly. It literally translates into "(be) secret" (as an adjective, not as noun; if we were being generous we could assume they were going for an adjectival noun, but the spelling does not really fit that, but it is hard to tell when you mix in a German name into English text).

Basically, we wanted to make the name linguistically coherent. We considered doing a more extensive change, but I felt it was better to keep some continuity with the original. We split the difference a tad, suggesting that their name in English-speaking countries is something of a misnomer, whereas in Germany and other European nations, they're known as the Loge der Geheimnisse.

The other big change was their Discipline. The Geheimen are one of only two bloodlines with unique Disciplines in the book, and we had a lot of discussion about how we should do that. Blutalchemie is famously a riff on the old Tremere path of blood from Vampire: The Masquerade, and while we've kept some of the DNA from that, we felt the effect would be better served as something more modular. That said, we didn't want to go with a full-on Ritual Discipline, though we certainly took some notes from that system. The closest comparison is probably the update we did of Ortam for the Gulikan in Sin Again — not quite a straight Discipline, but not quite a blood sorcery either. We also changed their bane completely. The original just wasn't that thematic, and we felt their hedonistic qualities could be a bit more to the forefront.

The other bit of housecleaning we did was removing the Thule Society and Nazis from their backstory. It feels like a half-baked afterthought in the original write-up, and it left a bad taste in our mouths. Those connections didn't add anything to the bloodline, and there was no attempt to grapple with the implications at all. For these reasons, we also changed their logo, which is now the Ventrue scepter and crown superimposed over the alchemical symbol for gold (FYI).

Anyway, I really like this new take on the Geheimen. They're a little different from the other two Ventrue bloodlines in the book while still fitting into the Lord archetype really nicely.

Before I conclude, a small correction: Apparently, we actually have one more old bloodline to do: the Corajosos, who I convinced myself I did early on. However, rather than having two Ventrue bloodlines in a row, tomorrow, let's look at our last new bloodline: the Higalit of Clan Amari.

Geheimen: The Ones Who Squeeze Every Drop from You

"Progress comes hand in hand with breakage."

Dead seekers with inquisitive minds, insatiable urges, and Vitae especially suited to transformation, the Geheimen are a study in contrasts. The Geheimen (actually the “Lodge of Secrets” or “Loge der Geheimnise” in the original German) are a bloodline of Lords who have perfected a form of Vitae-based alchemy. These Dilettantes are also prone to bouts of hedonism that contrast and complement their scientific curiosity, a trait they’re said to have inherited from their mercurial creator. Sybaritic soirées seeking extremes of sensation, manipulations of the nobility, and wild experiments into the nature of the Blood — these are the hallmarks of the Dilettantes.

Most Ventrue content themselves with control over man and beast, but the Blood Alchemists have power over inert matter — and, even more so, power over the Blood. However, even in their research approach, they’re unusual. Far from stodgy scholasticism, Dilettantes practice a DIY method of mystical study. Many build their own laboratories covering a dizzying array of designs. Philosophical exchanges and disagreements on the nature of alchemy, sensation, and the soul are common, but few Dilettantes are so gauche as to get involved in personal vendettas over matters of perspective. Better to focus one’s time on further study and the wisdom of one’s own body.

Far removed from the stereotypical stoicism and aloofness of most Ventrue, the Geheimen throw themselves with great fervor into physical and mental experimentation, and for many of them, you can’t separate the two — mind and body are one. Experience is important to these Blood Alchemists as the science behind their work; alchemy isn’t just about the transformation of substances, but the evolution of the very soul. What transformations is the Kindred soul capable of? That remains to be seen.

A Dilettante’s night-to-night existence is much less high-minded, however. Geheimen are very practical when it comes to using both their unique gift of Blutalchemie: The riches they create from Vitae have provided them a great deal of soft power, something the Lord’s word alone just can’t match. They supply their allies, buy their rivals, and destroy their enemies with blood-soaked treasures and alchemical traps.

While often shunned as Vitae junkies, sometimes a true connoisseur of Vitae is exactly what a domain needs to identify an obscure heritage, a rare vintage, or some other conundrum of the Blood. Indeed, the bloodline’s limitless curiosity and glorious past have equipped them with connections among the other shadow-folk of the world. Various schools of alchemy exist within many uncanny societies, and the Dilettantes are always eager to learn about other approaches, perhaps even getting a chance to taste the blood and flesh of those creatures too. Few of their new “friends” say no to the material comforts that they can provide.

