Xiao, California

My child, how could you trust your fickle feelings more than the teachings of our master?

Vampire the Requiem - Bloodlines the Chosen

Kindred emotions are but a pallid, hollow echo of living passions. Genuine feelings flowing through a warm, beating heart are lost to the undead. Most Kindred envy the living their emotions. The Xiao crave them. Unable to sustain their existence through Vitae alone, these Daeva offshoots drain their victims of emotions just as they feast on their blood. The secretive, cult-like bloodline has mastered the art of finding and exploiting those to whom emotions are a burden. The angry and bitter youths, the impressionable, those who have been recently rejected or suffered some other misfortune. The Xiao find such mortals, shower them with love and attention, present them a false faÁade of friendship and sincere concern, and then induct them into their blood cult to strip their victims of their very minds and souls.
Records of the bloodline founder’s vampiric existence date back to the second half of the 19th century. Allegedly, Xiao Jun Jie was already a vampire when he moved to California from the Asian southeast. What is known for certain is that within a couple of decades the prolific Daeva had at least two childer and a sizable human Herd.
At first, Xiao’s followers were organized into an avantgarde polyamorous ring, but mystical elements crept into their philosophy. Xiao fancied himself a “holy man” — despite not being a “man” anymore — and went to reside with his followers and many lovers in a reclusive commune. He started a disturbing cult, mixing elements of primitive Buddhism with Catholic paraphernalia and the sharing of Vitae. His teachings revolved around escaping the cycle of reincarnation though ascetic practices, involving fasting, sleep deprivation, intercourse with the master himself and, ultimately, drinking the master’s blood.
Suffering more than the average Daeva from the sterility of emotions that plagues all Kindred, Xiao devised a Discipline that allowed him to siphon passions away from his living Herd. He gorged himself on his followers’ passions, rekindling his own while destroying any interest they could have for anything but him. Slowly but surely his following grew in both numbers and dedication — most of his faithful now regarded him as a lover, a father, a god and more.
In the early years of the 20th century, some of his descendants managed to snap out of Xiao’s spiritual iron grip. They were able to tear the veil of lies the cult had spun around them and flee. Known as Apostates, these rogue Xiao dwell in fear of reprisal. Xiao cannot stand being rejected by his own blood; deranged by decades of worship, he simply can’t stand the thought of someone who knows him but doesn’t love him. The elder vampire spends a great deal of Resources trying to track down his stray childer, working to bring them back to the fold or destroy them.
This night, while most bloodline members still owe loyalty to the founder, a few rogue Xiao cults are scattered across Europe and Asia, far from their old master’s interference. Other Apostates have turned their back on the Xiao lifestyle altogether and are striving to start their Requiems afresh, to find a place within vampiric society despite a troubled past and the enduring threat of the Sect.

Culture

Culture and cultural heritage

Background: Faithful Xiao Embrace from within their cult herds exclusively. Indeed, it might be argued that the whole cult’s purpose is to select the best prospective bloodline members. “Best,” in Xiao Jun Jie’s eyes, meaning of course “most beautiful and slavishly loyal.” Over several years, cult members are accurately screened and tested for unswerving faith and unthinking devotion.
Eventually, a handful of the most promising cultists are required to undergo one last trial, breaching the veil between life and death and ascending to a deathless state beyond the circle of reincarnation. To the cultists, this looks like a suicide ritual, and it’s the ultimate test of loyalty. Those who refuse are slain on the spot. The cult leader then Embraces the rest, or tries to. There are known instances of some manic Xiao trying to lead up to 12 cultists at a time into unlife, accidentally slaying all but one or two. Siring many childer seems to confer a measure of Status within the Sect, but few Xiao have been able to perform mass Embraces more than once in their Requiem. This practice of mass Embrace does nothing to endear the bloodline to the rest of Kindred society. Most vampires see it as an offense to the Second Tradition and an unreasonable drain on the blood supply. Many simply see it as an abhorrent, downright despicable practice.
Most Xiao are of American nationality, and a plurality are of Asian descent. Members are chosen for their ability to successfully found and lead a cult cell of their own. Good looks, a strong personality, burning ambition and a way with words are all highly sought after. Usually, cultists are drawn to the Xiao because the mortals find themselves at odds with society, or are unable to cope with some change they are going through.
Apostates are an even more diverse lot. Most are ex-cult members who escaped the bloodline’s clutches. They share most of the traits normally associated with Sect Xiao, except blind devotion to the bloodline. A tiny minority of Xiao have never been cultists themselves, being instead the childer of fugitive Apostates.

