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Inner Sanctum Nobility
This world thread is designed to aid in the active story
Violent Desires
Any information found in this thread is free to use and is only intended to aid in the above story.
Thumbnails are used in this thread and this can slow your phone down please be aware of this before proceeding.
This is a world where Vampires, Werewolves, and other monsters inhabit the world but are hidden in plain sight. Vampires lurk the streets while wraiths haunt locations that are important to them and werewolves roam the wilderness and other areas. These monsters often find themselves in conflict with one another and or the mortal Hunters that are constantly investigating their existence.
There are such creatures as Werewolves, Wraiths, Hunters, Mages, Changelings, Demons, Mummys, and Orpheus. All trying to find their place in the world we find ourselves in now.
This world is not unlike our own and shares common events that have taken place in the human world we live in now. Including but not limited to the Covid pandemic and horrific events like 9/11. The major difference between this world and our own is the influence these creatures have over the world we live in. Secretly moving and shifting the way things work from the shadows.
Movies and other pop-culture tropes do exist and are often created or encouraged by these creatures to assure that Hollywood and other such companies continue to sow the disbelief that these kinds of creatures could be real.
Authors note: The source materials on VtM are extensive and will not be represented here in this post. While some information will be provided for ease and quick reference. I encourage you to use sourcebooks for correct and accurate information.
Information will be provided as it is learned throughout the story. If the information isn't here then it is very likely that it hasn't been discovered yet.
VAMPIRES!
Vampires are the core focus of this story. These creatures are undead yet walk among us. They have undergone the Embrace of a vampire, been completely drained of blood, and then fed blood by their new sire.
Vampires are distinguished by their various clans and sects (factions) While there are many factions there are several major ones that stand out among the rest.
The Camarilla
The Camarilla is the most organized and influential vampire faction. Their goal is to preserve the masquerade and keep vampires in line with rules and laws that help protect their society from mortals. Beyond this, there is a known conspiracy to help elder vampires preserve their power and strengthen their secret society which has influence all over the globe including most politics. The Camarilla is currently the closest thing vampires have to a standing government or international union. They also have enforcers or Justicar's that assure peace is kept.
Anarchs
Originally they were called the Anarch Revolt. This sect is as old as the revolution against the Camarilla. In recent times the Anarchs have become popular with younger kindred who find it increasingly difficult to live within the rules of the Camarilla. The Anarchs are directly opposed to the Camarilla and will often fight back against them to claim territory and free those who they feel are oppressed. While the Anarchs are not bound to the rules of the Camarilla they are not ignorant of them either and by no means go out of their way to break the masquerade and let their presence be known to humans. Anarchs are often accepted in a city by the Camarilla if only to avoid an open war between the two factions.
The Sabbat
A monstrous organization of supremacists who sees themselves above mortals in all things and do not care for them at all. This sect of vampires evokes fear in human society and vampire society alike. They are directly opposed to the Camarilla and see their ideologies with loathing and disdain. Unlike the Camarilla and Anarchs, Sabbat does not follow the masquerade nor care for it. Instead, they follow something called The Paths of Enlightenment. The Culture hardly acknowledges clans at all including the Nosferatu. Clans are thought to be irrelevant to the Sword of Caine. It should be noted that the Sabbat and Camarilla are in active and open war with one another and will attack each other on sight most of the time. It is very rare that a city or town would be shared by these two factions.
Clans!
Each Vampire tends to fall into a Clan or category known as a clan. While the lore of how these clans came to be is heavily disputed from one to the other. There is no denying that Clans are present and clearly defined. Each Clan typically has three associated disciplines locked to it. Below is a list of known clans and disciplines, which will be further explained as discovered in the story.
Banu Haquim – Blood Sorcery, Celerity Obfuscate
Brujah – Celerity, Potence, Presence
Gangrel – Animalism, Fortitude, Protean
Ministry – Obfuscate, Presence, Protean
Hecata – Auspex, Fortitude, Oblivion
Lasombra – Dominate, Potence, Oblivion
Malkavian – Auspex, Dominate, Obfuscate
Nosferatu – Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence
Ravnos – Animalism, Obfuscate, Presence
Toreador – Auspex, Celerity, Presence
Tremere – Auspex, Blood Sorcery, Dominate
Tzimisce – Animalism, Dominate, Protean
Ventrue – Dominate, Fortitude, Presence
Toreador
The Toreador clan is known for being the most beautiful, sensual, seductive, emotional, and or glamorous.
These vampires are most known for their influence on Hollywood and popular trends. They entice and prey on victims with their beauty and love or sensuality. Famous or infamous for being artists, and innovators they are both bastions of the Camarilla and frontmen for them.
Nosferatu
These vampires are considered to be too hideous and deformed to function in human society. They are often considered grotesque.
Where they lack beauty they make up for it in intelligence. Often considered to be the spymasters of the undead world. They collect information and often live within the sewers of a city. While they are known to work with the Camarilla it has never truly been known if they are loyal to them. This clan is however fiercely loyal to themselves.
It is said that being fed on by a Nosferatu or turned by them is a painful and horrifying experience, unlike the other kindred whose kiss is known to bring ecstasy and pleasure. Additionally, they are rumored to ghoul and enthrall animals rather than humans because of how their blood begins to deform and harm the human body.
(More to be added as they are learned)
Disciplines
Dominate
Dominate is a curse to vampirism because it devalues the basics of true friendship and or intimacy. It also dulls the empathy of the user. Often wielders of this discipline will become sycophants themselves or surround themselves with them. It allows the kindred to control the mind of another. However, if attempting to control a kindred it can never control one who is lower in generation than they are.
