Mind's Eye Theatre - Vampire The Requiem.pdf - RoseRed

clan, and she passes that weakness on to her childer when they “activate” the line.
The Bruja (a Gangrel bloodline) provide an example of a deliberately created bloodline.
The founder of the lineage wanted to remain true to his outlaw biker gang roots, not serve
as a pawn in some other Kindred’s maneuverings in the Danse Macabre. The line acquired
Vigor, a Discipline considered most applicable to a pack of blood-drinking, hell-raising, asskicking
outlaws who had little to depend on other than their own capabilities. The creator’s
choices defi ned the strengths of his new bloodline.
Exactly how “deliberately” a lineage’s founder changes the Blood varies from character to
character. One might change her Blood in a calculated attempt to secure greater advantages
for herself or her childer. Another might act unconsciously, her Blood responding to her
obsessions. Kindred scholars suspect that the Toreador split from the Daeva through an unconscious
but undeniable sense of self-esteem. The bloodline’s founder developed closer ties
to the society to which he found himself drawn while honing his tastes and predilections to
a level of indulgence that exceeded the main clan’s predilection for vice. In some cases, more
than one member of a clan decides to change her Vitae and begin a bloodline. A number of
bloodlines began as cults or secret societies within a clan.
ACCIDENTAL BLOODLINES?
You might wonder how a Kindred could exert an act of will so great that we
represent it by the loss of a Willpower dot, yet not know it. Please remember that
Kindred do not have access to their character sheets. Game mechanics might suggest
that a character has a Willpower dot one minute and does not the next. The change
must take place during downtime, when we do not track time minute by minute.
During downtime, it’s quite possible for an action that we represent with a single
draw or a quick pencil-stroke on a character sheet to actually take several nights. A
character can therefore engage in the prodigious effort of will needed to change her
Blood a little at a time, and no one can say — not even the character herself — exactly
when the change took place.
CURSES
A vampire might change because someone else changed him through magic. Kindred refer
to this as “cursing,” no matter how the magical alteration occurred.
Sometimes the change happens because of an actual curse. At its highest levels of mastery,
accessible only to Kindred of the most potent blood, Theban Sorcery includes curse-rituals that
can impose fl aws on a Kindred and all her descendants, even childer who have already been
sired. The most powerful mortal mages might also be able to curse Kindred in this manner.
Curses can also happen because a bloodline’s founder meddled with the powers of other
supernatural beings. Wise Kindred warn their fellows to avoid the blood of Lupines, mortal
mages and the stranger creatures that stalk the World of Darkness. Some Kindred develop new
powers through contact with such beings, but that power usually comes with an unexpected
price in the form of some new fl aw that adds to the character’s existing clan weakness.
Any character can suffer the effects of a curse, no matter how high his Blood Potency, and
the curse can be passed to any childer. If the character achieves a Blood Potency of 6, he
might be able to throw off the curse… or maybe not. At least, he can mitigate and select the
effects on himself and his childer.
TAINTED EMBRACE
Some mortals are touched by the supernatural before their Embrace. No mortal mages are
known to have suffered the Embrace, but some reputed “witches” or other aberrations of the
368 mind’s appendix: eye theatre: bloodlines requiem