History

The tales that spread across Chinese ports and cities in 1848 told of Gum San, “Gold Mountain,” a place far across the Pacific Ocean where precious metal could be dug in vast amounts. A backwater, dangerous place that the rest of the world called California. Lured by promises of easy riches or simply driven by desperation, at first only a handful of youths braved the sea, but that trickle would soon become a flood as thousands upon thousands of Cantonese immigrants moved to California in the following years. They fled civil unrest and crop failure and sailed toward disease, hard toil and discrimination. And yet a greater menace was traveling with them.
Hidden on a Chinese ship headed for the American West Coast, a Cantonese Daeva named Xiao Jun Jie moved with the hopeful mortals. The sailors who had met him at the dock didn’t realize he was an undead. After all, he shared no trait with the vampires of folklore, except maybe for the ravenous sexual appetite that the Chinese attributed to the P’o, or lower soul. Jun Jie had been a monk and a slave trader, and he had walked down the path to both enlightenment and depravity, the latter with far more enthusiasm than the former.
Unfortunately, the reckless Succubus had made one too many enemies in his native country and had no choice left but to start anew in an unknown, savage land. The move turned out far better than expected for the fugitive Daeva. His destination proved to be a chaotic, nearly lawless place where competition was scarce and prey abundant. It was far easier for a vampire to have his fill of Vitae than for a man to have his fill of gold. California back then was sorely lacking in the subtler pleasures of unlife, but it provided Xiao with all the crude ones he could handle. The state was changing at an astonishing pace, though, even more so in the eyes of the stagnant Kindred. He could clearly see that it would be a matter of mere decades before California became a hub of civilization. He needed but bide his time and wait for the squalid wooden shacks to be replaced by proper houses, palaces and cities. Xiao bade his time, and started a business.
He had taken half a dozen of his favorite lovers with him from Canton, and it didn’t take him long to realize that lust was no less a powerful tool on this side of the sea than in the rest of the world. The immigrants were mostly young men, and women were rare and highly sought after. Xiao still had a few friends in Canton who could persuade a lady with words or actions, and he became adept at smuggling women, willing or not, into California. The most beautiful ones joined his personal menagerie. The ones he deemed unworthy or grew bored of were given to his most loyal followers as a reward, forced into prostitution or sold.
Soon Xiao had carved a niche for himself. He knew what people feared and what they craved, and he was able to give them both. He gained a reputation as a powerful and wise person, and gained many loyal followers among Chinese immigrants, who sought his advice, his protection and his favor.
Racial segregation worked in Xiao’s favor, shielding his domain from the European and American competition that was slowly settling California. However, he knew he couldn’t survive protracted conflict. Experimenting with his blood, he devised a new Discipline that would help control the kine, and gave birth to his own bloodline, believing that the newly arrived Kindred would be cowed by his unfamiliar capabilities. Finally, the Daeva “elevated” his two most beautiful and loyal lovers by Embracing them.
The Chinese Exclusion Acts of 1882 to 1902 singled out ethnic Chinese and reversed the existing policy that actively encouraged immigration. Xiao realized that “his” community would never grow as fast as he wanted it to. He had successfully started cells of his cult across both the West Coast and East Coast, but he wanted more. He began to consider expanding his cult outside the Chinatowns. Taking an active interest in the occult revival that was gaining steam across the world, he was especially intrigued by the blending of Western and Eastern traditions in the theosophical movements of mortal men. Xiao had first been introduced to Catholicism by Jesuit missionaries when he was still in Canton, but his interest in Christianity was superficial at best. He cared more for the rituals and the pomp than for the underlying principles, but he realized that he could make his cult more palatable by applying a ritualism drawn from its symbols and Language. With that goal in mind, he begun structuring his Sect. The rites and prayers became an eclectic hodge-podge of disparate elements designed to appeal to the broadest possible demographic and launched an aggressive campaign of recruitment outside the Chinatown districts.
Within three decades, the Xiao Sect managed to gain a substantial number of converts, with cells led by one of Xiao’s childer quickly expanding out into nearby domains. Jun Jie wanted more, he craved more and he was sure he could make his line grow faster. But his feeding habits had become onerous. In 1914, as his lengthy Requiem weighted heavily on him, Xiao went into Torpor, content that his bloodline was well entrenched and would watch over his slumber with unwavering zeal.
But his very first childer grew restless without a strong hand to guide them. They suspected, quite correctly, that their sire’s interest in exploring new spiritual avenues was insincere, and that he had strayed from the path. Some rejected his teachings, abandoning the Sect and seeking their fortunes elsewhere. Thus were the first Xiao Apostates created. Advocating for a return to the elder ways but still nominally Xiao faithful, the rest of the Sect argued and debated and waited for their sire to wake up.
The Sect founder slept away the decades leading up to and following World War II, tormented by vague nightmares of treachery and deceit. One unseasonably cold night in 1946, one of his adherents with potent enough blood managed to wake Xiao, although the adherent sacrificed himself in the process. Xiao woke up hungrier and more deranged than he had ever been, destroying his loyal servant in a frenzy of sudden violence. When Xiao came to his senses, the others present bowed low and told him what had come to pass. When he found out that some of the inheritors of his blood had questioned his wisdom, he swore cold vengeance. The purge that followed was brief and brutal. By the 1970s, most of his rebellious descendants had been sent to Final Death. In the fires of conflict, all Xiao cells had been wiped off the eastern United States. The surviving Apostates have successfully gone into hiding, and their numbers have grown as Xiao Jun Jie continues to reveal his insane tyranny.

