#koldunic sorcery

[relleytrots]

Building Koldun in V5

So a while back I was in the 'tism hole over Tzimisce koldun, and talking a big game about rebuilding Koldunism as a series of Rituals for non-Sorcery Disciplines. I pulled a bunch of names from the WW Wiki, assigned them to parent powers and started writing situational modifiers. But I also looked at the Paradox Wiki to see what had made the jump to V5, and... there's a lot more of the old Tzim-Tzim flavour in Blood Sorcery than I'd initially realised.

The thing is, Blood Sorcery is a messy Discipline, with its powers representing (at least) three magical traditions and spread out across (at least) five rulebooks. So... I went through everything I could access and picked out the Rituals with the right vibes, plus powers at each level to serve as the baseline. And then I started making full character builds because, er. I have brain problems?

Blood Sorcery

L1 - Koldunic Sorcery Beelzebeatit, Clinging of the Insect, Coax the Garden, Craft Bloodstone, Douse the Fear, Enrich the Blood, Herd Ward, Letter Ward

L2 - Scour Secrets [Protean: Visceral Absorbtion] [Dominate: Ancestral Dominion] As Fog on Water, Calling the Aura’s Remnants, Depths of Nightmare, Elemental Grasp, Tiamat Glistens, Viscera Garden

L3 - Transitive Bond Communal Vigour, Elemental Shelter, Essence of Air, Eyes of the Past, Firewalkerm, Galvanic Ruination, Herd Ward (Major), One With The Blade, Seeing with the Sky’s Eyes, Seeking Tiamat, Soul of the Homunculus, The Unseen Change

L4 - Blood Aegis Compel the Inanimate, Defence of the Sacred Haven, Feast of Ashes, Guided Memory, Land’s Sustenance, Rending the Sweet Earth, Riding the Earth’s Veins

L5 - Reclamation of Vitae Dominion, Elemental Attack, Fisher King, Heart of Stone, Transferring the Soul

The parent powers I've selected are mostly concerned with acquiring knowledge (the scrying effect of Koldunic Sorcery and the speed-reading capacity of Scour Secrets), moving into management of Retainers and Herd at the higher levels.

Other Disciplines

Dominate: Compel, Cloud Memory, Domitor’s Favour, Ancestral Dominion Protean: Eyes of the Beast, Feral Weapons, Earth Meld, Visceral Absorption, One with the Land Animalism: Bond Famulus, Animal Messenger, Messenger’s Command, Animal Succulence Fortitude: Resilience, Enduring Beasts Auspex: Sense the Unseen, Unerring Pursuit [Reveal Temperament], Eyes of Beasts

You're not going to get all of these and Blood Sorcery, but I wanted to showcase a few potential pathways. Dominate is there for the Old Clan vibe, building up Retainers and Mawla once the utility powers are out of the way.

Protean powers are more in the vein of touching ground than meat crimes, but you can totally sub in Vicissitude for Feral Weapons and Horrid Form for Visceral Absorption if you want to be basic. ;)

With Animalism and Fortitude I've tried to build into another "retainer" concept with the Famulus powers, kind of a witch's familiar that evokes the Mephistophelean Minx ritual from before.

And finally, Auspex. For the old-fashioned true-Tzimisce stans out there, we have perceptions extended into the spiritual and bestial, tying into Animalism to observe as well as instruct through the Famulus. You could also take a swarm approach here, if you wanted (for example) a chattering rookery as spies for the Koldun.

Recommended Loresheet: Veins of the Earth.

Predator Type: If ancilla, Osiris will allow Blood Sorcery 3 at character creation (if you can twist your ST's arm into letting you take the first one despite Not Being A Tremere, which I think is reasonable: it's not like there were Tzimisce rules when the V5 core was written). If neonate, Osiris is still the most efficient from an XP standpoint, but the 10 XP for Koldunic Sorcery and a Ritual are within easy reach for any Predator Type.

The house considers Montero to be flavourful for an aloof scholar and scryer whose Retainers do the boring bits for them. I've been wanting to make that Predator Type work since I first saw it and it just hits right for a Tzimisce.

Complete Builds

First up, the Refugee. This neonate character has a lot of flexibility, isn't bad in a fight (six dice Brawl pool with a Rouse, and Aggravated damage - you could always shift the 4 dots into Strength if you wanted more combat focus, or chuck Feral Weapons for Vicissitude if you wanted some classic meat crimes in there).

I've built them as dependent on a sponsor, an elder of their chosen sect who's taken them in: perhaps they were a street kid with potential, or perhaps they're a recent defector from the Sabbat who left without much more than the clothes they stood up in.