Yet despite these many gifts and appetites, in the modern nights, the bloodline has fallen far. The Graf, the bloodline’s founder, has disappeared, and the influence of the Geheimen on Kindred politics has commensurately waned. Jealous rivals have driven them out of many European domains, and Blutalchemie breakthroughs are now rare without the Graf’s guiding hand. All too many Dilettantes have ended up lost to debauchery or Vincula in search of new delights and mysteries; as it turns out, balancing a lust for life and a thirst for knowledge isn’t so simple. Still, their advantages are many and no one knows better the transformations even the basest of substances are capable of than the Blood Alchemists.

Why you want to be us

We’ve got both the Apollonian and the Dionysian down pat. Whether you’re a natural-born researcher looking for a big payday or a mature libertine with a good head on your shoulders, with us, you make the most of your gifts.

Why you should fear us

The red in your veins is the gold in our palms. How’s that for a theory of value? And when our sins do get the better of us, working in the lab on our next breakthrough does wonders for getting our minds off what we had to do to you.

Why we should fear ourselves

It’s never enough. More Vitae. More discoveries. More transformations. We like to stand aloof like other Lords, but our needs always pull us back in. Transformation is not creation, but to devour is to destroy. We are alchemists who leave behind less of the world where we pass: nigredo without albedo.

Parent Clan: Ventrue

Nicknames: Dilettantes, the Lodge of Secrets, Blood Alchemists, Habsburgs (derogatory)

Bloodline Bane (The Insatiable Curse): The bane of the Blood Alchemists is born of the cravings of their founder and his wild experiments. Geheimen cannot resist Vitae addiction when they taste the blood other vampires; the addiction is automatic no matter how much Vitae a Dilettante takes. This bane obviates the usual immunity to Vitae addiction that elders gain. Furthermore, when a Hapsburg imbibes Vitae from a vampire she hasn’t fed from before, [REDACTED]

Disciplines: Animalism, Blutalchemie, Dominate, Resilience

In the Dark Eras (Excerpt)

A Grimm Dark Era — 1812–1820 CE (DE1, p. 396): The Napoleonic Wars aren’t kind to the Geheimen. The Holy Roman Empire dissolves, the Habsburgs are a shadow of their former glory, and ascendant French Carthians ravage the Blood Alchemist domains with their infectious ideology. Ultimately, this is the age when the Geheimen lose the preeminent position in the Austrian and German domains they held for so long. Now they must scramble for every scrap of power. Soon, they’ll be just another gang of Lords with their glory nights behind them.

Blutalchemie

All Vitae contains the power of transformation, but the ichor of the Blood Alchemists offers greater potential for vicissitude than most. A Dilettante's Beast aligns with the principles of alchemy to force such changes upon the world — the Beast is a universal catalyst, after all.

The Vitae spent as part of this Discipline is used both as a metaphysical currency to “pay” for the exchange taking place and also as a catalyst. Only Geheimen Vitae will suffice, so all Processes require at least 1 Vitae to be paid by the Blood Alchemist. Remaining costs may be paid by other sources.

In addition, the Geheimen possess supremely honed senses for the intricacies of blood. Upon learning the first dot of Blutalchemie, they gain the Distinguished Palate Merit (Vampire, p. 111) without the drawback. If a character already has this Merit, she instead gains two Experiences but doesn’t ignore the drawback.

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Science + Blutalchemie

Action: Extended (target number depends on the Process; each roll represents a half hour of work)

Duration: The products of Processes are normally permanent; exceptions are noted.

Roll Results

Success: The vampire makes progress toward the completion of the Process. If the target number of successes is reached, the Process is complete.

Exceptional Success: The vampire works the alchemy with astounding speed. Choose one of the usual effects of exceptionally succeeding an extended action, or temporarily resolve any Vitae Addiction she might be suffering for a week, as she’s been fulfilled by scientific achievement.

Failure: The vampire faces a setback. The Storyteller chooses a Condition to represent this, which can be even Deprived (Vampire, p. 302), as her addiction rears its ugly head. If the vampire fails to accumulate the necessary successes within the allotted rolls, the Process fails and leaves behind a bloody mess of aborted transmutation.

Dramatic Failure: The Process fails spectacularly. The exact results vary based on the intended outcome, but examples include additional Vitae loss when using her Internal Athanor, damage from the release of gases or liquids harmful to Kindred, or the creation of something that is outwardly the intended product but is anything but. Harm scales with the relative ambition of the Process.

