#guide to coteries

[crownedinmarigolds]

Fangfest 2024 - Day One - The Fool Khloe Osborne, Ventrue Thinblood, bane of the Fullbloods. She has no idea the greater workings of Atlanta, and no one who knows seems to be keen on telling her. Her and the rest of Stakebait coterie are going to probably make all of their makers rue the day they were ever made. You don't tell them what's going on? Well, guess matters will just need to be taken into their own hands. Khloe is my fool! She has no idea what's happening, she really is just doing what she's being guided to do. The coterie is starting to really catch heat from the consequences of their actions, and the Fullblood higher ups are always mad and blaming them but also neglect to tell them exactly WHAT they're messing up. Fine by them, who needs the Fullbloods anyway???? *sweats nervously* The hands gently holding her arm are her coterie (Christian, Kyle, Ralph) and those covering her eyes are her sire and Anarch (Lena), as well as the Dusk Angel and leader of the Thinblood resistance (Sydney). She's holding a fire bomb that hunters had left in a Thinblood haven, which she used in their scuffle against the Sheriff. It cemented the Thinbloods as a LEGITIMATE problem now for the local Camarilla rather than just nuisances. It's Fangfest day one! So stoked that I've been able to assign tarot to our OCs!! Can't wait to keep going!

[ladyeroway]

The World - Wholeness, Achievement, Fulfilment, Completion My final piece for Lilijana now that our VTM: Dark Ages game has come to an end. It is always sad to say farewell to my characters. But Lilijana did everything she set out to do. She guided her Coterie, she lead a freaking army and at the end took the crown. I couldn't be more proud of her and glad I could give her a good send off. Goodbye Sweet Prince of Reval, Long may you Reign!

[gorbalsvampire]

On Building Characters

I generally hold two things in my mind when I'm putting a character together at the dots-on-sheets level. Neither is the "quick and dirty" work-your-way-around-the-sheet process in the Player's Guide, where you decide if you're a Specialist or a generalist or a Jack of All Trades and just put dots in skills. I think that's really helpful for explaining and introducing how character creation works, but it doesn't go all in on the build to the extent that I like.

I try to walk the line between having a tuned, capable character with healthy dice pools in things that will be useful (key Discipline powers and hunting rolls for their Predator Type as a priority, survivability pools like social awareness, difficulty to surprise, and at least one decent combat roll as secondary concerns), and having a concept that makes sense as someone who was a person before they were a vampire and isn't just dots in the optimal places.

To understand my approach it helps to be familiar with the Stormwind Fallacy - the claim that "good roleplaying" is antithetical to "optimising character". It's nonsense, as Tempest Stormwind elegantly proved. Roleplaying is entirely a soft skill: one can play a finely tuned and powerful character to the hilt and still make in-character decisions that have entertaining, dramatic, difficult consequences.

There is a tension between optimisation and verisimilitude, though: a character who's been built entirely to be a good vampire often doesn't feel "right" or "good" because they're artificial: they weren't engineered as someone who existed before their Embrace. That's what the full process in the V5 corebook - not the two page summary spread but the chapter that follows, the full method for building a character - strives to avoid. As ever, slow and close reading of the book reveals deep truths.

In particular, the full method encourages you to break your skills down into Professional (two at three dots, two at two dots, one with a Specialty, derived from what your character's "day job" was), Life Event (one at three dots, one at two, derived from the most important thing that happened to your character) and Hobby (three at one dot, representing things your character has dabbled in).

Then you pick either one Skill to really overspecialise in (four dots, and you can move your Specialty in here too) or six more to pick up (two at two dots, four at one), and this is where you pick the "good at being a vampire" stuff that your character has learned to do post-Embrace. These are the ones that I like to keep plastic, fantastic, and somewhat elastic, selecting them to make sure the hunting, combat and survival stuff is taken care of. If you want to focus on combat, you'll need to pick a profession package that leans into it, and give yourself a reason for that focus. I'm looking ahead towards the stuff I'll pick next: Predator Type, clan Disciplines, and Coterie Type, so I know what to leave space for in my Background spend and contribute to the group fund.

The other thing that's always circulating in my mind is Flaws. In my experience veteran players kind of miss the point of Flaws in V5, expecting them to be customisation options like they were in the older game. They're more... story signals. You're telling the Storyteller this is the problem you'd like your character to have, a thing that's going to come up often during play. That means, from a "keeping the game functional and playful" perspective, you need to put some thought into what kind of obstacles, challenges, difficulties, barriers you enjoy overcoming, or don't mind being thwarted by. It's easy to pick something that ends up backfiring on you.

For example: I am really touchy about loss of agency and control. I won't touch the Weak Willed Flaw with a goddamn barge pole, because being able to throw some dice in active resistance to Dominate or Presence is important to me. I need to feel like I had a chance, however long of a shot it was. Now, one of my OCs should have this Flaw, it fits with the character and her relationships with authority, but if I'm going to play her in a chronicle I as player am going to repeatedly encounter something that discourages me from playing. It crosses a line, and setting myself up to cross that line repeatedly in play is a surefire way to make the play not playful any more.

That's what this optimisation stuff comes down to, really. Making sure your character is fun to play - that you can get stuff done in the game, and that you don't have to keep on doing things that spoil the experience for you.

[feith-rikya]

All these characters are from an RPG campaign called; Gehenna's Gates, set in the world of Vampire The Masquerade. Feel free to ask any questions!

Danselm Masterpost:

In a London shrouded in shadows and mysteries, where unexplained murders upset the hierarchy of vampires, Danya Vetranov meets the new prince of the city, Anselm Godwyn, introducing herself to him according to Camarillian traditions. Anselm, a charismatic and courteous man, demonstrates an unusual interest in the Ravnos, earning her honor for unexpected attention. So the fortune teller begins to aspire to something more than just a role in the circus.

Their fiery passion grows, bringing them closer and lead Danya to blindly trust him, ignoring the events in London.

However, the story takes a dramatic turn when Danya discovers the staked body of an identical woman in the dungeon. This reveals Anselm's dark past and his true identity as Archon and True Brujah, an ancient vampire capable of manipulating time. At a time when it seems that Anselm wants to hurt Danya for having discovered the truth, he instead destroys the coffin with the body of his former lover and confesses everything about his tragic love story, the curse that haunts him and about her actions and the Camarilla's heinous orders against her friends.

Following this revelation, Anselm pushes Danya away, withdrawing into himself. Danya returns to her friends, who already know of the Camarilla's wrongdoings against them. From that moment on, Danya pledges not to betray her family and her love, but the gap between her and Anselm grows ever wider. The Archon seems to grow increasingly irrational, violent and jealous, bringing Danya closer to the vile Rudolf. Eventually, it all boils down to a final confrontation against Anselm, leading the group to fight for their survival until they finally defeat him.

Yet, these two lovers tragically separated for the second time, do not want to stop meeting and there are still many mysteries and misunderstandings to unravel.