Society and Culture

More than most Kindred, the Xiao depend on their herds. A multi-tiered religious group provides the bloodline a steady flow of new recruits. While roughly half of its mortal followers are laypeople living relatively normal lives, the Sect encourages a monastic lifestyle. Kindred or ghoul “Masters” provide nighttime empowerment classes to anybody who’s willing to pay, but further advancement (and “true enlightement”) requires forsaking one’s family and joining the local commune as a monk. Practitioners may be invited to special private Meditation lessons with their teachers. During these sessions, the Masters feed on their pupils and subject them to Vinculums and other forms of abuse. Promising monks who show good looks, extraordinary charisma, unswerving loyalty and the ability to please their Masters may be allowed to join the bloodline. When the leaders of a commune feel that overcrowding is reaching dangerous levels, they order their most gifted childer to found a new commune in some other town.
In addition to over-indulging in one’s vices, this recruiting, screening and training process constitutes the bulk of a sectarian Xiao’s night-to-night activities. Sustaining and expanding the bloodline is of paramount importance to these Kindred. The Sect rarely establishes itself in large cities or well-established domains, thus avoiding interference from other vampires. Friction between Xiao and Kindred covenants often reaches critical levels when they do presume to make their home near other vampires, as the Sect serves no Tradition but that imposed by Xiao Jun Jie.
Advancement within the bloodline works much like a pyramid scheme, with Status being awarded according to the number of childer successfully Embraced, as long as these childer prove themselves worthy of the bloodline. By the same token, a failed Embrace or a child who goes Apostate is a source of powerful shame for any Xiao. The bloodline is tightly knit and extremely hierarchical — lower-ranking neonates are expected to blindly follow any order from a superior, no matter how debased. In turn, they expect their followers to degrade themselves just as readily.
Most Xiao have been Embraced directly into the bloodline, and are wary of outsider Daeva seeking an Avus. Such rare applicants must prove their worth to the Sect beyond any doubt, usually with a lengthy probation period or by performing some outstanding deed.
Each individual Sect of the Xiao maintains a number of ritualized “cleansing” and “abasement” practices designed to strengthen ties to the leader of the cult and eliminate ones with outside influences. Self-imposed starvation, heavy regimens of prayer and Meditation, directed asceticism and compulsory schedules help to enforce the isolation of cult members, while emotional “sharing sessions,” ceremonial sexual congress and frequent reassurances are designed to draw individual members into a web of dependence and associated security. Kindred of the Sect are subject to these practices as well as ritual feedings upon the leader, and are no less vulnerable to their emotional effects. The Sects impose a complicated calendar of practice and ritual observance, ensuring that most members don’t get much time to develop doubts or even think for themselves. Most (including the Sect of Xiao Jun Jie) actually discard the Gregorian calendar, replacing it with one of their own.
Kindred of the Sect do engage in one ritual that mortals never see. If the presence of an Apostate is suspected, the loyal Xiao are expected to partake in a fanatic, prayer-fueled hunt designed to capture and destroy the traitor. Even the leader of a local Sect will take part, chasing his hated foe through the streets and harrying her until the very edge of dawn if necessary, stopping at nothing to destroy her. The destruction of an Apostate is one of the highest priorities of Sectarian Xiao, and one who personally achieves that goal is likely to be given control of his own cult (or further enforce the adoration of his existing membership).
Apostate Xiao, rejecting the culture of the Sect, tend to distance themselves from the practices of their founder as much as possible. Many actually retreat into monastic observance of one type or another, hiding from their families and seeking to repair the damage done to their souls all at once. Some actively combat the vengeanceseekers among their own kind, fighting to destroy them and hoping that they might one night put an end to Xiao Jun Jie’s mad cult.