Blutalchemie Processes (Excerpt)

Most Processes the Geheimen have developed are flexible, allowing for a great variety of end products based on common procedures. Teachers (when Dilettantes are lucky enough to have them) only instruct their students in basic principles and let them find the best way to achieve specific results through experimentation, which suits most Dilettantes fine.

For each dot in Blutalchemie, the vampire gains a free Process. Some Processes also require others as prerequisites. Storytellers and players are encouraged to invent new Processes.

Once a Dilettante character has five dots of Blutalchemie, her player may purchase additional Processes for 2 Experiences each.

Blood Stone

Cost: Varies

Target Successes: (Vitae stored × 2) + 5

This Process creates a crimson stone that can serve as a receptacle for Vitae. The Blood Alchemist transfers the desired number of Vitae (hers or another vampire’s) into the stone. Later, this Vitae can be retrieved by consuming the stone. The Process costs 1 Vitae on top of the amount transferred.

At the cost of an additional five target successes, the Dilettante can also choose to make this Vitae harmful to other vampires. Any vampire who consumes the stone takes lethal damage equal to the creator’s Blutalchemie rating or the amount of Vitae stored (whichever is lower) and loses that much Vitae as the stone reacts violently with his Blood. When a Dilettante consumes such a stone, this effect is shifted to her own Vitae for the rest of the Scene (she still gains the stored Vitae, however).

[Yossarian]

Hello again, and welcome to our penultimate entry! Let's see what the Higalit are dreaming...

This bloodline probably has the highest concept in the book: they mostly remain asleep, or at least reclusive. Unlike the Malocusians, who can shrug off their homebound curse with enough effort, Higalit are burned even by the light of the moon and any other reflected sunlight. They can withstand their bane with high Humanity, but eventually, no matter how much they maintain the Mask, all burn. Combined with their clan bane (greater penalties on frenzy resistance triggered by sunlight), most are bound to their icy havens. But, they have ways around this! With their own special twists of Twilight Projection (Auspex 5), they can manifest their ephemeral forms in the material realm with a bit of effort, walking the world and taking their fill of it, even in the depths of torpor.

So, this bloodline asks something we don't normally ask of players: have a high-level Discipline to join. You can certainly play a Higalit without Auspex 5, but you can't access their powers straight away. Now, a fifth-dot Discipline isn't nearly as hard to attain as it was in the old experience system, but that's still 6 Experiences at minimum that you've got to attain (assuming you're a starting character who's joined her bloodline and spent all three Discipline dots on Auspex). I thought a lot about this a lot in development, and ultimately I decided I was okay with that. Most bloodlines we've developed are new-character friendly; this one isn't, and I think that's fine. The Higalit are kind of the result of Clan Amari being so bound to the torpor cycle, so I imagine most of their members are those Winter Kings who've had time to ruminate on being frozen solid half the year, even those who are the childer of Dream Wights.

That said, nothing stops you from playing one from the get-go. Their bane isn't so arduous that it makes going outside totally unfeasible, and it doesn't kick in till you hit Humanity 6 anyway.* I just really liked the idea of what amount to ghost vampires, and I felt Auspex 5 was the most efficient way to do that. I think the author did a great job of making that an attractive (if hard mode) character option.

This bloodline had a fair bit of fine-tuning in dev. Their bane and the downside of their Merit were initially reversed, but I thought the luminescence made more sense as a quirk of their weird Auspex powers, and burning in moonlight struck me as a good reason for them to develop such powers. I also ended up shifting Resilience to Animalism in their favored Disciplines, because I felt it made more sense for them to have easier access to minions to gather blood and protect their strongholds. I also don't think the bloodline really screams "resilient".

I'm particularly fond of the Dark Era seed excerpted below. The Winter Kings are kind of odd historically; they're heavily implied to be an offshoot/survivors of another clan, possibly a group of Gangrel, though I think it's more like the original Amari author was drawing a line to something in Half Damned (I don't know for sure, as I never thought to ask, unfortunately). The story seed below is sort of a nod to that.

Alright, that's it for me for now. Tomorrow, let's look at our final bloodline: the Corajosos.

Higalit: The Ones Who Hide from You

"Dreaming is more real than waking."

The blizzard lasts two days. You fly unseen among its flurries, drawn to the snuffing heat of the creatures trapped within it, man and beast alike. You draw the cooling blood from all of them, swirling it within your form like a stain against the growing snowbanks. By the time the villagers find these corpses, they’ll be frostbitten carcasses with no sign of your touch in the shriveled skin.