And now, a playable ancilla, the Lady of the Scene! This concept eschews broad Disciplines in favour of deeper Koldunism and a more developed Famulus; they're a leader, not a fighter. They've been around for a while, building a community around themself and embedding themselves into the city at large. They're not exactly famous, but it's known that they can intercede on your behalf and get things done. If you have a problem nobody else can help with, the witch is there...

We've got some classic vampire weaknesses: the invitation thing works for an old-fashioned Tzimisce (this one's much more Old Clan in feeling, without even the potential for Vicissitude) and holy water ties nicely to selecting water as their Koldunic element (I see this character having a scrying pool in their basement). There's some post-Sabbat baggage in the form of the Shunned flaw, and Stigmata feels like an appropriate "hide in plain sight" choice for a character who could well be a cult leader. In fact, if we look closely at the sheet, I went more specific with this one without meaning to... I engineered this with the Santa Muerte cult in mind, and that's the concept I'd lean into if and when I personally got to play this one.

This is the first time I've shared something like this, but I really hope people like it, and it makes sense, because I love building premades and I could very easily do more of these. Maybe even by request? If you've got a concept you want me to put some numbers behind, get in my askbox. Otherwise I'm gonna start blurting about the Redemption coterie - unless people REALLY hate the focus on sheets and numbers and want me to go away and stop talking.

[girlnextvore]

TBH Rosa's wife needs to step her game up

why isn't she sending horrifying and erotic dreams to her from across the ocean like count orloc

[mortifying-macaroni]

♱ ℜ𝔞𝔫𝔡𝔬𝔪 𝔣𝔞𝔠𝔱𝔰 𝔞𝔟𝔬𝔲𝔱 𝔊𝔯𝔢𝔱𝔠𝔥𝔢𝔫 𝔊𝔯𝔦𝔪 ♱

⛦ Her parents divorced when she was 10, which led to Gretchen being bounced back and forth between Vienna and Syracuse throughout her adolescence, then eventually moved to New York to attend college while staying over at her aunt and uncle's place.

⛦ They owned a pizza restaurant, at which Gretchen worked as a waitress, but was fired for breaking a patron's nose upon catching him looking up her skirt. He threatened to sue the establishment, however the lawsuit never came to fruition due to mysterious circumstances.

⛦ During her teen years in Italy, her mother made her join a church choir. Gretchen hated the idea at first, but then slowly grew rather keen on performing.

⛦ For some period, while still pursuing her DDS in NY, she was giving out guitar lessons in private for acoustic and electric. She aspired to be a musician like her father, however he suggested that her becoming an orthodontist promised a way more prosperous future.

⛦ On a few occasions, she pickpocketed people in the subway so she could gather enough money for tattoos and piercings.

⛦ Has a tattoo of a cartoon cat on her right ankle, a tramp stamp, a cherry with a ribbon stem on her right butt cheek, a starry ornament on her sternum and the Sabbat symbol Andrei carved near her left inner thigh with his talon dipped in ink.

⛦ As for her piercings - she's punched a hole in her tongue, bellybutton, ears, nipples and lady bits.

⛦ Gretchen fully embraces both her feminine and tomboyish nature. She's willing to stomp on skulls whether it be in high heels or combat boots.

⛦ Some of her other interests include: doing nails, playing video games, racing dirt bikes, playing football, brushing up on her history and toxicology knowledge, collecting intricately designed daggers along with character figurines and CDs.

⛦ Her top favorite bands are: Lacuna Coil, Curve, King Diamond, Slipknot, Korn, Dimmu Borgir and Motorhead, though she loves listening to Italian jazz too.

⛦ With her would be sire/boyfriend at the time named Bram, along with two of their friends, Gretchen formed a goth band where she would do vocals and play the electric. The group performed several gigs at bars, yet quickly fell apart when the two bandmates died from opium addiction, followed by Bram disappearing without a trace. They did manage to record two demo tapes, which remain lost media to this day.

⛦ Watching her friends from back then spiral and drop like flies from their vices made her want to quit drinking, yet her smoking habit persisted.

⛦ She has a gray-white Persian cat named Magenta, who is just as sassy and grumpy as her owner. She immediately became ghouled as soon as Gretchen learned about the process. Magenta is continuing to live her spoiled, carefree life with her elder feline beau (Andrei's family cat) - Malachi.

⛦ Gretchen's beast takes the shape of a black panther with bloodshot eyes. She calls it Anima ("Soul" in Italian).

⛦ Isn't fond of any clan (not even her own) and thinks that everyone sucks equally.

⛦ Ever since diablerizing a Malkavian, Gretchen randomly receives vague visions of the future. Fearing she would grow mad if it turned into a habit, she refuses to consume another soul from said clan.

⛦ In the AU of the "Soul-Inmates" fanfic, she was born with two identical scars on each palm that prevent her from touching the skin of a person who isn't her soulmate. Upon doing so, the consequences are immense, burning pain that could potentially cause death. Only those who are marked are affected by it.