Upon Anselm's demise at the hands of the coterie, Danya found solace in the affection of Rudolf, a former soldier, marking the beginning of a stable and enduring relationship. Yet, Anselm's tale took an unexpected turn. His spectral presence reemerged inexplicably, tethered to Danya in a more palpable form than before. Initially, their coexistence seemed impossible, overshadowed by mutual grievances that threatened their ruin. However, a confrontation brought forth the truth.

Contrary to belief, many of the atrocities attributed to Anselm, such as the Ventrue clan's extermination, the Circus's destruction, and relentless harassment, were orchestrated by the demon Ekron, masquerading as the Archon. Anselm had fallen victim to Ekron's deception, leading to his demise at the hands of the deceived Ravnos. The formidable True Brujah had his identity stolen, posing a threat to Danya and her companions, driving away his true love.

In an effort to rectify the situation, Anselm decided to impart his Temporis power to Danya, providing her with the means to vanquish the demon that had wreaked havoc on their lives. He assumed the role of a mentor to Danya, almost resembling a sire, aiding her in mastering the discipline and navigating the complexities of governance. Over time, his resentment towards her lessened. Burdened by guilt over her role in his demise, Danya endeavored to make Anselm's afterlife more enjoyable, engaging in activities that an ancient vampire would find unconventional.

Despite their deep connection, when Anselm broached the subject of a potential romantic revival, Danya, committed to her existing relationship, had to decline. Anselm gracefully accepted, prioritizing her happiness even if he could never experience such emotions again.

The defeat of Ekron became possible through Anselm's assistance. Guiding Danya through a Temporis ritual, he managed to reunite with his body, reclaiming the vampire identity he once possessed. Joining forces with the coterie, he fought valiantly against the demon that had humiliated him, with his temporal powers playing a crucial role in their victory. Choosing to embrace the role of Justicar, Anselm returned to serve the Camarilla, while still supporting the London Coterie, especially Danya, by vigilantly watching over the sect for them.

Anselm became a recurring presence in their lives, appearing in times of dire need to aid his former lover with unwavering assistance. Each reunion was marked by a bittersweet sentiment, encapsulating the complex emotions that defined their unique bond.

[celticcrossanon]

Hello Celta,

Colour me nit surprised by your last reading on Charles immature responses to William’s very existence. I’m like you, I can’t support or stand to see anyone being emotionally manipulated, it sends me into a rage. But I thank God that William has grounded Catherine to support him. She has seen the family dynamics up close and personal for 20 plus years. She knows the beast she’s dealing with, and by now clearly does William. She will be there to wisely counsel him and guide him through these treacherous waters. Bless her.

There’s been two articles in the press rating Charles first year and they have not been positive. His press manipulations have been commented upon. So it’s out in the open. William will find a way to put this put in the open.

Hi AnonymousRetired,

I am very grateful that William has Catherine and her family to support him as well. I also think that his cousins might help, as he seems to be close to them (Zara and Peter).

Are these the articles you mean (below)? I'm not sure if the bad press is deserved or if it is just the media stirring things up. I don't mind if Charles acts as a caretaker, as long as he stops with the PR stuffing Camilla down my throat and deals with Harry and Andrew. I'm still waiting for those things to happen. On the other hand, I am glad if they are calling him out on his press manipulations.

[badass-at-fandoming]

Zero idea about the fandom interest in said supplement, but I think it would be cool to have a supplement of different types of Anarch government!

I know v5 has these different coterie types already, but I'm thinking something bigger, like a guide on how to build a government for vampires. You could even have the same group of Anarchs try different government types, to see which one fits for their community. In his diary, Beckett writes down two different types of Anarch government: one in LA and one in Libertatia. What if we had even more options! There could even be more based on real life government, though they'd have to be scaled down for a smaller population. What do you think? How would you design your vampire government? 🎵 It's fun to get together with your friends and write a constitution. 🎵

Some examples under the cut

Copy + Paste Real Life Government - Could be a state, city, or federal government taken from the real world. World Citizen Comics created this very fun book on different constitutions of the world. It's called RE: Constitutions: Connecting Citizens With The Rules Of The Game

Athenian Democracy - Everyone votes all the time on everything. More explanation here.

The Monty Python - the autonomous collective described in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This scene here.

Autocracy - This can go a lot of ways. One vampire has all the power. They could be called emperor, king, Ruler Supreme, the Big Cheese, or anything else. I was thinking of Imperial Russia and how the Tsar had to do everything, from processing name-change forms to leading the army. You could bring in a religious element. Whoever proves to be Caine's specialist little snowflake gets to sit in the biggest, comfiest chair. There could be "divine trials" to prove that Caine himself kisses you on the forehead. You could have a Pharaoh, who heads the government and religion.

The Bonpensiero - This is a spin on the Camarilla model to fit LA's needs at the end of my friends' hella long chronicle. Each LA neighborhood had an elected Baron, and all Barons sat on a Council. The Council resolved disputes, monitored LA citizen health, and investigated threats to the Masquerade. When it became time to stomp something into dust, the "Prince" would do the stomping.

Feudalism - Quentin King III modeled his government after medieval European feudalism, which shockingly worked for a long while. In exchange for protection during attack, the ruler receives food/taxes/tribute from others. That can be the entire extent of it, or there can be other government bodies that form laws and settle disputes.

The Eternal Senate - Collat's version, Camilla's version, or the real life one!

The Oligarchy - a group of people are in charge of everything! Can come in different flavors. Maybe it's a elders, maybe it's corporate bigwigs [shudders]; maybe it's everyone who has proven Caine loves them.

The Matriarchy - Female Kindred rule a territory, both as a government and keepers of culture. However, they don't have absolute power, and there are various counter-balances and law-making bodies

Three Departments and Six Ministries - the admin structure of medieval China, NE China (Manchuria), Vietnam, and Korea. Comes with an emperor. Read more here!

Communism - Comes in so many flavors I'm just linking the wikipedia article here. The society centers around the common ownership of the means of production. For example, every Kindred would have a role in the acquiring and distribution of blood.

Socialist Republic - Kindred vote for representatives to...represent them...in a government body, which then votes on policies. Including socialism means a focus on government programs providing Kindred with their basic needs, like blood, a haven, art, etc

This is SO incredibly nerdy. I would love to hear other people's ideas~!

[annot8]

Fools fate is done! And so am I!

(Spoilers and ramblings for Fools Fate below)

Forgive any typos, i am writing through tears :)

First things first, I am thick’s number one fan. I too would hate a long boat journey and would want only for dry land and pink sugar cakes. Despite everything else that was going on, i actually laughed out loud when fitz realised Thick had stayed on Asevjal and tricked everyone (including Chade). I hope they treat him well at Buckkeep, and that his life is simple and happy.

As for Chade - I have never been so frustrated with a character I once loved. I still love him but he makes it so difficult. The dynamic between him and fitz was such an interesting and infuriating thing to read. To realise that the wise, all-knowing, old man that had always guided you is actually just… some guy - crazy. I don’t trust Chade very much, and there were times in this story that I really hated him, but it’s hard not to see him through fitz’s eyes and forgive him. He does what he judges best, even when that thing is cruel and callous.

