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Chapter Ten:
Bloodlines
"I learned from them to take the blackness from the blood,
the wounds from the flesh, the evil from the world.
And though I may die, you, my childer will live on."
- The Book of Nod
In the years since Vampire was first published, the bonds of the circle and achieved autonomy, then do
seven Clans grew into 13, with an impressive number it (with Storyteller approval). Just be aware that do-
of former Clans, sub-Clans, and bloodlines to boot. This ing so makes a statement about the World of Darkness
chapter includes write-ups of many of these bloodlines, that playing a Toreador painter does not — and maybe
so that old fans can enjoy playing with them again, and that’s not a bad thing.
new players can get a glimpse of how diverse Vampire
really is. History and Vampires
Playing Bloodlines While modern neonates have little understanding of
how their elders survived in past centuries, some vam-
The bloodlines described in this chapter are rare, or in pires still active tonight remember the Cappadocians,
some cases, entirely extinct in the modern nights. Does the Lamia, and other such bloodlines. As such, it’s ap-
that mean that such characters are not viable for play- propriate to note that the Camarilla and the Sabbat
ers to portray? Not in the least. Playing the last surviving were both created after the fall of some of the Clans.
member of, say, the Telyavic Tremere is an opportunity for
great drama. It just requires that the player and the Story- Up until the middle of the 15th century or so, vampire
teller be ready for the kinds of situations that creates. society broke the Clans down into two groups: High Clans
and Low Clans. The High Clans were the Brujah, Cappa-
It could be argued, then, that a player who creates docians, Lasombra, Toreador, Tzimisce, and Ventrue. The
such a character is just trying to be “more unique†than Low Clans were the Assamites, Followers of Set, Gangrel,
other vampires. Possibly, but so what? If the goal is to Malkavians, Nosferatu, Ravnos, and Tremere (still consid-
tell a compelling story, to focus on the characters that ered usurpers for what they did to the Salubri). The blood-
are, by default, more interesting than any others (that lines that did not survive beyond (or much beyond) the
is, your characters), then why not create something Dark Ages — the Anda, Cappadocians, Lamia, Lhiannan,
that doesn’t exist anywhere else? If you feel compelled and Noaid — have stereotypes and quotes drawn from
to play a Blood Brother that has somehow broken the these groups, rather than the Camarilla and Sabbat.
VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION 393