⛦ Bertram was the first one Gretchen used as a vessel for creating a Gargoyle. With him rebelling against her, she had to put him down, along with many others after him. Only Gangrel and Nosferatu were used as subjects.

⛦ The Thaumaturgical paths she constantly hones are: hands of destruction, alchemy, mastery of the mortal shell and lure of flames. Thanks to Andrei's teachings, Gretchen dabbles in Koldunic sorcery as well.

⛦ She has never learned how to drive a car. Instead, she rides on her red Honda motorcycle called "Lemmy". Though she did fall and crack her bones several times, that didn't deter her from continuing with her reckless behavior on the road. Back in the day, she used to go on rides with her old friend Samantha, whom Gretchen encountered in Hollywood for the very last time before sending her off.

⛦ Although married, Gretchen refuses to change her maiden name because, not only does she feel that it define her perfectly, but because she secretly doesn't want to leave her father as the only remaining Grim in the family. Growing up in an orphanage, he grew immensely fond of the tales by the Brothers Grimm, thus inspiring him to officially coin the surname without the additional 'm' upon leaving the orphanage when he was of age after not getting adopted by anyone.

⛦ Prior to the Chinatown siege, Gretchen's had multiple "children" - Blood Brothers fleshcrafted into looking like hypothetical grown offspring with the combination of her and Andrei's features (from his mortal days). The only surviving one was a female variant named Alma, who doesn't possess a hive mind the same way her fallen siblings used to. Unnoticed, she managed to flee from L.A.

⛦ Aside from Andrei, the only Tzimisce who warmed up to Gretchen are his niece/childe Darija and his cousin Sascha Vykos; whereas the rest of his kin detests her despite the victories she helped bring to the sect.

⛦ As a reward for helping the Sabbat claim L.A., she was handed a scythe made purely out of bone, which is her weapon of choice.

⛦ With LaCroix executed, Mercurio agreed to be sired by Gretchen despite his reluctance to join the sect. He is her only childe thus far, due to the fact that she doesn't place her trust in anyone else for that role.

⛦ She was also given the freedom to do as she pleased with the chantry. It ended up being rebuilt into a nail salon with its own basement lab used for research and conducting experiments; it's also where she stores dropped off packages from drug shipments until her packmates would come and make the pickup.

⛦ Throughout the years, Gretchen's thirst for more power amplified tenfold to the point where she traveled to Mexico City in order to seek out the very mirror Goratrix was sealed in, so she could attempt to gain clan secrets from him through any means necessary. With the help of various visions she pieced together, Gretchen managed to locate the mirror with the sealed betrayer.

⛦ After their wedding ceremony on January 1st 2005, Andrei took out Gretchen's heart along with his own and conjoined them before burying them deep in the soil underneath his ancestral estate in the Carpathian mountains.

⛦ Her parents may or may not have been dragged into the Kindred world one at a time without her being aware...

[beau-ba-fett]

In Memoriam is out and my wildest VTM dream (having a Descendant of Dracula loresheet) has come true. I redid my tzimisce’s character sheet with all the lore sheets and Koldunic Sorcery he deserves. Be free my cringe son.

[secrets-and-streetlights]

Getting Clues from Hunter the Parenting Chapter 4.1

(Vampire Superpowers, Exploding Elderly, etc. )

Before this post gets wildly off topic, the Orge Poppenang team has been putting out SO MUCH good shit. It includes MAGE STUFF and you should WATCH IT.

Also don't read this before watching 4.1 or you'll SUDDENLY EXPLODE.

I've listened to the audio log a few times now and thought it'd be useful to take notes and figure out what powers could have be used by the chapter house murderer. From the pinned comment (pictured below) on the video we know that the powers discussed will be relevant to the mystery.

There is no way that all powers will be relevant unless Caine is there, but I plan on re-watching all chapter house stuff with these notes in mind.

Disciplines and Powers

The majority of the Hunter Huddle's discussion is about Disciplines. For this post I'm assuming that Dr. Waters is right in her assumption that the Ghoul is actually a true Vampire. She could be wrong, especially since there was a discussion of Draughts in ep 3.7.

However, this post is already long enough so lets just assume she is right for now.

So, episode 4.1 mentions a lot of Disciplines. Potence, Dominate, Obfuscate, and Blood Sorcery get their own Topic sections. Protean and Presence are mentioned offhand but I won't focus on them as they didn't get the Topic treatment.

I will try to list out all specific Powers mentioned, using V5 sources only. Note that some powers can be found from multiple sources (For example, Chimerstry is found in both the Companion book and Player's Guide). I will list its most recent printing.

Powers will also be listed in the order they were brought up in the Hunter Huddle. If you think I got a power wrong or have your own ideas let me know!