The fool broke me with every line. Seeing him waiting there for them all on Aslevjal was brilliant but I was surprised by how quickly he forgave fitz. Though, after Golden Fool, I was happy to see them get along.

Obviously, I know there are more books so I knew he wasn’t actually going to die (though I got less confident in that when he very much did die and was dead for quite some time). But seeing him so afraid of death was heartbreaking - especially when he put a brave face on for fitz. All the stuff with the pale woman was so so awful. Him literally being crucified before fitz, with his rooster crown placed mockingly on his head?? What am I supposed to do with that???

Fitz taking care of the fool after bringing him back healed something in me. It was so soft and gentle, and sad. I knew that somehow it would not last, and so I was not surprised when he told fitz he wasn’t coming with him. I know they will meet again, but still it was very sad.

As for Fitz… I think because it took me so long to read assassins apprentice, I will always see him as a little boy. And because of that, I will always make excuses for him, and love him. He is maybe my favourite character ever, in anything. I did not realise how much being forged had affected him, and was very happy to see him restored.

The ending felt a little quick, and everything was tied up maybe a little too neatly, but I still like it. I imagine that a lot of people probably didnt like the ending very much but I did.

I’ve learned that apparently people generally don’t like molly very much. I am here to make it clear that I am not one of those people!!! I love molly. I love that she is angry and difficult and stubborn. She was right to leave fitz all those years ago and she was right to accept Burrich’s love and help. Like with the fool, I was surprised she forgave fitz so quickly. But I am happy she did.

For me, I know that the fool is fitz’s great love. I know that they would be so happy together. But the fool ventures out and fitz goes to rest. Molly represents a normal, mundane, life, with love and children and simple pleasures. And I am glad that fitz, with all his memories restored to him, can enjoy a life such as that.

I love nettle for a lot of the same reasons I love her mother. And I love that it is Nettle’s Coterie. Her involvement was another thing I was mad at Chade for, for I had hoped nettle would never have to be sacrifice for the Farseers, but in the end, she needed to know who she was.

I expected to cry at this book, but not as much as I did. I mainly cried over burrich, who was always a favourite. I think, as readers, we latch on to him the same way fitz does in the beginning. I was hoping for a slightly more emotional reunion between him and fitz, but actually, the one we got was more in character. It was so good to have him back, but as soon as the stone dragon started charging towards swift, I knew what was going to happen. And despite how much I love the fool, I was a little disappointed in fitz that he was not by burrich’s side when he died.

I am trying to think of what else to say but I think I am too close to it all. I cried a lot over patience. I am happy that the six duchies once again has a king-in-waiting and a strong, foreign born wife. Hap’s ending was a surprise, and I feel his story was a little neglected throughout, but he’s happy so I’m happy. I had hoped to see jinna again but I suppose that part of the story had already ended. Ooo and the last line about Lacey was so unnecessary!! I didn’t need to know that.

All in all, I liked this book very much despite the pain it caused me. I am happy that fitz is happy - in his father’s holdings, with his wife, the children he cares for, and his eccentric mother. I am sure it will all soon come tumbling down, and that I will have to blame fitz for it.

I am anxious to see the fool again. And if fitz’s peace cannot last, then I hope at least that in the trouble he’ll no doubt find himself in, his Beloved will be by his side. For even though I like molly, neither she nor even nighteyes could make fitz whole, the way that his fool does.

I am going to bed.

[open-hearth-rpg]

Ludography: Great RPG Mechanics #RPGMechanics: Week Nine

Continuing on with this week of meta-elements, I want to talk about ttrpgs and history. In the 21st Century, Old School Renaissance games would focus on the "Appendix N." As Dungeon Crawl Classics tells it, “Appendix N is the list of books that inspired Gary Gygax to create D&D. This bibliography first appeared as an appendix in the AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide—specifically, Appendix N—which is why the list is known by that name...The books in Appendix N are a who’s-who of classic fantasy, sci-fi, and sword-and-sorcery fiction.” See this Goodman Games page here.  

That’s a useful read for non-game sources. These dtories show where Gygax got the inspiration which helped him reshape the material he and Arneson had developed. If you want to bore down to the absolute specifics, Jon Peterson’s Playing at the World, hunts down many of the specific fictional sources and how they impacted design choices and art. 

Peterson’s work is a real ludography, pulling together the various game design streams existing at the time and showing how they provided a foundation for what would become role-playing games. He analyzes the importance of Kriegspiel, play-by-post Diplomacy, and more to the community which would eventually arise. Is it useful for playing D&D (and its descendants)? Probably not unless you’re fetishizing originalism in ttrpg play.  

But when I’m looking through a game, I appreciate when the designer spends time talking about their game sources. A bibliography is great– telling me the movies, comics, and novels which inspired the game helps. It helps center me on what the designer feels is the tone and genre we’re going to be engaging in. I can read the rules through the lens of those tropes– and I can often find something new to read. Sometimes it will tell me that a game isn’t really for me– or that the expectation set by the blurb isn’t quite what the game actually aims for. 

But a ludography, a list of games (ttrpg and otherwise), is also really interesting to me. By this point there’s a huge body of work out there– some of it completely vanished. I appreciate these kinds of lists for three reasons. First, seeing what kinds of games the designer feels have operated in similar spaces. A game which cites Monster of the Week and Buffy: The Roleplaying Game, but not Hunter the Reckoning tells me something about the expected play.   

Second, it can offer an acknowledgment of other games. If your rpg is about vampiric lives, power-plays, and coteries, ignoring the legacy of Vampire & World of Darkness feels a little disingenuous and a 1990s/2000s. By that I mean the host of copycat games where designers would deny any inspiration or influence from earlier rpgs. It was weird but I remember it happening more times than I would have expected. I also like this citation better than bashing other games (something we see less of these days in blurb text). 

Third, it can give me a sense of the mechanical evolution of your game. It shows what kinds of systems it might draw on or the designer might have seen. That’s particularly useful for games building on a core system like Powered by the Apocalypse or Forged in the Dark. That can offer some context for the system choices. The “Gratitude” page at the back of Apocalypse Keys does a dynamite job of this. Though I can’t find it right now, Marshall Miller for a long time was doing meta-work with this– asking PbtA designers about their sources and inspirations. The +1 Forward Podcast also made this a cornerstone of their work. 

But there’s another kind of tangential ludography I want to talk about, more important to me than these earlier forms. The “what’s different?” entry in ttrpg books. If I’m reading a second, revised, accelerated, or whatever version of a game: tell me what has changed. Reference the earlier game and talk about the design choices you’ve made. If it is just about adding in lore or expanding the timeline, that’s fine. But tell me so I’m not hunting through for the mechanical differences. Clearly the designer and/or publisher had some reasons for needing a new edition. They should be proud of those– and make clear how substantial they are. And if it is just a 1.5 with some errata corrections, they should be willing to say that. Buyers shouldn't feel like they’ve been tricked. Honestly when I see a new edition or version, this is the first thing I look for. 

