#VTM Kaiser

[roseate-felidae]

kaiser voice acting, Vtm Justice

Kaiser has two sentences of dialogue in Vampire the Masquerade Justice with a voice actor. Was really surprised to hear him, let alone as a cameo in another game. If i remember correctly, their was no voice acting in Coteries or Shadows.

He talks to Justice over the phone in the beginning of the game. This is cut from a YouTube playthrough.

@robotslenderman

[iravaid]

When I saw Lunchbox's 'I ♥️ NYC shirt' I lowkey want to see her interact with Kaiser from New York trilogy.

He's either going to be oddly good at keeping an eye on her, or not even realise she's, like, 8. But either way Lunchbox is swiping his watch <3

[mochizuke-creates]

Just a Salubri & a Serpent of Light hanging out where bodies burn. Date night.

[thingamagob]

hbwbwhanq dhhchdh

[nightingaletrash]

ofc Kaiser chooses now to show up. ofc he does.

[spookebee]

I love Kaiser's Doofenshmirtz posing and how Marc is just Ned Flanders coded HAHAA

I adore these NPCs so dearly ❤️

My storyteller keeps poppin off with these they're so fun HAHA

moreee npcs for my nyc chronicle ⚰️ ft polonia and kaiser from the book and visual novel lol 😁 i like to occassionally pull in pre-made npcs into my games! it's fun to see how different storytellers roleplay these characters when we're given like 2 sentences abt their character lol anyway i hope yall enjoy these silly guys.. sadly no walmart employees this time

[greyghoulette]

moments I consider iconic in the vtm new york games (spoilers ofc)

•No one giving a shit about Callihan’s death

•Thomas Arturo having a blackberry phone

•Julia asserting dominance over the Camarilla

•Julia beating the shit out of Kaiser

•Qadir’s car monologues

•Valerie killing Sana at the train station

•Agathon’s grandmother

•Jackie

•D’Angelo’s outfit

•That one cg where it’s just Qadir’s ass taking up most of it

•Carter’s facial expression changing at the end of the good ending of shadows of New York

•Benoit being Christian for the aesthetics

•Vince in the NY by Night book being 19 but in game looks 40 years old

•Katherine Weiss just being there

•Raoul

•Hope being a LOONA stan

•Thomas’s ugly laugh

•Prince Panhard’s met gala outfit

•Qadir pretending he’s playing baseball when he’s about to chop your head off

•Qadir doubting Sophie has read any of the books in her haven

•Adelaide Davis

•Sophie having an entourage

•Larson just getting his shit fucked up

•Julia telling Katherine her gf single white femaled her

•Torque’s hat

[themarginalthinker]

Hi,

How's the holiday going?

Still can't get over this thing was Jen and Fen.

They sound so sweet, hope I see them in fic soon. so few questions -

Were they married before vampirism?

How did they meet?

Were the hometowns and families ok with their sexualities (homophobic neighborhood or family)?

Did they want kids when not kindred? Did any of your ocs have kids?

Are any of your characters neurodivergent, what do they think of neurodivergence (I know canonically Nosferatu are quite welcoming over them and even sire from them. Except Kaiser is a dick)?

Lastly what do your nossies think of rabbits? Had to ask that question as I'm a bunblr.

Lastly question for you-

What pets do you like or have?

Sorry for 20 questions here :b

Omg lmaoo every day I see yall slide into my dms and I'm like 'ok, how close much can I infodump about my insane little ocs before I spoiler my own story XD'

(My vacation is going well! Excited for fireworks tomorrow WOOO (even though America is doing very, very little for us to be actually proud of.. -_-)

I think...I shall give you a little sliver of an excerpt from their meeting fic/chapter (haven't decided yet if it's going to be its own thing, or if it will just be a non-Charlie pov chapter yet):

The water was more than mud and rain. In the back of his throat, he can taste blood, but God only knew if that was from coughing up bits of his insides when the gas hit, or if it was the gaping, seeping wound the shrapnel had left.

At least it's not raining now, Fen thinks, staring up from his twisted position. The stars, Lord bless them all, were out and shining brighter than he thinks he's ever seen them.

It figures, one could only find this beauty at the bottom of a trench.

And it is because the sky is so clear, and the stars so vivid, and the moon hiding behind her black veil this time of the month, that he sees the outline of a figure pass over them, at the top of the embankment wall.

Walking in the no-man's land.