Potence

"Juggling Dumpsters, innit?" - Prowess (VtM Core, p. 264)

"Or ripping someone apart.." - Lethal Body (VtM Core, p. 264)

"..leap into the air, yes?" - Soaring Leap (VtM Core p. 264)

"..to create ripples in concrete" - Earthshock (VtM Core p. 265)

"..people go breakshit berserk" - Spark of Rage (VtM Core p. 265)

"..make any part.. as violent as their fist" - Subtle Hammer (Players Guide p. 79)

"..to make their finger snaps with the force of a bullet train." - Unsure. Possibly Flick from v20?

"Halt the flow of a raging river" - I'm stumped with this one. Big-D makes several allusions to Koldunic Sorcery (elemental sorcery), but then it wouldn't be included in the Potence Topic.

Dominate

"..issued simple commands.." - Compel (VtM Core p. 256)

"puppeteer entire crowds.." - Mass Manipulation (VtM Core p. 257)

"bury suggestions so deep it erases a host's personality" - Implant Suggestion (Players Guide p. 74)

"hey, Markus, kys" - Terminal Decree (VtM Core p. 257)

"..suggestion buried in our psyche.." - Submerged Directive (VtM Core p. 257)

Obfuscate

"turn invisible" - Various. Looking for specific powers.

"Couldn't see him on security cams" - Ghost in the Machine (VtM Core p.262)

"Impose a false-self" - Mask of a Thousand Faces (VtM Core p. 262)

"sounds can be silenced" - Silence of Death (VtM Core p. 261)

"conversations cloaked" - probably Cloak the Gathering (VtM Core p. 263) as its two Nosferatu talking in the example image.

"daredevils.. specialize in ..illusions" - Chimerstry (Players Guide, p. 76) as it is associated with Ravnos

"Obfuscate reality itself" - Dementation (VtM Core, p. 256) as it is associated with Malkavians

"staying completely still" - Cloak of Shadows (VtM Core p. 261)

Blood Sorcery + Rituals

"laser heat vision" (mentioned during Obfuscate Topic) - Some form of Koldunic Sorcery (Blood Sigils p. 61)

"Extract it from a range" - Theft of Vitae (VtM Core p. 274)

"gain unnatural insights from it (blood)" - A Taste for Blood (VtM Core p. 273)

"utilize it (blood) as a weapon" - Various. Probably Baal's Caress (VtM Core p. 274)

"cauldron of blood" - Cauldron of Blood (VtM Core p. 274)

"vitae-tainted flora" - Coax the Garden (Ritual, Cults of the Blood Gods p. 55) or Viscera Garden (Ritual, Blood Sigils p. 65)

"Hexes, curses" - too broad to assign specific rituals to

Paths

D also talks about Paths a bit. These are a V20 thing that I'm not as knowledgeable on. I'm not going to consider them for any theory crafting cause, to quote the Houdini-killer himself, "Thaumaturgy is too vast to be useful!"

Now that we've gone over the powers, we can begin to speculate what clan the Vampire could be. There is some talk of vampires learning Disciplines from each other, but D makes a point to say its unlikely. For now I'm going to assume that the Vampire hasn't learned any Disciplines outside of their natural 3.

Clans

I've outlined the Clans that have overlap between the four Topic Disciplines. I'm ignoring Disciplines gained from Predator Types and clans with only one Topic Discipline for my own sanity.

Banu Haqim: Blood Sorcery, Celerity, Obfuscate Lasombra: Dominate, Oblivion, Potence Malkavian: Auspex, Dominate, Obfuscate Nosferatu: Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence Tremere: Auspex, Blood Sorcery, Dominate

Now for theory territory. What clan is likely to be in there? I've listed my thoughts from most to least suspicious.

1.) Malkavian - I suspect Malkavian the most mostly because it fits into my "Spit is a Fera and killed Fatigue under duress" theory. They would also assumedly have Obfuscate (my theory for how Occam got choked out) and Dominate. Also the Dementation art was cool.

2.) Tremere - With Tremere being a dominate power in the area and being (almost) name dropped in 4.1, yeah there is a good chance there is a vampire wizard running around blowing up the elderly. Possibly Kevin's replacement?

3.) Lasombra - I don't think its likely, but D has talked about fighting Lasombra throughout the whole series. Could be foreshadowing. HtP takes place in 2007 I think, so a bit before the Lasombra officially joined the Ivory Tower.

4.) Banu Haqim - As cool as it'd be, I think there are too many Tremere in power for a Banu Haqim to be working for the Camarilla (assuming the Vampire is actually working for them). Same as Lasombra as I'm pretty sure the clan wasn't officially part of the Ivory Tower yet.

5.) Nosferatu - I love the stinky rat people. However, we just had a Nos big bad (Pytor) so I doubt we'd have another one. It'd be awesome if I was wrong.