The other version of “what’s different?” comes from games working with an established system or OGL. If you are writing a PbtA or FitD game, it's super helpful to me as a reader if you tell me how your version of the system varies from the “core” or at least the typical version. This doesn’t have to be exhaustive, but I think it is important. If your game doesn’t have stats, does away with stress, inverts the rolling, etc. If I’m coming in with some system expectations from having played these kinds of games before, what should I be looking out for? I put two pages talking about this early on in Hearts of Wulin. Again, it is something I look for when I’m checking out new games. 

(h/t to Evan Torner who has talked about the importance of ludographies before).

[pavukvaleria]

First nights

Ophelia arrived to Portland by bus, in a panicked attempt to run away. She had been harassed and stalked by a self-proclaimed "fan". Last week he found her and... did something to her. She felt different but didn't really know what it was, and she really had to leave her state as fast as possible. And there she was, at a bus stop at night in an unfamiliar city with nobody to guide her through this nightmare. Then, Ophelia spotted something almost magical in a park nearby. It was a white deer, just like that landmark, and it was calling for her to follow somehow. After a bit of walking she found herself in the Old Town, in front of a vintage coffee shop.

She was not alone here. Two men were waiting for the cafe to open. She came just in time. Another man walked up and rolled up the shutter. He was just as pale as the deer that led her here. - Goodnight. Has someone recommended this place to you? Do you have your invitations? The two men handed over their cards. The pale man turned to her with a smile. - What about you? Ophelia didn't know what to answer. The real reason why she was there would sound absurd, right? The awkward silence was broken by one of the men, the one with a suit and tie. It turned out that he had two invitation cards given to him by the same person. His night was pretty strange too, to say the least. He handed one to Ophelia and vouched for her.

The pale man's name was Adrian and he belonged to clan Gangrel. The two others were Ben and Scott. Adrian was tasked with teaching neonates the ins and outs of unlife and taking care of them for the meantime. Vampires, clans, feeding, disciplines, the Masquerade, the Camarilla. They had to learn quickly if they were to survive and make their sires proud. That was the deal.

This coffee shop and its second floor would become their haven for now. Just now, the three Fledglings formed a coterie. Ophelia learned what she really was now and it felt like... freedom at last.

[mystery-salad]

BEHOLD, THE MESMER COLLECTIVE’S CLOSE-KEPT SECRETS!

These are the various pages that our dear April had stolen from the Mesmer Collective in GW2′s latest achievement! Clearly she stole much-valued intel, remember to not take it to any tabloids and under no circumstances upstage Anise at a dinner party, shhhhh!

Image descriptions below!

[image 1-2] A Collective History Vol. 1: As I begin penning this chronicle from this cozy nook in the Muse, I cannot help but marvel at what this small organization has accomplished over the past two centuries. From aiding a burgeoning Shining Blade to the Chronoflux Anomaly, the Collective has seen and solved its fair share of mysteries since its founding in 1070 AE. Our Fifth Veil has been rather patient with my questions, though not the most forthcoming when it comes to personal questions. As he puts it, “some mysteries are meant to remain as such.” -Foreword by the author, Third Veil, J. Whelark

It was the early months of the Searing. Duchess Adelaide Barradin had received a private summons from Prince Rurik and was tasked with leading a diplomatic mission to Kryta. Having recently served as a diplomat to both Kryta and Orr at the end of the Third Guild War, she had the respect of the Krytan royal court. By her own discretion, the duchess handpicked a small but elite detachment of her own students and contemporaries, many of whom welcomed the reprieve from the front lines, while others worried for the comrades they left behind. The coterie of mesmers were to deliver correspondence and crucial tactical information to King Jadon of Kryta on the prince’s behalf. In her later journals, she would reflect on this moment as the last time she would speak to her daughter and her husband.

[image 3] A Collective History Vol. 2: The troupe would cross the Shiverpeaks with help of two Deldrimor pathfinders, Lyn and Bhrode Runecarver, with the hopes of avoiding the Stone Summit, among other more natural dangers of the mountain passes. Even with their dwarven guides, they lost two of their group to a Summit ambush near the Frost Gate.

“We’re exhausted. Spirits are low. No time to mourn after Kelsi and Torrin covered our escape. Our guides have done what they can to console us, but it’s little comfort. I got a fire going, somehow. Never expected any of Scarlot’s survival lessons to stick. Cendin would’ve conjured flames with magic just to show off. I miss them so much.” -Journal of Third Veil, Velise

[image 4-5] A Collective History Vol. 3: Having reached the gates of Lion’s Arch, the duchess and her attaché were finally granted entry into the city. They were escorted to the palace by the Lionguard; it was “a humid evening, despite the coastal breeze.” Even at that hour, King Jadon was engaged in council with his advisors as charr forces amassed on the eastern Krytan border. Duchess Adelaide presented the king with the diplomatic parcel as he made introductions. When King Jadon addressed the emissary from the White Mantle, the duchess noticed three imposing figured garbed in golden robes and armor, with multiple sets of dark ethereal wings emerging from their backs. They hovered quietly, flanking the “stout but stern man in unusually vibrant attire” in a corner of the inner chamber.

Unknown to most, the duchess was in posession of a relic stolen from Orr early in the Third Guild War. The Veil of Ilya, an elegant but otherwise visibly unremarkable domino mask, was rumored to pierce the curtain of reality, to look upon things not normally seen by mortal eyes. Its passive magic would allow the wearer to perceive things hidden by illusion or that exist out of phase with Tyria proper as if they were there normally. Should the wearer actively draw upon the Veil’s well of power, they may reveal these things to those around them within a defined space and for a short period of time.

Before the Unseen could act, the duchess exposed them with the full power of the Veil. It was said that the mursaat attacked with powerful magics, killing the king’s advisors and royal guard in seconds. Adelaide and her companions came to the king’s defense with combined feedback spells, evacuating His Royal Highness through secret corridors at his direction.

[image 6-7] A Collective History Vol. 4: In a gambit to learn more about their mysterious pursuers, the king and his mesmer escort, tired and tattered, had set a trap for a mursaat who had wandered further ahead of their hunting party. On their own, a single mursaat was formidable--deadly, but not invincible. Even with their foe defeated, one of Gauvain’s students fell in the skirmish and King Jadon sustained serious injuries attempting to protect the young spell-slinger. The rest attempted to carry the king afterward, but he would succumb to his wounds the following day.

The remaining four continued into South Kessex, toward what King Jadon thought could be a possible safe haven. During their detour to “bury” the dead, the mursaat had made up for lost ground and would eventually surround them. The duchess and her comrades stares down their attackers as the Veil of Ilya revealed their presence once more. In a blinding moment of flashing sigils and spellcraft, the four were dazed by the light--only to find the mursaat lying dead around them.

Before them appeared the projection of a man who introduced himself as Obryn--a seemingly powerful spellcaster in his own right. Their mysterious savior would help them find proper shelter near the village of Shaemoor and keep them informed as best he could.