You float back toward your corpse, the snow blowing through you. The cold feels almost balmy, no colder than your own heart, frozen deep in the glacier. You can see it glowing from here, a foxfire blue through the snow-whipped night. You’ll have that tended to soon enough, before the blizzard allows any prying eyes to catch sight of that cursed beacon.

Sinking through the solid permafrost, down, down, down… you find your corpse just as you left it: still dressed in that explorer’s parka from forty years past. Has it really been that long since you last walked in those dead limbs? With an inaudible sigh, you sink back into your ice-cold bones, bringing the wealth of stolen Vitae with you. It doesn’t lessen the frozen state of you, but the luminosity subsides. Good. You won’t have to move your resting place any time soon.

Not so long as you remain lost in the wilds.

Life struggles to survive in the Arctic, but death? Death is the Arctic’s ideal. Exposure spells doom even to the Kindred, and so most of the dead prefer warmer climates. Most. Clan Amari once forged a frozen empire around the Arctic Circle, learning to preserve their Vitae for the long days of summer. Some adapted better than others.

The Higalit burrow deep into the ice, remaining ever watchful in slumber, their corpses entombed from all possible danger. Even the reflected light of the moon burns their corpses, so most hide away for years, or even decades at a time, only rising when absolutely necessary. But even despite this curse (and unlike their kin), they are not content to while away the summer months. With their own special twists of Auspex, they can walk the earth almost as if they were in the flesh, taking on ephemeral forms to make sure the Requiem doesn’t pass them by.

Austere and ruthless, the Sunless trade away as much freedom as they can for safety — theirs and yours. By perfecting this control over their psyches, they overcome the intangible limits of astral projection: Some can even feed in spectral form, while others can Embrace and make ghouls despite their ghostlike state. In times past, a Dream Wight could take over entire villages without ever leaving her haven.

Like their parent clan, the Dream Wights are almost extinct. The Amari have always preferred a solitary existence, and the Sunless are even more reclusive, though they fiercely defend their hidden strongholds. They rise incorporeal to speak in eerie voices, warning trespassers to depart, and if they aren’t heeded at first, they aren’t above throwing things with unseen hands to force a hasty departure. Or at least, that’s the claim of those few who’ve survived interactions with them. Largely, the Sunless are seen as nothing more than a ghost story, a cautionary tale against venturing too deep into the untouched wilds.

However, as the ice caps melt, the restless Dream Wights are thawing out. Sudden reversals in drilling operations, decreasing populations in remote Arctic towns, tales of disembodied blood clouds drifting off into the night… the Higalit may be on the move. They watch the world unfold from a safe distance, influencing others with hints and nudges for their own gratification. They’re not here to play by your rules. They care about only one thing: survival.

Why you want to be us

You didn’t ask to be thrust into a world so full of danger. Every time you feed, you risk everything. With us, that risk small enough to be drowned in an ice floe. You can sleep and dream without your Requiem slipping by. You can choose how much of yourself to give to the world — and how often. If you would be untouchable, you’ll find welcome in our chill Embrace.

Why you should fear us

How do you strike something that isn’t there? A goading whisper, a chilling impulse, a taunt in the dark — how will you fight us? It would be a mistake to think a ghost can’t harm you. You lash out against the void, at the nothing you find there. Do the others laugh at your fear? Do they tell you it’s all in your head? They may be right; we’re here, in your thoughts, lingering over your shoulder, living through you.

Why we should fear ourselves

We’ve poured so much into the dreaming that we don’t know what’s left of our entombed corpses. The more we drift, weightless and untethered, the more we loathe returning to that restrictive sack of bones and withered flesh. But if we don’t… if we eschew our bodies, they howl with light, a beacon that would summon all our enemies to destroy us. We keep it fed yet it still keeps us prisoner.

Parent Clan: Amari (Night Horrors: Spilled Blood, p. 77)

Nicknames: The Sunless, Dream Wights

Bloodline Bane (The Chasma Curse): The Higalit fear the open world, and for good reason. Any source of reflected or refracted sunlight, including moonlight and the aurora borealis, deals a bashing damage per minute to a Dream Wight unless her [REDACTED]. Resilience cannot negate this damage, though she can mundanely cover herself; see Vampire, p. 102. While dangerous, moonlight alone is not enough to trigger the vampire’s frenzy response (or the Amari clan curse), but Dream Wights who fail to resist their bane are often… edgy.