6.) Honorable Mention to Ravnos for being referenced directly.

So yeah those are my initial notes and thoughts that'd be useful for rewatching previous chapters. I don't know how to properly end a post so uh. RRAAHH GO WATCH NORFOLK WIZARD GAME TOO

[malicious-metal]

Couple quick busts for some of the characters I write for our Chronicle (there's like 50ish of them in total, crippling OC addiction, terminal). Tess Lovrić (She/Her) - Gangrel: Fiercely compassionate murder machine, very protective of her pack and totally exasperated by them always getting themselves into all sorts of trouble. Grumpy but with a sense of humour. Samson Ward (He/Him) - Brujah: Bad Boy Metalhead, philosopher, Noddist, all around charismatic nerd in tight leather pants. Got a whole little dichotomy theme going on with half his body covered in Demonic tattoos and the other in Angelic ones. Heaven and Hell, Living and Dead, Evil and Divine. Yeah huge Milton nut, obviously. Gilead (He/Him(?)) - Tzimisce: Big, evil millenia-old Voivode. Very much a champion of ye olden Ways and the General of the Warhost (AKA the toolbox of heinous Koldunic Sorcery and fucked up Szlachta I can throw at my players). Total Wife-guy and father to a whole legion of Revenant kids. Orestes (They/Them, He/Him) - Tzimisce: One of Gilead's aforementioned spawn, little edgelord trying to coast off dad's impressive track record and desperately trying to make him proud. Imago (It/Its) - Tzimisce: Despite its strange appearance, a very timid and gentle soul, unfortunately cursed with a supernatural affliction that forces it to replace its failing body with fresh human flesh. It tends to assume the face, voice and height of whoever it converses with, trying to make them feel more comfortable (with varying results). Valeska Velika Vesta (She/Her) - Tzimisce: Camarilla Tzimisce (Oh there's so much to unpack here) and probably one of the most villainous PCs I've written recently. Typical Dracula type, which suits her since she's a distant descendant of his lineage. Proud, ambitious, repelled by crosses and garlic, a landlord AND petty nobility so you know she's evil for real. Escanor (He/Him) - Gargoyle: Mean-girl, aspiring Harpy and spite-embraced. Yes, he was supposed to be a Toreador and he won't shut up about it. Self-obsessed, overly dramatic and writing call-out posts on his fellow Kindred. Also a sculptor, cause of course he is. Also gay, cause duh. Deacon McLain (He/Him) - Nosferatu: Clan Whip, big-bro-friend to all the younger Nosferatu, Warrens Handyman. Former Rust Belt mechanic so he's got a bit of a bone to pick with Ventrue types too. Devon Quinlan (He/Him) - Nosferatu: Goth Metal rockstar performing under a masked pseudonym, pretty much a 90's goth antihero vigilante type on the side. Zora Bratovitch (She/Her) - Revenant: 130 year old, crusty hag of a Revenant. Absolutely LOATHES those fucking leeches and keeps reminding them just how much she hates them. Runs a traveling carnival where she performs with her Bratovitch-bred trio of white lions.

[ryttu3k]

You may have answered this already but, what VTM clans would you asign to the dracula polycule?

Ohh, great question! Let's see!

I think for the sake of a more thorough analysis, I'm actually going to ignore VtM canon, since Dracula actually is a canon character who encouraged Bram Stoker to write a fictionalised version of his adventures. He has a signed first edition copy that Beckett sees. It's kinda hilarious.

In VtM canon, he's the 5th generation childe of Lambach Ruthven and has a host of disciplines at very high levels (seriously - Animalism 6, Auspex 5, Celerity 4, Dominate 5, Fortitude 5, Koldunic Sorcery 5 (with Earth, Fire, and Spirit all at 5), Potence 5, Protean 4, and Vicissitude 5). Hilariously, this means he actually doesn't have Mist Form, since that's Protean 5. Lucy and Mina are/were Tzimisce as well (Lucy dies, Mina survives to modern nights), Renfield was a ghoul. But let's adapt straight from the novel instead!

Dracula: I mean, obviously he's still Tzimisce, the clan is literally based on him. If we're just going off the novel, I see him more as Old Clan, the archetypal Voivode (also literally Voivode, that was Vlad Țepeș' literal title, he was Voivode of Wallachia - hilariously, he had no association with Transylvania other than being born in Sighișoara up until Stoker's book). He has the soil association, he clearly has Auspex and Animalism, and I feel he uses Dominate a fair bit, especially in the context of memory erasure, luring Lucy, et cetera. He also shows clear signs of Protean (Shape of the Beast bat and wolf forms, Mist Form), but, notably, not Vicissitude proper, and some alternate magical abilities, especially weather/fog manipulation, which can tie in with Koldunic sorcery, especially Way of Wind. So, a straight adaptation would be Old Clan Tzimisce with Koldunic sorcery and Protean. He also has the Folkloric Bane flaw where he takes agg damage from running water, and we'll ignore the sunlight thing XD;;