[image 8-9] A Collective History Vol. 5: “As a child, I’d heard my parents weave stories of their home, Istan. Early on, I suspected ‘Bryn might be a djinn. No one in the Collective has ever seen him outside his projected form, and it’s become sort of an in-joke for new recruits to speculate wildly. It IS a handsome projection, and yes, I’d asked, and no, he was flattered but uninterested. His loss.” -Journal of Fourth Veil, Nemah

In the weeks following, after the charr invasion of Kryta was routed by the White Mantle and their masters, their occupation of Kryta began. The remaining mesmers decided they would not abandon Kryta to its new regime. There, Adelaide, Velise, Gauvain, Nemah, and Obryn would form the first inner council of the Mesmer Collective, a fledgling network of spies and informants that would serve Kryta in the formative years of the Shining Blade and, later, their own kinsfolk in the Ascalonian settlement. In time, the Collective’s numbers would grow. Individuals with ties and connections to larger Krytan towns would form the first outer council and, eventually, the first members of the Shroud.

The truth of King Jadon’s disappearance and death remains a secret to this day, known only to a privileged few outside of the Collective. Even after Queen Salma reclaimed the throne, the young Mesmer Collective deemed it best that the truth remain buried, worries that Jadon’s death under the protection of Ascalonian diplomats would rouse suspicion and undermine the burgeoning trust between the new Ascalonian refugees and the Krytan people.

[image 10] Recipe from the Queen’s Roast: The Queen’s Roast, feeding the people of Divinity’s Reach since 1231 AE

Receipt from the third week of summer.

6 cups of Queen’s Floral Tea 1 pint of Apple Grove Cider 1 Yak Wellington with hearty mountain greens and a piece of rhubarb pie (customer encourages the largest slice possible) 1 rare yak steak, hold the sides 2 slices of the daily cake special 1 plate of the daily house roast, please include all sides 1 Caledon blueberry salad with sautéed kale

Signed for by: Countess Anise

[crownedinmarigolds]

Welcome to my art/hobby/fandom/etc blog! My name is Kelsey, CrownedinMarigolds on Tumblr, and I've been on this website since 2012? Yep I'm an ancient being. If you're interested in supporting me or giving me a little tip for doin' what I do, here is my KO-FI! Zero pressure of course.

My favorite subjects to draw are primarily OC based, and the sandbox I play in is usually Vampire the Masquerade/World of Darkness! But of course I love all manner of TTRPG. While I have things I like consistently, I will reblog and talk about all kinds of different things that may be out of left field! This is my mish-mash blog, just be warned! I'd also like to shout out my true love, my muse, my baby-daddy: @thesixthplaneteer. He's a very talented writer and a lot of my work and his work are intrinsically tied together! Most of my OCs are drawn with his and his work provides some context for all the fun things I draw for us!

My art commissions are: open!

My quick-sketch commissions are always open!

If you're interested in commissioning me, please see my commission information here! Here are examples of my work//my art tag in case you'd like to get a feel of my art style before making a decision. I love a messy and painterly style so please understand that before reaching out! I am open to art trades!

Here is how I usually schedule my time when I'm working on commissions, in case you were interested!

Tag Guide (If you want to block or what have ya!) : I self reblog often, so it is under the self reblog! tag. I often reblog others' commission post under commission boost I post personal little dribbles about my life under personal Information on my various Vampire the Masquerade stories/Chronicles: The Poisoned Peach: ATL by Night - my actual VTM game I'm playing with my husband. It follows Khloe Osborne, a fresh Thinblood trying to navigate the vampire world without really knowing anything. She has a coterie and the Camarilla currently runs Atlanta, Georgia... but for how long? Wilted Roses - The overarching full canon to the plot of our World of Darkness. This is a mixed bag of information and stories that aren't necessarily in a Chronicle but flavor the world! Nyth and Noa are probably the stars of this overall story. OC Directory beneath the cut, just felt like making it!

My OCs:

Noa Hidalgo-Giovanni - my main OC, my Giovanni/Hecata necromancer! I will probably draw her across multiple AUs/fandoms so don't be surprised to see her.

Khloe Osborne - my current VTM/V5 PC in my husband's chronicle, The Poisoned Peach, ATL by Night! She is a Ventrue Thinblood, in a coterie with three other Thinbloods as they try to stop the Atlanta Camarilla from enslaving the local Thinblood populace! I also like to put her in Baldur's Gate 3 art too.

Parvati - another favorite character of mine. She was originally my first real Pathfinder PC that I played for a long time. I also started writing a book about her titled Crowned in Marigolds, sort of based on the Pathfinder world she had been placed in. She is now my Vampire the Masquerade Ravnos Elder who is in the Ministry/Followers of Set!

thesixthplaneteer's OCs (the OCs I treat like mine but are actually not!)

Dr. Nythanel Loken PhD- Elder Thinblood, the Thriceborn! The big favorite and Noa's other half. Cute and full of the audacity!

Ralph - The perfect man - a Thinblood that got cursed with the Nosferatu bane (lite). He's Khloe's boyfriend in my current Chronicle. Former Spec Ops but Embraced out of spite because he was hot. (Did NOT go well for the sire!)

Stakebait Coterie - The group Ralph and Khloe are a part of which also includes Christian and Kyle! The four best friends that anyone could have!!

[sapphic-catz]

The Blood to Blaze AU

Or BTB Au is a larger au based on the idea of Tigerclaw being a vessel for a corrupt and cruel Starclan that wants to draw the Clans back to their worship. It plans to spread across TPB and TNP following the rise of Tigerstar and the remaining effects of his destruction.

Some larger changes to Warrior cats are here as well!

Instead of being the Clans they are the Coteries with small clans (families) within them. Tigerclaw is a kit born of the Plum Clan and Cat Clan, his father Pineheart was the son of Oakfoot who was the son of Plumtree while his mother Leopardfoot comes from a long line of cats named after the cats of the ancient times (big cats).

There is the Thunderbrush Coterie, Shadeglade Coterie (Shadow), Riverfront Coterie, and the Greensward Coterie (Wind). Each coterie has a leader, deputy, and at least one medic. Sometimes a oracle will come about and they are a guide to all four coteries, keeping the treaty trees safe and there for any cat seeking guidance. A oracle is most often revealed as a kit and trained by the previous oracle. There should always be at least one oracle alive at a time but to have four is seen as a sign great destruction is coming. Medics also communicate with the oracle more often being three times a moon as a formal event where all medics meet to ask for guidance and to share techniques or plants with one another.

Mostly for me to explore darker themes as well as how cult like the clans in canon are and interesting family drama as the coteries hold a cat’s blood very highly.

[mariacallous]

Sitting in a small lounge at a Romanian airport last month, I asked NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg about the prospect of another Donald Trump presidency. The former U.S. leader and presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee had recently made headlines for saying that he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to alliance members that don’t spend enough on defense. What would Trump 2.0 mean for NATO at the time of a major land war in Europe?

Luckily for Stoltenberg, we were interrupted: His plane had been refueled, and we were ready to take off again.

I hit pause on my recorder, we downed the rest of our coffees, and we went out to the tarmac under an overcast sky to board the plane and continue the interview. Stoltenberg was in dark jeans and a sweater, a more casual contrast to the smartly besuited phalanx of aides and serious-faced security detail that trailed us.