Disciplines: Animalism, Auspex, Obfuscate, Protean

In the Dark Eras (Excerpt)

Arthur’s Britannia — 400–500 CE (DE2, p. 86): A peculiar myth is sometimes shared among the Bron bloodline. A fanatical Hedge Knight in search of the Grail supposedly set sail north with his thralls from England’s green shores on a barge of his own construction, believing with all his dead heart that the Christ hid his legacy away in the frozen north beyond the known world. Ice-locked for months, and slowly running out of crewmen to slake his hunger, he eventually came across a gathering of strange beings, intangible yet able to touch the world. These creatures, the “Children of Michael,” helped restock his larders, gifting him a font of blood everlasting. When he returned to Britain, he claimed angels had gifted him the Grail, but by then, the font had indeed run dry. Modern Bron wonder if there’s any truth to this story, and a few think something divine might still be hidden in the northern wastes.

New Merit: Tethered Dreamer (• to •••••)

Prerequisites: Higalit, Auspex •••••

Effect: Like the Shadows, Higalit can project their psyches with Twilight Projection, but where the Mekhet only skim reality, the Dream Wights are able to interact with the physical world in limited ways.

Drawback: When using Tethered Dreamer, your character’s physical body phosphoresces. This light is visible for one meter per Vitae she is short of her pool’s natural maximum, and the supernatural nature of this ghostly blue causes it to shine through even opaque materials. Mortals who witness this glow gain the Spooked Condition, potentially bringing danger to your character’s slumbering body.

Permanent Impermanence (•): Your character only needs to return to her body while in her Twilight Projection after nights equal to her Merit dots plus one. She must still pay a Vitae at the start of each night, however, or else she falls to torpor as usual.

Phantom Touch (••): [REDACTED]

Haunting Manifestation (•••): [REDACTED]

Disembodied Thirst (••••): [REDACTED]

Dreamer’s Kiss (•••••): [REDACTED]

* I believe. I don't think it actually says if bloodline banes work like clan banes in that way, but I've always operated under that assumption.

[Prince of the Night]

Any ideas for additional treasures of the Maiyarap? beyond Tahna?

[Satchel]

So, this bloodline asks something we don't normally ask of players: have a high-level Discipline to join. You can certainly play a Higalit without Auspex 5, but you can't access their powers straight away. Now, a fifth-dot Discipline isn't nearly as hard to attain as it was in the old experience system, but that's still 6 Experiences at minimum that you've got to attain (assuming you're a starting character who's joined her bloodline and spent all three Discipline dots on Auspex). I thought a lot about this a lot in development, and ultimately I decided I was okay with that. Most bloodlines we've developed are new-character friendly; this one isn't, and I think that's fine. The Higalit are kind of the result of Clan Amari being so bound to the torpor cycle, so I imagine most of their members are those Winter Kings who've had time to ruminate on being frozen solid half the year, even those who are the childer of Dream Wights.

That said, nothing stops you from playing one from the get-go. Their bane isn't so arduous that it makes going outside totally unfeasible, and it doesn't kick in till you hit Humanity 6 anyway.* I just really liked the idea of what amount to ghost vampires, and I felt Auspex 5 was the most efficient way to do that. I think the author did a great job of making that an attractive (if hard mode) character option.

This reminds me: I seem to remember you remarking some time ago on the number of bloodlines that've just wound up getting Auspex as their fourth Discipline, and I notice that's still tending to be a common addition. Do you feel like this is a problem at all as far as design goes, or is this just one of those things to do with the nature of a lot of the bloodlines that've been getting made and updated?

[Yossarian]

This reminds me: I seem to remember you remarking some time ago on the number of bloodlines that've just wound up getting Auspex as their fourth Discipline, and I notice that's still tending to be a common addition. Do you feel like this is a problem at all as far as design goes, or is this just one of those things to do with the nature of a lot of the bloodlines that've been getting made and updated?

I wish I remembered what the context of that was, but it does sound like something I'd say. I might have been talking about Masquerade, actually, as that always seemed to be the filler Discipline. That said, I think the point still stands. I'd say Auspex gets thrown around a lot, at least for updates, because it fits into a lot of categories: prophecy, fate, truth and lies, spiritualism, etc. Conversely, the other four clan powers are a bit more firm in their thematic niches. I wouldn't say that's necessarily a problem, though; it's just the tool that fits the job most often. I find it really interesting that the Mekhet Discipline is so versatile, while they themselves represent the least common vampire archetype. But yeah, I think it might just have something to do with which bloodlines we've updated; anything involving ghosts, for instance, is probably going to get Auspex.