Jonathan: If we're directly adapting from the novel, then Dracula is the one who Embraces Jonathan, Mina, and Lucy. By default, that makes them all Tzimisce. Using my homebrew because I have no shame, his bane and connection to Home would be to Mina (yeah, he was having a rough time until their reunion). I do think Tzimisce could work well for him, he's a fairly fluid character and exemplifies Change more than any other character in the novel. Even if he was Embraced as technically Old Clan, I like the idea of spontaneous emergence of Vicissitude - and lo, a sudden change of hair colour!

Mina: Also Tzimisce; again, it's a fairly good fit. She and Jonathan share a mutual blood bond, too. Her Home is Jonathan, but she also has a secondary connection to trains and railways, and can avoid the aggravated Willpower damage by riding the rails. She would fit it well as well; like Jonathan, she's a fluid, adaptable character.

Lucy: Poor, poor Lucy! Definitely Embraced as Tzimisce, definitely not a great fit. I feel she'd be a much more natural fit for Toreador, with a love for beauty and a strong connection to humanity and people. She just wants to spend time with her coterie ;_;

Jack: Okay, two options here. One is Malkavian, often found in mental health settings - I'm thinking of Richard Dunham here specifically, but also Netchurch (even if the latter is more focused on physiology). He'd have a more subtle derangement, I think - possible OCD, definitely depression. The other option is Tremere, and I think that might be the better fit. He likes an Experiment. He would have so much fun with Thaumaturgy :D (Slightly terrified :D !)

Arthur: Man's one of the few valid Ventrue. Nobility? Check. Money? Check. He's quite aware of his privilege and considers it an honour and a duty to look after his coterie, even if he recognises that, lbr, Mina is really the one running the show. Also has out-of-clan Animalism so he can chat to his dogs, thanks to…

Quincey: Gangrel! Like yes he is absolutely playing up the Cowboy Thing to make Lucy smile so that could be a Toreador thing, but he does genuinely still fit it even after her death. He has an understanding with horses and bats, and bats do not act like that tyvm.

Van Helsing: He's Jack's sire (therefore Tremere) and Jack has never, ever gotten over the brief blood bond they shared. They have. A dynamic :D (No genuinely the sire-childe thing actually works really well here for their simultaneous familial and psychosexual relationship.)

Renfield: If we're going straight canon, he's a ghoul. If we actually give him a clan, there are also two possible options here! One is Malkavian - he's definitely got a derangement or two. The other, of course, is Nagaraja, although I'm actually feeling Malkavian here moreso than Nagaraja. He doesn't need to eat flesh, he just… has that fixation with it. Either way, I feel he has a blood bond to Dracula. Like that bit is 100% whether he's a ghoul or a Cainite. Hashtag Renfield deserves better!

[grandpa-dragon]

-

ok ok fashion meme kiiinda. 'things they wear', anyway :)

Name: Grandpa Dragon

Clan: Tzimisce

Humanity: Nope!

Generation: 4th

Favorite Discipline: Vicissitude / Koldunic Sorcery

[relleytrots]

Be me, looking at your Koldunic Sorcery homebrew, then clipping into some Blood Sorcery rituals and wonder... is less more? Maybe the thing I should be fixing isn't making up quite so much new stuff, but working more closely with what's already there.

(That said, there's some good stuff about resonance and vitae. There will be SOME new rituals to take advantage of that theming. @ryttu3k has planted the seed there with the Ways and the personality shifts and the Humours. There is a way to reconcile this stuff but my first idea wasn't it.)

[girlnextvore]

VtM OC Wardrobe - Rosa Núñez-Zewditu

Legacy: Nagloper

Humanity: 4

Generation: 10th

Favorite discipline: Koldunic Sorcery

thank you @sarahrune for tagging me!

[odoroshi-rider]

For the VTM ask game how about 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 48?

(art by @ollieanderr)

1. What clan is your OC? Tremere! He's not happy about it!

4. What generation are they? 9th!

5. Who is their sire? A Tremere infernalist that went by the pseudonym "Mahaziel." He never learned the guy's actual name.

7. How did their sire treat them? REALLY REALLY POORLY. Nathaniel was subject to all sorts of infernal fuckery, and came out of the experience with a mastery of the Path of Pain and a supernatural addiction to self-mutilation that will never go away.

9. Do they have a childer? Yes! His name is Dorian, and they hate each other. Rightfully so. Dorian was one of the aforementioned "Hermetics Embraced to inflict shared misery," and you can imagine what that means about how they feel about one another.