For three dizzying days in mid-March, Stoltenberg toured the South Caucasus—Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan—a geopolitically important slice of land between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea that has become even more important and contested since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Foreign Policy joined Stoltenberg on his trip (which included brief refueling stops in Romania)—alongside a small coterie of his top advisors, several photographers, and a crew of burly security men—to watch the NATO chief at work and get his candid insights about the state of the alliance today and where he thinks it’s headed.

“My main responsibility is to ensure that NATO allies, also the United States, are committed to our collective defense,” Stoltenberg said, once we got back on board his charter plane and settled into the front row as the plane’s engines whirred to life to take off again. “The best way of doing that is not to speculate and not to be a kind of pundit. But it’s about ensuring that I do what I can to keep this family together.”

When I pressed him further on Trump, he offered up a defense of the alliance as a solid U.S. investment and a strategic bulwark against China—an argument tailor-made for the MAGA world.

“The United States is concerned about the economic and military strength of China. Remember that the United States represents 25 percent of the world’s GDP, but together with NATO allies, we represent 50 percent of the world’s GDP and 50 percent of the world’s military might,” he said. “This makes a difference. NATO is good for Europe, but it’s also good for the United States.”

Comments like these are part of why Stoltenberg has been in the job of leading the world’s most powerful military alliance for so long—even if for the last several years it’s been somewhat against his will. He’s a savvy diplomat who has proved remarkably capable of keeping the NATO family together against difficult odds, and he’s as solid a salesman as NATO can have for pitching its continued relevance to the Trumpist wing of America at a time when the alliance faces unprecedented challenges from outside and deepening skepticism from some within.

The next U.S. president is, at least in theory, not Stoltenberg’s problem. He’s set to retire from his post on Oct. 1, a month before the U.S. elections. But he’s tried to retire before, and NATO keeps clawing him back. Alliance leaders extended his term four separate times. He and his advisors insist there won’t be a fifth.

During Stoltenberg’s 10-year tenure, he’s won praise from across an alliance that isn’t always the most unified, particularly in the Trump era.

When Stoltenberg first joined NATO back in 2014, he did so at a time of crisis, when NATO was still being shaken awake from its post-Cold War daze. Russia had just launched its first invasion of Ukraine, illegally annexing Crimea and backing separatists taking control of regions of eastern Ukraine. NATO’s “strategic concept”—the document guiding the alliance’s strategic priorities—from several years prior, 2010, was woefully out of date, listing Russia as a partner and making no mention of China.

Alliance defense spending was laggard across the board; only three of the alliance’s 28 members at the time—the United States, United Kingdom, and Greece—met the NATO benchmark of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense.

Stoltenberg’s appointment was initially met with some skepticism. He was a Social Democrat from Norway, an economics wonk without a defense background who worked to forge closer ties with Russia during his second tenure as prime minister from 2005 to 2013. In his youth, before steadily climbing the ranks of Norwegian politics, he protested against Norway’s NATO membership, with a song booklet that had former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin on its front page. “We sang the chorus, ‘Singing Norway, Norway out of NATO.’ It was a hit,” he later reminisced.

But he was no stranger to crisis. He was prime minister in 2011 when a right-wing terrorist detonated a bomb outside his office and then massacred a youth summer camp—one he used to attend—killing in total 77 and injuring more than 200. “It was the darkest day in Norway since the Second World War. It was the darkest day of my life,” he later told U.S. lawmakers during a special joint address to Congress.

In the last decade, NATO allies have totally revamped defense spending, spurred mostly by alarm over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prodded along by Trump, and quietly facilitated by Stoltenberg. This year, 18 of NATO’s 32 allies are slated to meet the 2 percent defense spending benchmark—significant progress but a far cry from what defense experts say the alliance needs to face off against Russia in the long run.

Stoltenberg, senior U.S. and other NATO member officials said, also played a pivotal role in the tortuous negotiations to admit Finland and Sweden to NATO. Both countries threw off their long-standing nonalignment policies to join the alliance after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but Turkey and Hungary, the latter led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, threw up massive political roadblocks to membership. (For a new member to join, all current members have to give assent.) Finland joined in April 2023, and Sweden joined last month.

Throughout his visit to the South Caucasus, I saw Stoltenberg the workaholic in action. Every meal was a working meal—be it dinners with presidents or breakfasts with his policy advisors.

In his visits to the Caucasus, he delivered messages carefully calibrated to each country. In Armenia and Azerbaijan, he pushed for normalization talks and lasting peace between the two countries after their devastating 2020 war, in which Azerbaijan emerged victorious. He was careful in Armenia to stress that each country can pick how to approach their own ties with NATO—a nod to the geopolitical tightrope Armenia has to walk as a treaty ally of Russia that is still looking to expand its ties with the West in the face of its 2020 defeat and alarm over the war in Ukraine.

In Azerbaijan, ruled by President Ilham Aliyev for over two decades, he spoke mostly of energy security and made no mention of shared democratic values or human rights. Azerbaijan is a major gas exporter to Europe, an important energy alternative to Russia, though it is not an aspiring NATO member.

In Georgia, he pushed the importance of democratic reforms (in the face of worrying democratic backsliding he didn’t explicitly call out publicly) and reiterated NATO’s pledge to have the country one day join the alliance—a pledge that seems more far-fetched than ever before given its nearly two decades of waiting.

In every speech and every interaction, Stoltenberg was quintessentially Scandinavian, concise, and very practical.

“Jens has been the master of steady as she goes,” said Rose Gottemoeller, a retired senior U.S. diplomat who served as deputy NATO secretary-general under Stoltenberg from 2016 to 2019. “He never wavers from his talking points, but it’s always a very firm, clear message. He’s not a flashy kind of guy,” she added. “He’s Norwegian, for god’s sake.”

There’s a lot of heartburn and unease about what comes next for NATO after the “steady as she goes” Stoltenberg era.

He is, as one senior Eastern European official put it to me, “the only guy who could get along with both Trump and Erdogan.” Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the president of NATO ally Turkey and a thorn in the side of NATO unity. Yet Stoltenberg managed to maintain good ties with Erdogan, helping broker talks between the Turkish leader and Swedish government to overcome Turkey’s objections to admitting Sweden into NATO.

Trump liked Stoltenberg, too—thanks to some deft maneuvers by Stoltenberg early on to ensure Trump saw him as an ally in the fight against, rather than the flag-bearer of, Europe’s moribund defense spending. “I think he’s doing a fantastic job,” Trump said of Stoltenberg in 2019. “I am a big fan.”

Finding someone else who fits that bill is very hard to do.

The job of a NATO secretary-general is a weird amalgamation of other high-profile global posts—he (there hasn’t been a she yet) needs the consensus-based support of a U.N. secretary-general, the diplomatic panache of a foreign secretary, the military prowess of a chief of defense, and the managerial skills to oversee a massive Brussels-based bureaucracy—all without any of the formal powers that a head of state or nation’s top general has.