I just did a very back-of-a-napkin calculation based on the bloodline index in Ageless (i.e., not counting the quick conversions in Devoted or Resurrected) and of the 84 non-Mekhet bloodlines, 31 have Auspex, for about 37%; I'd have to calculate all the other Discipline distributions to see if that's genuinely an over-representation, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. In comparison, I would bet you money that Protean and Nightmare are heavily under-represented. They're both very specific to their clans (particularly Nightmare),

And that's just the clan Disciplines. I would guess that Animalism followed by Celerity aren't thrown around a lot either. Animalism for reasons that are probably obvious, and Celerity... I'm not sure why? It might be because Resilience and Vigor have such an obvious duality, so they get switched a lot.

[Tessie]

Some time ago I went through all the 1e bloodlines and looked up how many got another Clan's unique Discipline. As far as I can remember, Protean was the least common by a margin. Nightmare might be more niche than Protean, but if you want to do shapeshifting in a bloodline you'll probably just start with the "shapeshifter Clan".and go from there. And, theoretically speaking, if you want limited or involuntary shapeshifting (which I don't recall from any bloodlines, but I haven't read all of them), it's a great deal easier making that its own thing and instead avoid Protean.

[Yossarian]

Happy Friday, everyone. Let's finish this up!

It’s appropriate that we’re ending on the Corajosos, as they’re the first thing I wrote for this book. I’d mostly completed their first draft by the time I had to take on my other bloodlines, so I had a lot of time to reflect upon them.

This bloodline is probably the one that translated the most easily from Ancient Bloodlines. The Corajosos are colonialist bastard Ventrue who used a form of amplified blood sympathy to help build the modern All Night Society, forging an undead trade empire (the Grémio dos Corajosos) before they became victims of their own success. That blood tie effect, Linhagem (Linagem in the original), was/is a really cool power, and quite well designed, so it actually didn’t require much work to give it a 2E glow-up. I didn’t feel it needed to be a Discipline, but it fits really well as a five-dot Merit, and most of the powers from the original book got a fairly straightforward update. The big difference is that Linhagem now ties into Auspex and Dominate, amplifying those powers to affect more natural Kindred abilities. I also more or less directly updated their one Devotion.

Their bane went through a lot more reworking. In First Edition, they suffered from telepathic overload when other Kindred were around them. It was a fun idea, but the implementation wasn’t all that interesting to me; mostly it curtailed your stats. Our version twists that idea a tad, suggesting that the Corajosos are so in tune with the Vitae of their Kindred, they sometimes tap into the Beast as well.

While I tried to maintain as much of their backstory as I could, I did have to account for the Gallows Post, who fill a similar historical niche to the Grémio. I doubt that many people have thought about the Corajosos too much since Ancient Bloodlines came out, but I wanted to find a way to mix the old and new lore, and I think I fit them together well enough without retconning anything too severely. Where the Gallows Post are sorta proto-Carthians, the Grémio was firmly Invictus, and I liked the idea that the Brigands were waiting in the wings to pick up the pieces when the Corajosos’ empire collapsed. I also wanted to add a little story seed about the Post possibly making it to North America, since that’s not really discussed in Dark Eras (that I noticed; those are big books!)

And that’s all 22 bloodlines! Yay! I really enjoyed doing this, and I hope you all had fun following along. Appropriately, the book just hit silver best seller on DTRPG, so I’ll take that as a positive sign. Of course, please feel free to leave your comments and questions; I’ll keep an eye on this thread for a while. And since I haven’t said it in a while, if you enjoyed the book, head on over to the Vault and leave us a review or a star rating. It’s a great way to show people who are hesitant to purchase community content products that our work is worth checking out. I'll also be updating the book todayish, as I think I've caught most typos and mechanical fixes I want to implement. So watch out for that.

Anyway, I’m gonna take the weekend off to work on Rome-related things, but I might pop in to talk a little bit about the art in this book and share some sketches since that was my other big contribution. I suspect I spent more hours on art for this book than I did on writing.

And maaaaaaaaaaybe I’ll be back with a little preview of said Rome-related things…

Corajosos: The Ones Who See Right Through You

“What’s a drop? An ocean.”

From Vitae, all things flow, whether the bonds of family or the chains of addiction. Blood is the vampire distilled to her essence: Who are her people? Who is she beneath dead flesh? Who did she eat? If you know enough to read the data flowing through Vitae, you can rise above all the other Licks lapping up the spillage.