;)

-

Jen and Fen were both single when they met. The both of them probably knew by the point they were embraced that they...likely were never going to be men who married. 'Life-long bachelors', a nice way to say it (and in those days, plausible deniability...) Jen especially, given that he was living in rural Appalachia when he was alive (I'm thinking West Virginia, the heart of the coal mining industry in America even today). Their families knew nothing of their preferences towards the same sex, given that sex at all was wasn't discussed outside of what was totally necessary.

One of my ocs has had a child, and was married before they became a Kindred. It's a rather large point of contention in their backstory, but oh, I shan't say who ;>

As far as neurodivergence goes, if you weren't before you were embraced, well buddy, get fuckin ready for THAT experience afterwards lmao. But more practically, yes, I do. My first ever vtm oc Rigby Bennet the Malkavian was schizoaffective and likely on the autism spectrum before being embraced, but had managed to do some university schooling before he met his sire...and things went downhill... I think Nos, Malks, and Gangrel tend to pull from the 'looked over' branches of society, knowing that it could be a chance at a new life, even a reprieve in some ways from the harshness of mainstream society. Not to mention, they're already seen as on the fringes of even Kindred society. I think certain clans tend to group together, even going so far as cohabitating in certain cases. Zephyr has what the others refer to as 'her Malks' which is that she specifically cultivates relations in the local Malk clan of the city. She enjoys hanging out with them, and hey, even disjointed information is still information.

This is also a whole other rant I could go on, but I think in a sense, some clans handle the fact that neurodivergence doesn't magically go away with Embrace, or that is exists at all, better than others.

Sorry if this isn't very coherent, it's early lol.

Do my Nossies think of bunnies:

-Charlie: thinks they're very cute and soft!! She loved holding them when she went to the state fair with her Dad! However...now, she may decide they are good for a monch. BUT ONLY IF THEY'RE NOT SOMEONE'S PET!!!

-Blue: ....well. They're cute. Why are they here though? Are we ghouling rabbits now? Doesn't seem like the most economic animal to add to the hoards, but sure...

-Tweak is Concerned that there's so many types. Why? It's just rabbits! NO CHARLIE, I DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT THEIR SPECIFIC COLOR COMBINATIONS ARE CALLED, STOP-

-Zephyr: has ghouled the rabbits and has sent them in a flood to chase Tweak. Look at him run. >:3

-

As for my pets: I currently only have an outdoor cat, but we used to have three in the house, as well as three dogs, a goldfish, and a hamster. Along with the barn animals lol. I do want to move into a place that allows pets, though. I want a cat, and a snake. (Ball python!)

[nevertrustanoracle]

*Vibrates* Top 5 favourite things about the zombie nerd husband, Roger de Camden

You don’t ask easy questions do you? 😅

In reverse order this time!

5. His clan. 😂 A bit of a cop-out I know, but it is why I first paid any attention to him. I’m very biased when it comes to VtM characters, if they’re from a clan I like I will be very inclined to like them too. It’s why I love every Nosferatu I see (except Kaiser, he can fuck off). And yeah, I dearly love the Hecata in all their forms, so he had a very easy in.

4. His willingness to/love of teaching. It’s really evident in the Gentleman’s Guide videos as well as mentioned in BJD that he mentors young Kindred, especially Hecata. And I really love that. A lot of characters seem to see explaining things to fledglings as below them, particularly if it’s not their childe, but here’s this 1,300 year old Kindred who’s quite happy to take them under his wing!

3. Whatever the fuck he’s planning. I’m so interested in what he’s up to. It’s really fun digging through all the little bits of information we have to try to piece together what’s going on in his head. Like trying to lull the Camarilla into underestimating him while taking over multiple cities (or at least attempting to). Or working to keep the Hecata together. And of course whatever’s going on with Mithras atm (I don’t believe the claim that he’s dead. Roger’s the only source for that and if anyone had reason to hide things there it’d be him.)

2. His love. I’ve mentioned before about my initial response to the “Can love exist among the dammed?�� question from LAbN vs. my response now. Every time someone asks that sort of question I want to throw FoL at them. Just, *gesticulates wildly* *inarticulate noises* You get me?

1. Determination in the face of death. I love how he’s apparently decided that death is something that happens to other people. To the point of developing an elaborate ritual to enable him to survive diablerie. AND that a few centuries later he’s declared that “other people” absolutely does not include Mithras.

And a bonus meta thing: That he has a person dedicated to writing and playing him. That’s something that really caused me to take notice of him. When I decided to really dig into him when planning Old Wounds I remembered that Mera’din (guy I know from the Bloodhunt discord) had said that the Gentleman’s Guide was him, so I decided to watch it. And thus started the tumble down the rabbit hole. It’s great how Matthew Dawkins loves pulling Roger into things he’s working on, means we get a lot of content compared to other characters!