48. Detail things about your OC you spent a lot of time on! OH BOY. Lots. I went digging through a lot of oooooold books in order to fully flesh out Nathaniel's kit (His big secret that was revealed dramatically in the game he NPCed in was that he is a master of the dark Thaumaturgical Path of Pain, with mechanics pulled from the Sins of the Blood book from 1st ed. The scan of that thang is TERRIBLE). I also spent a lot of time using him as a rumination on what it means for a Mage to be embraced, and the depths of desperation and self-loathing that can drive someone to--as well as what it would take for someone like that to either redeem themselves, or burn the fuck out in a nihilistic blaze of glory. He ended up going the former route, which is funny because from the BEGINNING he was slated to die terribly (and possibly be a boss fight), but my players were determined to help him out.

(art by @ollieanderr)

1. What clan is your OC? Tzimisce and loving it

4. What generation are they? 9th! I think I have a bias...

5. Who is their sire? Ars Versum, a Tzimisce elder that went the controversial route of mastering Koldunic Sorcery, and then pursuing mastery of Vicissitude. He had a love of music and a strong desire for a family to call his own.

7. How did their sire treat them? Like more than a Childe, but as his actual child. Ars Versum was very much like a father to Ars Caelum, and despite knowing now that Ars Versum did many terrible things, they will never be able to hate him.

9. Do they have a childer? Nope!

48. Detail things about your OC you spent a lot of time on! Caelum was also an NPC that got elevated to blorbo status, via a completely unexpected turn of events in the VtM game I ran that saw them being rescued by the coterie and rehabilitated. I spent a lot of time ruminating on Caelum's themes of need for familial love and struggle with grief and forgiveness, and essentially where they would go forward from a point where I honestly expected them to die. Their beloved sire was a boss fight for the coterie, after all! And the end of a very long and bloody story arc that gave the coterie little other choice. They're a deeply human person shaped first by the love of a very inhuman sire, and then by the love of an unlikely partner and friends--and a lot of their side-story dealt with how they processed their grief and moved on to learn to love their new family. Shoutout to @ollieanderr and his determination to hook up with that freaky fish enby and accidentally create one of the most beautiful NPC side-stories I've ever STed for. Asa/Caelum will reign eternal.

[mortifying-macaroni]

in the regular universe does gretchen know fleshcrafting, or is it something for andrei to have in any universe including the au?

In the regular universe, Gretchen was given a choice between taking up Koldunism or Vicissitude. With her leaning more towards blood sorcery, the former was chosen, though she's interested in both. Andrei promised to teach Gretchen fleshcrating as well, but only if she mastered her primary Koldunic Way, which is fire. It's going okay-ish, although she's having trouble fully tapping into her spirituality in order to manipulate the element. The lack of significant progress is pissing her off so she's thinking of skipping ahead to receive lessons in Vicissitude behind his back by bringing this matter over to Sascha Vykos instead (they're a cousin to Andrei in most universes, just roll with it), with whom she's on good terms with, unlike Andrei. Gretchen knows he'll find out about it if she rolls with the plan and she's willing to use that family drama to see whether he'll be upset to the point of giving in, dragging her back to his "workroom" and start rigorously teaching her Vicissitude. For now, she doesn't know how to use it, but she will eventually.

[ryttu3k]

Can a tzimisce ghoul learn koldunic sorcery? Or is it only kindred? Also, what are your opinions on koldunic sorcery in v5 vs. the other editions?

Huh! You know, I'm not sure? There are a lot of Koldunic rituals that specifically use vitae, and most ghouls would be blocked out from that. However, I suspect a Revenant, who does produce their own vitae, would be able to. They'd be limited to whatever discipline level they could do normally, and non-Revenant ghouls wouldn't be able to do any that require vitae.

As for V5, I'm afraid I just don't know enough about how they're handled! I haven't read Blood Sigils. I'm not a huge fan of how V5 combined all the different sorceries into one discipline (I think that, say, Koldunic sorcery and Dur-an-Ki have more in common with each other than Thaumaturgy and Quietus), so it'd at least be the standard issue there.

[thelatexshapeshifter]

So ive started thinking about Sabrina's extend family recently, through the sire connection and being actually adopted by Mina and vlad. but the first of her family im roughing out, Luiminta a 12th gen tzimisce who is focused on Koldunic sorcery and is very good at it, tho shes isn't very good at any physical disciplines or Vicissitude a traditionalist but Sabrina has got her kinda addicted to the internet its all quite in the village till you start hearing Lumi in the distance singing meme songs, Red Flags by Tom Cardy was a real problem around Tzimisce that can actually make human centipede

[relleytrots]

If you were redesigning Blood Sorcery, what would its central schtick be? What makes it potentially unique and interesting, and not just a swiss army knife? (I'd argue Thinblood Alchemy is maybe a more interesting and balanced fill for that total versatility niche.)