This is to say nothing of the type of crisis leadership required to deal with a major land war in Europe and foreboding revanchism from a nuclear-armed Russia.

Then there are all the unspoken criteria. Stoltenberg’s replacement needs the blessing—or, at the very least, the absence of outright objection—of all 32 alliance members. They will probably need to come from a country that meets or is close to NATO’s 2 percent of GDP defense spending benchmark, be hawkish enough on Russia to satisfy the alliance’s eastern members but not too hawkish as to rattle more cautious Western members, be a former head of state or government who hasn’t weathered too many political scandals to sink them, and gain the backing of the “Big Four”—the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany—so that other members get in line.

With all these criteria to meet, the list of plausible candidates winnows quickly down to, well, extending Stoltenberg again. But he’s adamant that, this time, he’s really leaving.

The top contender to replace Stoltenberg, outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, faces an early hurdle: He has already been branded as a no-go by close Trump allies (though whether their protests will have any effect remains to be seen). Romania has also put forward its president, Klaus Iohannis, as a candidate, though it’s unclear if he has the support that Rutte has. (Romania meets the magic 2 percent benchmark; the Netherlands does not.)

Beyond the Trump factor, one major question for NATO and Stoltenberg’s successor is what comes next in the Ukraine war. Western support for Kyiv seems to be flagging in its third year of conflict—a massive new tranche of vital U.S. aid for Kyiv has been stuck in Congress for months—and Russia is moving its entire economy onto a wartime footing.

“It’s this spring and this summer that the war in Ukraine will be decided,” the European Union’s foreign-policy chief, Josep Borrell, told me during a visit to Washington before I met with Stoltenberg. “Many analysts expect a major Russian offensive this summer, and Ukraine cannot wait until the result of the next U.S. elections.”

I asked Stoltenberg what he expects in the war’s coming months.

“I’m always very careful predicting, because wars are by nature unpredictable,” he said. “Ukraine has performed better than expectations, again and again. At the same time, what we saw last year was, of course, that the long-prepared [Ukrainian] offensive didn’t give the outcome we all hoped for.”

“The small gains the Russians have achieved, they have paid a very high price for, up to 900 casualties per day in the fight for Avdiivka,” he said, referring to a small town that Russia recaptured from Ukraine earlier this year. “We need to be prepared for a war of attrition.”

The next major question is on NATO expansion. Putin is fixated on NATO expansion as a strategic threat to Russia (never mind that Russia is driving its own nervous neighbors into NATO’s arms—and by their own demand and not NATO’s).

NATO is torn over Ukraine’s future membership. Some allies pushed for NATO to extend Ukraine a formal membership invitation at the upcoming NATO summit, scheduled to be in Washington this summer as the alliance rings in its 75th anniversary. The Biden administration and Germany quashed those plans.

Other allies quietly sided with Washington and Germany, fearing that admitting Ukraine too early and with some of its territory still occupied by Russia is a recipe for a spiraling NATO-Russia conflict that no one wants—and one that could well turn nuclear.

“Ukraine is closer to membership than ever before,” Stoltenberg said. “As soon as the political conditions are in place, we can make a decision and Ukraine can become a member very quickly after that.”

What those political conditions are, he didn’t specify.

One of Stoltenberg’s predecessors, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, is pushing a unique proposal to get around the thorniest parts of this question. His proposal would allow Ukraine to join NATO and have NATO’s collective defense clause—the bedrock of the alliance’s deterrence muscles—only apply to the Ukrainian territory that Ukraine firmly controls. I asked Stoltenberg about this.

“I think it will not be helpful if I’ll speculate about just how we would issue that. Meaning that, of course, if I’m too specific about that now, I think it will make the internal process more difficult.”

After these caveats, though, he offered some historical precedents for this idea. “You have examples where security guarantees have been issued to parts of territories. The United States has security guarantees for Japan, excluding the Kurils, which is controlled by Russia,” he said, referring to a disputed group of islands that Russia has controlled since the end of World War II but Japan also lays territorial claim to. “West Germany became a member of NATO in the 1950s without East Germany, even though West Germany always aimed for a united Germany,” he added.

It’s not a matter Stoltenberg is likely to have to handle as he prepares to wind down from his job after the upcoming summit in Washington this summer, which will be his last as secretary-general. Yet the unanswered questions about Ukraine’s future in (or out) of NATO will likely define the legacy of Stoltenberg’s successor.

Back in 2022, Stoltenberg was slated to become the next head of Norway’s central bank after leaving NATO. On paper, it seemed like a step down from leading the world’s most powerful military alliance, but it’s a job he said he was “really looking forward to,” in a nod to his roots as an economics wonk. That plan got derailed when his term at NATO was extended yet again. “That did not happen,” he said. “I have given up on that.”

So what comes next? “My focus now is on doing my job as secretary-general until my tenure ends,” he said, in a classic diplomatic non-answer.

Most officials who work closely with him say he deserves a break. Whether he actually takes one is another matter entirely. “His job is exhausting, and he’s been doing it for a decade. He earned a quiet retirement,” said one senior official who works closely with him. “I give it about a week before he gets restless and wants to get back to work.”

As is typical of Stoltenberg, he never let his diplomatic guard down when speaking to me throughout the trip—a sign he hasn’t checked out of his job after a tumultuous 10 years in office.

At the end of the trip, I asked him what his favorite meal was. “The best thing I ate was the dinner we had—” but then he stopped, apparently mindful of the fierce national culinary rivalries in the region. “No, you know that’s very dangerous.” He paused and reset. “In the Caucasus, they have very delicious food.”

[gorbalsvampire]

Statting Christof Romauld

Someone on Reddit asked if my favourite himbo had a canonical character sheet.

I looked him up in Clanbook: Brujah. He does not.

I felt compelled to stat him out in V5.

Now I kinda want to do the whole crew. I've been thinking about Dark Ages V5 for a while now and this is unlocking it all for me...

He's a swordsman, so a Melee combatant, so we're going for Dexterity 4 for that pool; 3s into Stamina, Resolve and Composure (say what you like about our favourite himbo, he can take a kicking), and the 1 in Intelligence (sorry, Christof, but if you weren't such a dim bulb you'd probably have gone insane).

For expediency's sake, and because he always has a supporting cast to cover his weaknesses, I'm gonna say he's a Specialist. Melee gets the 4 and the speciality, Athletics, Brawl and Firearms (which, RAW, covers archery) get 3s. 2s in Persuasion (he does get his own way a lot), Awareness and Stealth (there's a lot of corridor creeping in his adventures). For the 1s, I'm taking Investigation (he tries... and he's been through enough mysteries that he must be vaguely aware of how they work), Occult (he's seen some things in his time) and Etiquette (he's well spoken).

Disciplines? Let's start with Celerity 2 and Presence 1 (I don't know how I'd have got through the game without these two). For specific powers, I'm going Rapid Reflexes and Fleetness from Celerity, and Awe from Presence.