[robotslenderman]

I’m looking at Calebros’s involvement in Beckett’s Jyhad Diary to make his characterisation more accurate in this fic, and I’m starting to think that Kaiser’s personality in CoNY might have actually been based off him. They have very similar ways of speaking. Calls out bullshit, casual swearing, sarcastic, etc.

[robotslenderman]

(Thank you @roseate-lagomorph for the link to this post!)

This is a great breakdown and I'm sorry that my response barely acknowledges any of the actual points in it, but as soon as I read the quotes and your remarks on the characterisation, something immediately jumped out at me in my memory.

BJD was published in, what, 2018? So CoNY (being a short visual novel) was probably either about to be put into development, or was in the preproduction stages.

Why I mention CoNY is because of this --

You know who BJD!Calebros's characterisation reminds me of?

Kaiser.

Look at that speech style. If BJD had Kaiser saying those words instead of Calebros, I would have 100% not batted an eye. It's also consistent with how Calebros behaves in BJD, though not in the clan novels.

And the more I thought about it the more it made sense. You take BJD!Calebros's personality and put it on top of novel!Calebros's motivations and underlying nature (that is, who he is at his core as opposed to how he actually interacts with others) -- and you get Kaiser.

So it makes me wonder -- was Kaiser supposed to appear in BJD instead of Calebros, and it was changed last minute to a more important character that a lot of fans would have already known?

Or -- and I think this is more likely -- was Calebros supposed to appear in CoNY? Was Calebros supposed to show up in Kaiser's role, only for his lines to be given to a whole new character at the last minute?

Because Kaiser's role in CoNY is very similar to Calebros's job in the Warrens. In the clan novels, we see Calebros on top of intel, with an iron grip on information, and there's no mention of Kaiser at all even though there's no way those two weren't working very closely together.

Obviously, Kaiser had yet to be invented when the clan novels were written, and that's why he's absent. He's not in New York by Night either. But in CoNY, Kaiser is basically doing everything that Calebros would have been doing, had Calebros been in the game, complete with the exact same manner of speech that Calebros had in BJD.

I'd also argue that Kaiser's characterisation is in line with Calebros's in some ways.

Ignoring how BJD!Calebros's interactions with others differs from novel!Calebros --

Kaiser, at one point, rescues Langley's adopted childe from the Second Inquisition. He claims it's for his own reasons, but the act is honourable enough in a society of dishonourable scum that it's notable. It's one of the few acts of kindness Langley's childe gets, selfishly motivated or not. Calebros is a "good" character in a World of Darkness full of scumbags, and it's definitely up his alley to help someone without going "hey I helped you, now pay me back." He could have hid from the fledgling that he wanted them to test a theory of his, and exploited this ignorance to get the fledgling to give him something in addition, but he didn't.

It's hinted that Kaiser is trying to lure Thomas Arturo out into the open and he's using Langley's adopted childe to do it, so the action wasn't completely selfless, but I still think it lines up with Calebros's character as a powerful intelligence lord who's known to meddle with pawns on the board, and who is a good enough person to occasionally help out people here and there, especially if helping them also helps everyone else.

Kaiser justifies his decision to rescue Langley's adopted childe as that he needed you alive to confirm a suspicion. The implication is pretty clear -- he's trying to lure Arturo out (though he might not know it's Arturo) using you as bait. Kaiser may already suspect that someone has Panhard blood bound to them, even if he doesn't know who that is, and that you're a pawn in that person's game.

Given that Thomas Arturo has the Prince of New York blood bound to him... that seems to me that something that Calebros would be very, very interested in. Calebros didn't want the job, but when he had it, he did it fairly and he did it well. He was an honourable prince in a dishonourable setting.

It seems like CoNY would have (Calebros's weird BJD characterisation notwithstanding) been slightly more fitting if it had Calebros instead of Kaiser. Specifically, I'm thinking of Qadir. In CoNY he's serving a court he clearly doesn't like or respect, so why would he stay there? Why didn't he just walk away?

If Calebros was supposed to be in CoNY instead, then it'd make sense -- he's staying because the one Kindred he trusts and admires is keeping an eye on the situation. Especially because Kaiser seems to be trying to uncover the Arturo/Panhard thing and using you to do it.

If Calebros was supposed to be in Kaiser's role, then we could've been looking at a potential plot in a future game where Calebros and Qadir are in cahoots using the information that Calebros (Kaiser) uncovered while using you. Calebros almost certainly wouldn't have wanted to be Prince again -- but if there's another Prince, a Shadow Prince, in the background using the figurehead Prince as a puppet? While Calebros may not go so far as to kick Panhard and Arturo out and become Prince again, he's honourable enough he may have wanted to do something about it.

