The Scarlet Woman

Vampire the Requiem - Covenant - Circle of the Crone

When a living woman steps outside her social role, she risks being called a whore. It doesn’t have to be a literal sex-for-money transaction: many feminist Acolytes consider that the most expected feminine role. Women can be called whores when they get jobs expected of men, or when they wear clothes that the elders consider improper or when they speak to a man as an equal.
A Scarlet Woman is not necessarily a prostitute, though some Scarlet Women are. (Indeed, some Acolytes prefer the title “Whore” for this archetype.) If she is a whore, it’s a small matter to the Circle. Kindred are concerned with a different currency than mere dollars, and for vampires, ‘scarlet’ is hardly the color of shame.
Scarlet Women of the Circle have contempt for constraint and rebel against the ties that bind them. Many who are technically Scarlet Women ignore the title or let no one know of their Status. (After all, killing someone is usually a highly private matter, even for predatory Kindred.) Other Scarlet Women, however, flaunt their independence and make a point of questioning all rules and all Expectations. They may eventually accept a punishment handed down, or a rule imposed by all, but it won’t be accepted meekly. The defining attribute of the true Whore, after all, is not that she transgressed, but that she feels no shame in transgression.
Rebellion is what people expect, and it’s typical of the newest and most shallow women in this role. But a knee-jerk resistance to authority often makes them only slightly less malleable than instinctive submission to authority. As they age and mature, those Scarlet Women who eschew the role of Mother achieve true independence, instead of merely being contrary. They learn that the Scarlet Woman is not the one who resists the will of others, but the one who is unswayed by it, who cleaves to her own clear judgment. The true Whore may be a harlot or a moral paragon, she may resist bitterly or accept wholeheartedly, but when she does it is because it is her decision. It is never a choice made for her.

Perception

Purpose

Expectations

What Expectations are placed on someone whose defining attribute is “she cannot be tamed”? Whores do what they want because they want to do it. Unlike Crones, who are almost all old, and Virgins, most of whom are young, Scarlet Women are a broad demographic. “Women who have not sired, who have killed and who thrive on human blood” form a large percentage of the Circle, so generalizations are more difficult for this group than for others. In most cases, Scarlet Women behave as Carthians or unaligned of similar age. If Scarlet Women approve of your project, they help you accomplish it. If they disapprove, they resist it — or, at the very least, won’t join in just because their sire said it was a good idea. They are free agents, and some of them are powerful free agents, but they need to be persuaded instead of commanded.
Some are more willing to compromise than others, and generally the younger a Whore is, the more she can be talked around (or bullied). Some Scarlet Women consider it kosher to their role to sacrifice a small matter in order to get aid with a large matter, or even just to drift from their principles (even the principle of total selfishness, if that’s what they’ve chosen) simply to avoid a hassle. Others are in it, with sincerity, 100•. If they don’t actively believe in a cause, no bribe or blackmail is going to make them pursue it.
Of all the roles, Scarlet Women are the least likely to agree to do something “because it’s good for the covenant.” From their perspective, the covenant is something that does things for them, not the other way around. This doesn’t mean they won’t aid the Circle in times of need. It’s a poor craftsman who neglects his tools, after all. But it does mean their aid is calculated and not sentimental.

Social Status

At lower levels of Status (0 to ••), they’re accorded whatever respect is due their age and abilities, but many in the Circle treat Scarlet Women only slightly better than if they were in a different covenant. They are Allies of common interest, less than convenience. At Status ••• to •••••, they’re more likely to recruit others to their banner than to be recruited themselves, and for many, the idea of liberty of interest does not cut both ways. Many high Status Whores find it perfectly reasonable to refuse any request that does not benefit them, but woe to the neonate who resists a Scarlet Woman’s command. Ideological resistance might earn grudging respect, or it might earn vicious punishment, depending on the Scarlet Woman in question. Whores are always individuals, after all.

History

Mythological Examples

The Egyptian goddesses Bast and Sekhmet are opposite sides of the same Scarlet Woman coin. Both are aspects of Hathor (herself a complex figure), and both are cat goddesses. That said, they are very different. Bast is sensuous and calm and mysterious — traits one typically ascribes to the domesticated cats that purr beneath a stroking palm but still won’t come when called. Sekhmet is ravenous, and bloodthirsty.
The most common myth about her details how she was unleashed to punish a deserving humankind, but was so vicious that the gods had to call her off by dyeing 7,000 vats of beer red, so that she’d mistake it for blood, lap it up and fall down drunk. Sekhmet is a beast, showing the attributes of a hunting desert lioness, and it has not escaped her Acolyte worshippers’ notice that she both is drawn to blood and passes into a torpid sleep.
Ishtar is another strikingly dual figure, both a patroness of sexual love and “the lady of battles.” Her most famous exploit is harrowing the Underworld, an event in which she had to pass through seven gates, divesting herself of both a garment and its associated measure of power each time. By the time she reaches the center, she is naked — a quest commemorated with the dance of the seven veils, a performance that (in turn) has been cheapened into mere lascivious display.
Then again, there’s a French sect of Ishtar Acolytes who insist that this is entirely the point. When the Whore gives up purity and dignity, it’s the trial that leads to the greatest wisdom. This wisdom (those Ishtar cultists insist) is that no one can face death alone, and that only cooperation and the aid of loved ones can provide freedom from death (which they associate with the Beast). When Tammuz agrees to take Ishtar’s place in the Underworld, she can no longer be just the lone, self-interested Whore. Then it’s time for her to assume a greater, communal role. To the French sect, this realization is typical of Scarlet Women who are ready to bring a companion into eternity. They are ready, in a word, to become Mothers.

Type

Public Services

Used By

• The Circle of the Crone