Vecna's Gift
ToC
The Embrace is the process of becoming a vampire and entering the Requiem. On the surface, it’s quite easy. The sire drains a mortal completely of his lifeblood, then feeds him a bit of her own Vitae to rouse him back to the land of the living.
It’s so simple. However, with all things in the Requiem, it’s not always straightforward. The act of the Embrace is a willful action; Vitae alone is not enough to wake the victim, a sire must choose to commit the Embrace. This choice comes at the price of a Humanity dot. This means that the traditional Embrace is never accidental.
The Embrace
The mortal must be at death’s door and then fed a portion of the Vampire’s Vitae. The vampire must exert his will and choose to bind his target into his clan and his lineage. This deliberate act by the vampire binds the new vampire to the sire and ignites within him a black flame or spark of Vecnas essence, laced through the Vitae. Each new vampire sired by the blood of Vecna now carries within them a piece of their dark father, their dark god, a spark of his fallen celestial power. This touch of essence filtered through the lens of the sires clan manifests itself within the new vampire, opening up the potential for the clan’s unique discipline, or powers of the Vitae and personal attributes common to the clan. The subject usually rises the following night as a new and very hungry vampire. Siring commonly requires permission by the Prince, Court of Blood, or Family Elder.
Stories run the gambit of how long it takes a new vampire to be reborn, ranging from minutes to days. The Circle of Dust declares that as the mortal body dies, the soul of the man is trapped with the emerging Beast. The Beast entangles the soul, hiding it from the searing sun for one cycle. With the rise of the following night, the Beast and the Soul are forever blended as one. The Templars generally refute the teachings of the Circle of Dust, however, they remain quiet on this topic. Some Kindred in each clan have their own unique traditions from the Gangrel burying the bodies in earth or the Daeva lying entwined with the new Kindred as they change.
Reborn to Darkness
All sounds fade away as the progeny’s body dies, leaving a silence so strong it drowns out the sound of his dying heart. Once the heart beats one final time, darkness sinks in washing the world away. Visions swirl and drift through the mind, maybe slivers of memory, or voices of family and friends, or divine inspiration fleeting from a new damnation. These wisps and fragments of memory may haunt the vampire for his entire unlife. It may be a man’s marriage to his wife, a title or appointment, or a new birth. These will anchor the new vampire in the frozen torment of what was lost, giving the Beast another edge on the man.
He should not have come, but weddings are a great place to grab a quick bite, and he could feel the hunger. Everything was good until that damn bard starting playing his song! He could feel the rage rising, an image of Elaina floating in a red mist across his vision. He staggered as he bumped into the table of glasses holding their sparkling beverage that held no flavor for him. Damn it, as glass shattered and wood splintered. He had only seconds now: he needed to get away ....
The sires blood insinuates itself into the progeny’s every fiber, and a burning takes hold in the pit of his stomach. The burning sensation becomes a strong fiery pain, shattering the bloodless peace of memories or imagery.
The progeny becomes aware of his stiffening body, which has grown cold, heavy as marble and alien. Most terrifying of all is the sensation of the soul becoming trapped, and bound to his dying body. The process corrupts the soul, tainting and allowing the Beast to take hold.
The progeny screams a silent scream, unable to draw air into dead lungs, and his eyes thrust open in desperation. He is aware of a ceaseless hunger, an intense thirst for blood, that will be with him forever. The new vampire will set upon any source to feed with mindless ferocity, usually the wrist of his sire or a hapless victim. Lost to the hunger, he feeds like a starved animal.
The vampire body goes through a process of purging with pain lingering for hours. The vampire vomits up phlegm of black and yellow bile.