So if you told me that CoNY was supposed to feature Calebros instead of Kaiser -- I'd believe it. Kaiser is a loner, just like Calebros. He's an intelligence king, just like Calebros. His lines are something that BJD!Calebros would say (though not novel!Calebros), and for CoNY, at least, he's sort of honourable (while he rescued you for his own reasons, he doesn't try to exploit it to get anything extra out of you). For Calebros to be hanging out in the background keeping an eye on his city, not wanting the throne and the spotlight -- but still wanting what's best for Kindred inside it, and chasing up a suspicion that Prince Panhard may be bloodbound to someone?

That seems, to me, totally in character for Calebros. With the caveat, of course, you'd be taking his BJD!demeanor and pasting it on top of novel!Calebros's nature.

It's not until SoNY that Kaiser's characterisation (beyond the BJD characterisation of Calebros, I mean) departs from Calebros's enough to be his own person, and gets into sketchy shit that Calebros definitely wouldn't do, and also acts in ways Calebros is too proud to. Calebros definitely wouldn't have reacted to Julia's threats and beatings the way Kaiser did.

But in CoNY? The similarities are close enough. The overlaps --

Kaiser's role as information broker

Calebros's role as king of intelligence in the novels

Kaiser's characterisation in CoNY

and Calebros's characterisation in BJD.

-- make me wonder if there was something going on behind the scenes that resulted in the two of them being split into two separate characters, and with Calebros ending up with Kaiser's personality in BJD.

Maybe there was enough reaction to Calebros's characterisation in BJD that the CoNY team decided to take Calebros out of CoNY and replace him with Kaiser.

This is just speculation. There's no reason to believe the CoNY team actually intended for Calebros to be in CoNY at all, and as far as I know they've never given any indication that that was the case. But the overlaps... hmmm.

(Personally I headcanon that Calebros is Kaiser's sire, and that it's normal for Nosferatu to put on an "act" when dealing with people outside of the warren -- we see it with Uncle Smelly, for example -- but that's also not quite consistent with how we saw Calebros talk to non-Nosferatu in the clan novels... but as someone who was writing a fic that Calebros features in, it was pretty goddamn difficult trying to reconcole Calebros's dramatic personality change in 5 years in a way that's true to both portrayals. So that's my headcanon patching over the hole and I'm sticking to that until I get a better idea, lol.)

TL;DR -- I think Kaiser's role in CoNY may have meant to be fulfilled by Calebros, because if you combine BJD!Calebros's mannerisms with his underlying nature in the clan novels you get... well... Kaiser, at least how he is in CoNY, though not SoNY. But then it's possible the writers realised they diverged too much from Calebros's previous characterisation, so they made Kaiser to take on that role instead. Alternatively, Kaiser may have meant to be in BJD but was switched out for Calebros.

Again, this is purely speculation.

Calebros: A Rant About My Favorite VTM NPC

I do love the newer Vampire: the Masquerade content, but sometimes the writing leaves a lot to be desired. A prominent example is - what in my opinion is - the butchery of Calebros’ character in Beckett’s Jyhad Diary.

While I do love seeing the more brusque side of Calebros’ personality, I don’t think I’ve ever recalled him being this vulgar in the original Clan Novels. He was definitely not dropping the f-bombs left and right, and even his gruff manner had more to do with dry humor, sarcasm, and keeping up the dignified image fit for a clan leader. I do realize that this series of chat is set much after his whole ordeal as Prince of New York is over, so maybe the experience really changed him. However, the in-universe explanation of his drastic shift in personality is lacking– it is most likely the result of a change in writers which led to inconsistent writing and characterization.

Here are some examples of scenes that presents his characterization in a more nuanced light.

Keep reading

[knight-parzival]

Coteries/Shadows sketches

[nyteblaydette]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Here’s the scariest man in NYC!

[mochizuke-creates]

Art dump of my VtM PC and some bonuses of his partner Ezekiel at the bottom. Mostly just lil doodles that I did at work. Plus one (1) digital art.

Context to the last one under the cut

(It was just a silly interaction from our game.)

[thingamagob]

so. i own this now

[nightingaletrash]

Kaiser: so you dickheads wanna go to Manhattan?

The Coterie: yes

Kaiser: Okay, I'll take you... in exchange for a favour

The Coterie: what kind of favour?

Kaiser: :)

The Coterie: ...what kind of favour?