Hm!

So, I actually kinda like the core Discipline as it exists in V5. The art of discovering truths about someone through their Blood, or manipulating the Blood directly, or turning the Blood into a weapon or a message? That shit rips. That is a good time.

I'd move Scour Secrets into Auspex (seriously, what the shit is it doing here?) and I'm turning Koldunic Sorcery over and over in my hands - it's a botch job, but the net effect works, you take that and then your upper levels are things like Visceral Absorbtion and Transitive Bond, there's a Tzimisce-sorcerer route through the Discipline and it does hold together now that i think about it. It's fine.

I think a good Discipline is one where you can cross the streams, but it's also apparent what the streams are. Blood Sorcery is a good Discipline, it has archetypal routes through for your stereotypical Tremere and Banu Haqim and Tzimisce but also space for you to push sideways and create characters who have leant this way or that.

Digression: Oblivion is a bad Discipline, largely because it has four pathways between two clans and is trying to cover two historically separate applications of mysticism and ceremony while also remaining as faithful as it can to every depiction of them that's ever existed, because it's a Dawkins design and he can't not include something that's canon. Great concept, but indulgent execution. Someone needed to say no.

But then we get into Rituals, and that's where the bloat kicks in. Niche protection? What niche protection? Haven't you heard, we're Tremere!

I think each Ritual needs to be interrogated. Ask it what it's for. Why does it exist at the level it exists? What is Clinging of the Insect for? We have Potence and Celerity powers for that. Splash another Discipline, you cowards, this is worth more than 3 XP and some bug juice.

What is Blood Walk for? Why is it not a critical effect on Taste for Blood, the mainline power that's its obvious prerequisite? This is stupid. Merge them.

What is Wake With Evening's Freshness for? Why do Tremere get to do this, for cheap? Get rid of it.

Do that, and pare the Rituals right down to the ones like Enrich the Blood, Herd Ward, Calix Secretus, the ones that are clearly derived from actual Blood manipulation. To be honest, the Oblivion notion of prerequisite powers is a good one, and if you can't think of a good prerequisite power, chances are you don't have a good Ritual - you have an Ars Magicka wizard spell that nobody's had the spine to delete.

I've said before and I'm saying now that I prefer Tremere as alchemists to Tremere as mages from Ars Magicka backformed into mages from Mage. It shucks off a lot of baggage, it makes them a self-contained Vampire concept (this is a problem I also have with the Giovanni, to be entirely fair), and - in the context of this ask - it also creates some cool parallels with the thin-bloods, the Duskborn of the here and now. Tremere looks to Thin-blood: as you are, we once were. As we are, you are not allowed to be. No wonder Tremere invented the practice of branding the little shits.

I do agree that being a hyperflexible little multi-tool, manifesting semi-random powers from Resonances and cultivating specific counterfeits with Alchemy, is a really good niche for Thin-Bloods to occupy. The Revised era version - "vampire from clan, but shittier" - had no appeal outside of specific metaplot-hugging or masochistic playstyles. The V5 version is exciting. People should play them, and want to play them.

That said, I have some beef - specifically, a Thin-Blood who lives long enough and plays with other clans erodes niche protection by being able to counterfeit most Disciplines a PC from another clan can bring to the table, "anything you can do I can do" kind of deal. Level 5 is off the table, but how many PCs are getting level 5 powers at the standard rate of XP gain? Blood Potency is a counterbalance and if you bother to implement its rules all the way across (the rerolls are super important) I do think it works as a balance, but this isn't about what works. It's about the feeling of having your special snowflake power, and yours, and yours, all available to this one character.

I think I'd get rid of Counterfeit Discipline, as a thing: you can curate low level powers from feeding, and you have unique Alchemy effects, and that's enough, actually.

[beloved-menagerie]

🍇🍌🍉

What sort of friend are they? Where are they in the group dynamic?

Tends towards both loyalty and generosity. Your problems are his problems now, and he will go out of his way to be useful, even sometimes to his detriment- looking at you in particular, 'getting abrupt liver failure from trying to help your mage buddy out'. Not really sure about the group dynamic part. Reliable presence, maybe.

Does your OC have a particular piece of jewellery that they always wear or refuse to part with?

A pendant from Dragon- A small, rough crystal imbued through koldunic sorcery to allow Dragon to loosely track his location while outside of the Domain. He can also expend willpower to send a brief message to him- I forget what the name of the ritual is off the top of my head. It looks like a small uncut citrine point in shape, like ember-toned labradorite in hue. He never takes it off, and would outright swallow it before he let anyone else take it.

There is no banana question so uh. Bananafact. He's not much of a baker but he can make a half decent banana bread if he needs to. He wont eat bananas if they have even a little green on them he likes them at the yellow with brown bits stage.