Standard Power
* Command: Give a simple one-word order that a target must obey.
** Mesmerize: By holding a target with your gaze you can implant false thoughts or hypnotic suggestions in a target's mind
*** The Forgetful Mind: Rewrite the memories of a target
**** Conditioning: Over time make a target a slave to your will alone
***** Possession: Transfer your mind into a mortal body and control their actions
Celerity
This discipline provides and grants supernatural speed, quickness, and reflexes to a kindred who wields it.
For vampires who use this ability, when it is used the mortal world around them seems to move in slow motion. To the outside world any who were to see this would see blurs of motions unable to truly see the kindred as they move with amazing speed. Often this will allow a kindred to strike down their enemy before they can even mount a counterattack. Finally using this discipline and becoming accustomed to it can leave a vampire, hungry and exhausted.
Standard Power
* Cat's Grace: The vampire can automatically pass checks to keep their balance.
* Rapid Reflexes: The vampire suffers no penalty for dodging gunfire without cover.
** Fleetness: The vampire can add their Celerity to non-combat Dexterity checks.
*** Blink: The vampire can cross large distances and still take additional actions such as making an attack.
*** Traversal: The vampire can run up walls or across the water with a successful check.
**** Draught of Elegance: The vampire can bestow their Celerity powers on those that drink her blood.
**** Unerring Aim: The vampire can prevent their target from dodging or defending against the vampire's ranged attacks. Amalgam: Auspex 2.
***** Lightning Strike: The vampire can prevent their target from dodging or defending against the vampire's melee attacks.
***** Split Second: The vampire can supersede the Storyteller's narration and perform an action that only requires a few seconds like getting through a door before it closes, rolling out of the way of an explosion, etc.
Protean
This discipline gives vampires the ability to change their form. From growing feral claws to evaporating into a cloud of mist.
Standard Power
* Eyes of the Beast: See in the dark. Usage of the power turns the eyes into a glowing red
* Dolphin's Unsight: Use sonar-like abilities to orientate yourself underwater
** Feral Claws: Turn one's hands into dangerous claws
** Phocidaean Webbing: Create webbing between your fingers that allow for faster swimming
*** Earth Meld: Melt into the earth to hide and rest
**** Shape of the Beast: Transform into two types of animals
***** Mist Form/Body of Spirit: Turn yourself into mist
(More to be added as discovered)
CAITIFF
(More information will be provided here as the story revolves around two Caitiffs)
Caitiff has multiple meanings. First, it is a political term used to describe a flawed and or known kindred who lacks a lineage. Someone who has been abandoned by their sire. It isn't so much that they lack a clan but rather that they lack the support of a clan. Often Caitiffs are outcasts and hunted or killed if not outright abandoned when they are created.
The second meaning of a Caitiff is that they are clanless. They do not officially fit into any clan. These vampires have no inherent clan weaknesses but also have no inherent disciplines. Often a caitiff is synonymous with thin blood though they are not the same. Because caitiffs have no clan they are not recognized as a group.
Caitiffs are able to learn and use any discipline and are not restricted by their blood. However, the process to learn these disciplines is extremely difficult. (6 times harder than a normal vampire) and because of this most Caitiffs lack common disciplines that other vampires would have embraced.
Caitiffs are considered abnormalities and cursed. They are hunted by most factions and considered plagues on the more civilized kindred of society. Ironically even the anarchs and sabbat will hunt Caitiffs because of what they are. Sabbat did once recognize the Caitiffs as a clan in 1973 however the kindred who did this was quickly killed by Justicars and the recognition was never acknowledged afterward.
The Masquerade/ Traditions (Camarilla)
First Tradition: The Masquerade
Thou shall not reveal thy true nature to those, not of the Blood.
Doing such shall renounce thy claims of Blood.
Second Tradition: The Domain
Thy domain is thine own concern.
All others owe thee respect while in it.
None may challenge thy word while in thy domain.
Third Tradition: The Progeny
Thou shall only Sire another with the permission of thine Elder.
If thou createst another without thine Elder's leave, both thou and thy Progeny shall be slain.
Fourth Tradition: The Accounting
Those thou create are thine own children.
Until thy Progeny shall be Released, thou shall command them in all things.
Their sins are thine to endure.
Fifth Tradition: The Hospitality
Honor one another's domain.
When thou comest to a foreign city, thou shall present thyself to the one who ruleth there.
Without the word of acceptance, thou art nothing.
Sixth Tradition: The Destruction
Thou art forbidden to destroy another of thy kind.
The right of destruction belongeth only to thine Elder.
Only the Eldest among thee shall call the Blood Hunt.
Generation
This term is used to describe how far removed a vampire is from the creator Caine, the original vampire. The lower the generation the stronger the vampire is considered to be.
(We will not be going over all the generations here and instead will focus on those relevant to the story as they are discovered.)
10th & 11th Generations
While they are comparatively young, most vampires created within the last few centuries belong to the tenth and eleventh generations. The blood of Caine still flows through them, but they have only recently overthrown the shackles of their sires and become powers in their own right.
12th & 13th Generations
Fledgling and neonates, these vampires are separated by blood and millennia from Caine. Nonetheless, all are powerful creatures by virtue of their damned nature. Although they lack the powers of the lower generations, the vampires of the 12th and 13th generations stand above men, capable of besting the strongest mortal knight in battle and wielding influence over barons, merchants, and courts.
14th & 15th Generations
The last generation is known as thin-blooded vampires and is heavily crippled. During the Dark Ages, the Thirteenth Generation was believed to be the last, but in the Final Nights, this is comprised of the Fourteenth Generation and Fifteenth Generations.