Clan Ventrue is well known for discerning truths from vintages, but some Lords go further. The Corajosos long ago learned that, if information is power, then the information hidden in the Blood is the most powerful of all. With it, they bought an empire. Empires are bought, after all. They’re forged upon the altar of slaughter, but conquest is a comma, not a stop. Without commerce, imperialism is just piracy, and while the sword can carve out a space, it can never mend it. The Bold Ones saw that gap and filled it with nothing less than the Vitae in their veins.

Once merely a family of Portuguese Lords, the Telepaths latched on early to the mortal Age of Discovery. Hidden away on transcontinental journeys in cargo holds, they hoped to forge a new path, and when they returned to Iberia, their Vitae was changed. These corajosos (“bold ones”) could not only navigate the ties of Vitae better than any Kindred on the continent, but they could also use the powers of the Blood through them, moving information and orders over vast distances. Where they gained this ability — whether by their own design or pillaged from foreign Kindred — is debated, but the results were speedy. Their consortium, the Grémio dos Corajosos, soon became the richest Kindred trade guild in Europe — and not just for goods. With their advance scouts, the Bold Ones learned the secrets and customs of far-flung Kindred, sending back intelligence in the blink of an eye for sale or their consortium’s own avaricious designs.

While the Grémio never rose to the same heights as the Dead Julii and their Camarilla, its influence is still felt tonight. With their network, the Corajosos facilitated the spread of the Traditions and the five covenants (particularly the Invictus) throughout the world — the foundation of the modern All Night Society to some; a blood-slick imperialist crime to others.

It couldn’t last, of course. Information loses its value once everyone can access it, and within a few centuries, European Kindred had enough footholds all over the New World to dispense with the Grémio’s tricks. Tonight, the golden age of picking civilizations clean is long lost, but in its absence, the Corajosos have adapted to the benefits of global communication. Modern Telepaths are the functionaries of Clan Ventrue. They’re go-betweens and couriers, the Licks you send for when you need a message moved through the securest medium possible: Vitae. Some belong to international coteries with waypoints all over the Earth, handing off communiqués without ever touching a computer or a mailbox. Others enhance their talents with mortal high tech, using the Internet to create vast intelligence networks that don’t need to transfer a single byte of confidential data. Yet others are loners and spies, using unknowing mortal thralls to move intel without even a hint of a paper trail.

Still, temporal, tangible power is hard to give up. Some of the bloodline’s elders have never desired to be anything but Bold Ones, and a few plot to grasp back some of the empire they lost. However, many Kindred, especially those who fought and won against the horrors of colonialism, swore to never see the Corajosos rise again, and they would be happy for any excuse to wipe the stain of their bloodline off the map they helped draw. If the Telepaths do try to make their dreams of revanchism a reality, it will be a war of global proportions.

Why you want to be us

You don’t want to be contained. The world is vast, yet the dead would spend their nights in cloisters. Once, the All Night Society wrapped a net around the globe — a net we crafted in blood — and it might again. Don’t just be another fish in a small pond: Be a shark in the sea.

Why you should fear us

The world is vast, but the Blood is oh so thick, and it never, ever lies. Every drop is just another entry in our ledgers, and you’re just chock full of data.

Why we should fear ourselves

Everything we learn, the Beast learns as well. It’s the worst kind of voyeur, and its interests grow more depraved the more you feed it. And who’s to say you shouldn’t? When you can know everything, little can stop you. That includes yourself.

Bloodline Origins (Excerpt)

Once upon a midnight darkly, a lovely lass picked flowers from the garden of the King of Birds, and for her crime, she was carried off by the monstrous monarch. Her brother, a brave lad, searched the world for his sister, slaying the King’s many siblings and supping on the secrets of their blood. Still, the King of Birds was as clever as he was mighty, and he carried his stolen bride off to a peak far beyond her brother’s reach. However, the lad, now more beast than boy, had learned that blood flies further than wings, and he bled upon the mountain base to send his sister a message of salvation. As the King rested his head upon her lap, she cracked one of his eggs upon his head, killing him with a single blow and lapping up the sweet yolk, claiming his throne for herself and her sibling. Now the beautiful Queen of Birds and her beastly brother seek to teach the whole world what comes of picking flowers — distantly ever after.