Into Predator Type, and I'm gonna be honest here, given how tricky it is to bite people in the streets without being caught, and how many other vampires there are in those "dungeons", and how often he frenzies and bites his own coterie: Christof is a Blood Leech. Extra specialty in Brawl vs Kindred, going to Celerity 3 and taking Weaving from the Players' Guide, leaning into the defensive applications, and obviously we're gonna take the Diablerist flaw because he ate Lucretia. Prey Exclusion (Mortals) is definitely a reflection of how I played Christof, too (goddamn Knights of St. John have eyes in the backs of their heads).

Advantages and Flaws: well, we're windmill slamming Archaic, of course (he's got the hang of guns, but he has no idea what a Central Computer might be). We're also gonna raid the Player's Guide again. For five points, we can take Untouchable - get away with doing something grand and stupid once per story. He's... definitely had that go off a few times during Redemption. From the same book, we can grab the Brujah Coterie Merit, Boot and Rally, for a bonus to his friends' combat rolls, and Remarkable Feature, because people do remark on all his thees and thous when they first meet him and then rapidly get used to it.

Convictions are probably derived from the Promethean ethic somehow (I'm bad at these), and his Touchstone is obviously Anezka (I have a house rule where you only need one Touchstone, like Requiem - and Redemption, now that I think about it).

Now, we get into experience. I'm going to count Christof as an ancilla here. He's lived a very storied life, the Clanbook leaves some wiggle room for how long his adventures took, he's quite low generation, and frankly I need the XP for his insane Discipline breadth. That takes his Humanity down to 5, his Blood Potency up to 3, and he needs another two points in Flaws - I'm going for another Player's Guide special, Twice Cursed, giving him an additional Clan Bane that causes physical and social damage when his Beast comes out.

He also gains another two points in Advantages, and I'm gonna pick up a Loresheet here: Sect War Veteran. He emerged from torpor right in the middle of the sect war, ended up fighting his way across New York, and he's made something of a name for himself among elders and neonates alike given what he got up to in the Dark Ages. The two dot ability here converts into Status or Mawla - one could very easily use this to model Ekaterina the Wise still looking out for him, or into his own personal clout, or... well, our Christof is at middling Humanity, so he might be... in a bit of a predicament. Spoilers for twenty-five year old game?

Finally, there's the 35 bonus XP. To start off, taking him to Presence 3, Daunt and Dread Gaze, that's 25 burned. With the remaining 10, I'm going to buy a dot in Protean (the game is very generous about handing out Protean) and pick up Eyes of the Serpent, since he did eat a whole-ass Setite, and the last three are going on the Stealth (vs Kindred) specialty from his Predator Type, just to really double down on the in-game playstyle.

And there we are - playable Christof!

[feith-rikya]

All these characters are from an RPG campaign called; Gehenna's Gates, set in the world of Vampire The Masquerade. Feel free to ask any questions!

We take a moment to celebrate our fallen friends in this campaign

Felix: Felix, our resolute Gangrel companion, embodied the wild spirit of his clan with an appearance weathered by nocturnal adventures. In pivotal moments, Felix displayed unwavering courage, standing as a stalwart defender of our coterie aginst Anselm. Tragically, he met his demise at the hands of the Black Hand, choosing to sacrifice himself to safeguard critical information. In his final act, Felix cemented his legacy as a valiant Gangrel, leaving an indelible mark on the shared tapestry of our nocturnal history.

Meinwald Willem Becker: Former Sheriff of London. A Brujah as strong as a titan but with a good heart, who left from the darkest and most gloomy place in the vampiric world, devoted to hatred and wickedness. Returned with his own strength to find the light for himself and others. So strong and kind that he tamed Spain's most dangerous Lasombra, establishing a deep relationship with him. He was a beacon for the group and his death left incurable scars.

Raphael: Raphael, the archangel, stood as the epitome of celestial strength and benevolence, radiating an aura of divine grace. With golden wings that spanned the heavens and eyes that held the wisdom of eons, he was the paragon among angels. His countenance reflected both compassion and unwavering determination. Tragically, Raphael met his end defending a human soul from the malevolent grasp of his brother, Lucifer, catalyzing the tumultuous events of Gehenna. In sacrificing himself, Raphael's celestial essence transcended, and he emerged as a guiding spirit for Danya, offering wisdom and protection from the shadows as she navigated the intricate tapestry of the supernatural realm.

O'Connel: O'Connel, our irascible Nosferatu, embodied a grumpy and cantankerous demeanor, his visage marred by the grotesque features characteristic of his clan. Despite his surly disposition, his keen insight and tenacity proved invaluable to the coterie when uncovering a spy in their midst. Transcending his initial role, O'Connel became the linchpin of the coterie's technological endeavors, utilizing his skills to bolster their defenses. Tragically, his unlife met a grim end at the hands of the Kuei-Jin, who claimed his head in a chilling confrontation. O'Connel's demise left a void, marking the end of a tumultuous but indispensable chapter in the coterie's history.

[cat-alyzing]

Some specific things to know about Blood to Blaze that is specific to it for those learning about it!

The clans are now called Coteries! This is because a coterie is a small group of individuals who share a common interest/goal instead of a clan which is like a family. Within the Coteries there are specific families that form officially after two generations with a specific theme and claim to fame. An example would be the Thunderbrush Coteries Plum Family that’s all the descendants of Star Plumpelt (Canon Redstar) and includes Star Oakfoot, Birchface, Yewfreckle (Frecklewish), Star Pinemuzzle, and Tigerclaw. The only reason Tiger did not keep his kit name, which was Elmkit, was because his father ran away which relinquished their infamous family from the succession line leaving him to take up his mother’s family name after a big cat, being a tiger.

The five four coteries are: Thunderbrush, Bogbound, Riverway, and the Swardfell. Named after their specific environments which separates them from each other.

Much like canon there is a central Leader, their Second, and the Medics. Every coterie has to have at least one medic but occasionally there may be multiple seconds with one specifically being called the heir while the other is just a helpful paw to train the upcoming heir to leadership. Besides these three crucial role there are the Oracles. A special very exclusive role held by those with a clear connection to the different scapes which reside at the meeting grounds to act as guides to all coteries.

Within the coteries there are the apprentices and warriors (general term for all cats who’ve passed their apprenticeship). Once clearing their official training any new named cat can take extra lessons on specific jobs like cooks, guards, carers, etc. and will be trained by any experienced cat in that role. Because the coteries are different in what they need to learn for their environments they have special roles that pertain to just them.

Families themselves are much more tied to blood then even canon does. While the coteries have what’s called the Blood’s Bluff which is where a dame or sire may choose to hide the other cat that created the kits they do have to disclose the other side to a medic or oracle to not cause a mix of kin and as a backer in case they are accused of being half blood specifically. Even here the main parent can lie to save themselves and their kits but it is shaky to do so. While the living won’t know what’s the truth the dead do and will use that at a cats attempt to ascend to the Star Scape (Starclan). A family of prominence that adopts a known outside kit into their fold is considered fully a part of their family unless specifically severed even though they obviously don’t share blood. If a family wants to split it may but it is a very messy matter as it is essentially denouncing blood shared with your kin.