The First Nights
A new vampire is assaulted with one trauma after another: death, embrace, the first feeding, and their first frenzy. Followed by the loss of family, friends and much of what they had in life. Some sires are kind guides, teaching their progeny how to cope with their new unlife and the gifts of Vecna. Others are cruel and dictatorial - treating their progeny with no more compassion than a beast of burden. The first nights are filled with the sire teaching the progeny many of the finer points of being Kindred. This could be hunting, feeding, the Kiss, controlling the Beast, territory, domain, and the Traditions, just to name a few. During the period of apprenticeship (months to decades) they are considered fledglings with no standing and are under the protection of their sire. Once the progeny is presented in a ceremony to the prince, they are considered Neonates. Once the progeny becomes a Neonate they may leave the comforts of their sire’s haven. In the worst situations, a sire abandons the newly made vampire, leaving them to the mercy of the night. A few new vampires are overcome by the curse and cast themselves into the morning sun, while others revel in the dark urges of the beast becoming callous killers.
The pain and terrible hallucinations had passed. He felt so hungry in a world almost new everything was so loud. Someone must have slipped him something at the party. He couldn’t remember what happened to the beautiful lady he had met. Maybe she gave him something, maybe she wanted to abduct him for a labor gang. He barely remembered her crazy smile and a whispered, “good luck”. All he needed was to reach his home and his new wife, Elaina. She was his world and would make everything ok. He flung open the cabin door, Elaina, his beautiful Elaina, turned up her lips in a smile upon seeing him. Her smile turned to horror upon taking in his current state, while his vision turned to an angry red. Her screams drowned out everything ...
The Dead Heart
As dead things, they do not evolve or grow like living mortals. Their emotions become stilted and perverse. They are largely incapable of learning from their experiences in the way mortals can, clinging to what they have lost. They are capable of mastering new mannerisms and skills, but they do not assimilate them into their being as they did when mortal. Wearing newly found customs like masks, they conceal their stagnant natures. Vampires are like marble statues, witnesses to the endless march of time, but forever outside it. Their Beast continues to drag them down to the abyss of despair through rage, lust, pride, and murder.
The Beast
The beast warps the vampire’s identity, amplifying any mental flaws that the Kindred had when he was mortal and erodes any of the good. A father confuses love for obsession, a priest become set in his righteousness, a knight’s love toward his lady becomes tainted and corrupt. In the end, the Beast taints most vampires. Kindred seek to control their surroundings because they cannot control their Beast. No matter how damning the Beast is, though, it is also the source of a Vampire’s power.
There was so much blood. Elaina’s body was so still. He wiped the blood from her beautiful face. He didn’t understand it, but he knew this was his fault. Quietly, he hummed their wedding tune for a few moments.
His scream was long and loud ...
So much blood ...
His scream was long and loud ...
So much blood ...
Custom Edges HR
Maker (● to ●●●)You are focusing on the lessons you have been taught regarding the embrace and creation of vampire progeny. You understand how to control and guide fledgling neonates during their first nights, protecting them from themselves. The maker dots may be added to any training rolls for the sire of a new vampire. These also add to Detachment rolls for breaking points in the embrace of a new vampire. Creating a vampire (killing a mortal) is a Breaking Point. Prodigy (1+)
This Edge represents each vampire sired regardless of their state of unlife, and is selected each time a new vampire is sired. This Edge is written as a number and list as it has no upper limits, for example Progeny 12 means you have sired 12 vampires. Social limitations may be enforced by Kindred authority.
House Rule:
Embrace & Humanity
The Maker and Progeny Edges replace spending one Humanity in Vampire the Requiem 2nd Edition. This reduces the cost of siring by 30% for the first progeny, and 60% thereafter.
- Humanity +1 | VTR2 2XP | SP 6XP
- Path Edge: Maker 1 | SP 2XP
- Path Edge: Progeny 1 | SP 2XP
You still think that your a human being at all. That ended on the first night you became one of us, fed and killed your first human in the process.
Sunlight kills us and fire is not our friend and there are worse things out there that don't like us and I will tell you about them later.
Sunlight kills us and fire is not our friend and there are worse things out there that don't like us and I will tell you about them later.
Embrace Terms
The act of making or turning a mortal into a vampire. Sire
A vampiric maker or “parent,” one who has Embraced a progeny; alternatively, a verb, meaning “to Embrace.” Progeny
A progeny is a Kindred offspring or child of a vampire known as a sire or maker.
If you annoy me I will outlive you. If you anger me I will kill you.
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