Nicknames: Telepaths, the Bold Ones (among themselves), Colonizers (derogatory)

Bloodline Bane (The Sympathetic Curse): The Telepaths navigate the space between dead minds, but such intimacy is a double-edged sword. If another vampire in a Corajoso’s presence gains the Tempted Condition, she suffers it herself unless [REDACTED]

Disciplines: Animalism, Auspex, Dominate, Resilience

In the Dark Eras (Excerpt)

Fallen Blossoms — 1640–1660 CE (DE1, p. 294): Japan’s kaikin (sakoku) policy is a major setback for the Bold Ones, and it comes at a particularly ill-opportune moment. The Grémio is in shambles by the time the Shogunate closes Japan, which is all the worse because it was one of the bloodline’s last footholds in Asia. Of course, opportunity sometimes comes out of adversity: Before the expulsion of Europeans, an elder of the line manages to Embrace, and he leaves his new, native childe in charge of maintaining his holdings until the heat dies down. However, this childe will need protection in case anyone realizes what she really is.

New Merit

With Linhagem, the Corajosos amplify their blood ties, folding the corners of the earth together beneath voyeuristic eyes.

In addition to accessing the following Merit, Corajosos gain Close Family or Distinguished Palate for free upon induction into the bloodline (player’s choice). If a character already has one of these Merits, she must take the other. If she has both, she gains an Experience instead.

Linhagem (• to •••••)

Prerequisites: Corajoso, Auspex •, Dominate •

Effect: Linhagem is a melding of Dominate’s raw mental power and the sixth sense of Auspex, and with it, the Telepaths can navigate sanguine paths that bind the All Night Society together.

Blood Affinity (•): To understand the roads that link all Kindred, a Bold One must first understand where she’s going. Your character adds her Linhagem dots to all Taste of Blood rolls.

Binding Ties (••): Your character applies her Linhagem dots to any Discipline roll that would benefit from a blood bond or Discipline sympathy. If the usual bonus is equal to or higher than her Merit rating, she gains a +1 on top of that usual bonus.

Sanguine Secrets (•••): [REDACTED]

Blood Lies (••••): [REDACTED]

Distant Mastery (•••••): [REDACTED]

[Nicolas Milioni]

Yossarian lemme say right, "“What’s a drop? An ocean.” gotta be the rawest line of the book

[Yossarian]

Yossarian lemme say right, "“What’s a drop? An ocean.” gotta be the rawest line of the book

Thanks! I spend way too much time fussing over the flavour quotes, but that's the one where I was like, "Aww yeah, got it in one." 😎

[Yossarian]

Also:

The file has now been updated, and barring any egregious errors I notice in the meantime, I'll try not to tinker with it till our next big release.

(I don't know if DTRPG sends out update notifications for community content unless you specifically subscribe to the "publisher" mailing list, so just FYI.)

[Teatime]

Linhagem (• to •••••)
(snip)
Binding Ties (••):
Your character applies her Linhagem dots to any Discipline roll that would benefit from a blood bond or Discipline sympathy. If the usual bonus is equal to or higher than her Merit rating, she gains a +1 on top of that usual bonus.

I'm having trouble parsing this description. In the situation described in the second sentence, does she gains a +1 in addition to or instead of the Linhagem bonus?

[Yossarian]

I'm having trouble parsing this description. In the situation described in the second sentence, does she gains a +1 in addition to or instead of the Linhagem bonus?

In addition. "On top of" means "added to" in this context. For example, if your blood sympathy bonus was +3 and you had only two Linhagem dots, you'd get a +4.

[Teatime]

I'm still trying to parse this. Your new example clarifies that you get the +1 on top of the Sympathy bonus of +3, but instead of the Linhagem rating of +2. Is the Linhagem rating meant to add to, or replace the Sympathy rating? When using a Discipline on your Sire or Childe, do your total bonuses increase as such: [+4, +4, +4, +7, +8], or as such [+4, +4, +4, +4, +5]. The former looks odd mathematically. The latter seems more natural, but to make it clearer the Merit should say:

Any Discipline roll that would benefit from a blood bond or Discipline sympathy has that bonus increased by +1, or has it replaced by the Linhagem rating, whichever is more beneficial.

[Tessie]

The most literal reading would be that you always add the usual bonus and the Linhagem dots together, with an additional +1 if the dots don't exceed the usual bonus, meaning [+3 (as you don't have the bonus on the first dot), +6, +7, +7, +8], which are some extremely high modifiers.
I'm assuming the intended meaning is your latter example of taking the higher of [usual bonus + 1] and [Linhagem dot rating]. I.e. [+3, +4, +4, +4, +5]

[Teatime]

(as you don't have the bonus on the first dot)

I feel stupid for missing this bit. I must have been a victim to the same phenomenon that injects spelling errors into all posts that correct someone elses mistakes.