Common Dress code

Appearance: Older bloodline members from Xiao Jun Jie’s community are uniformly attractive, chosen to suit his tastes. This is also true of most, but not all, younger Sect members. All Xiao Embraced in the 19th century, and many American Xiao Embraced later on, are of Asian descent.
No Xiao could be described as plain-looking. Bloodline members need to be able to attract attention to use their signature Discipline, so even those few who are not gifted with good looks soon learn how to dress for the part. As fashion-conscious as any Daeva, Xiao strive first and foremost to win trust and confidence. They prefer to sport casual elegance and usually shy away from extravagant looks.
When conducting rites or Meditation, Sectarian Xiao wear ornate ceremonial robes devised by the line founder. These are reminiscent of a Chinese Buddhist monk’s robe, usually in lively warm colors, and are sewn with an eclectic assortment of mystical symbols, lifted from Christian, Buddhist and Taoist imagery. There is some variation in ceremonial robes among different communes, but every robe marks its wearer’s Status within the bloodline.

Art & Architecture

Haven: Sect Xiao are often to be found dwelling in commune-like compounds with their large human herds, usually sharing them with one or more other members of the bloodline. The vampires’ quarters are always impeccably furnished — just as most Daeva, Xiao prefer to spend their Requiems in the lap of luxury. Chambers reserved for the cult masters are also well guarded and generally inaccessible to lowly cultists. The human followers’ quarters, on the other hand, tend to be spartan at best and squalid at worst. If at all possible, the compound will be found in a remote, secluded location comfortably far from prying eyes.
Apostates tend to be more practical-minded in regard to their havens, favoring places that are both hard to find and easy to defend. Religious Apostates favor quiet, secluded, spacious havens. Their spiritual pursuits are readily apparent to any visitor: holy texts and images line the walls, and the smell of incense wafts through the air. Secular Apostates, on the other hand, fall back to the ways of other Succubi, favoring cozy, well-kept quarters in lively urban areas, even at the loss of some safety.

Major organizations

Covenant: By and large, most Xiao cultists are unaligned. The Sect’s demand for absolute devotion and relentless dedication leaves little time for other pursuits. Besides, most covenants — indeed, most Kindred in their right state of mind — want nothing to do with the Xiao. To those rare outsiders who know the Xiao, the bloodline’s practices are universally considered a potential breach of The Traditions, and especially a severe threat to the Masquerade. For this reason, the covenants will usually turn down any application from a known Xiao.
Apostates, on the other hand, often join a covenant to give a new meaning to their unlives or simply out of a need for protection. The accepting Carthian Movement is the prime choice for disaffected Xiao who have fully rejected the way of their bloodline. The modern, secular outlook of this covenant feels comfortably distant from the mystical Sect. It also helps that the Movement stresses individualism within a structured framework, helping rogue Xiao cope with their newfound freedom. In turn, Xiao tend to do well within the Movement — as uniformly charismatic leaders, Apostates can quickly rise to positions of great responsibility despite suffering some social Stigmata because of their past.
The Lancea Sanctum is far less tolerant, but is still home to a small number of Xiao who have managed to turn their back on the Sect without losing their devotion. Sanctified Apostates bring their typical fiery Daeva passion into matters of religion, leaning toward the more mystical side of Longinus’s teachings. They’re more likely to meditate than to sermonize, and are generally more concerned with their own spiritual growth than with a covenant’s agenda. The Lancea Sanctum is prone to consider attachment to an individual Priest a liability rather than an asset. Consequently, Sanctified Apostates rarely reach any position of authority, despite their ability to effortlessly draw sizable followings.
So far, no Xiao is known to have joined The Ordo Dracul, The Circle of the Crone or The Invictus.
Organization: The Sectarian Xiao act much like a tight-knit charismatic cult, centered upon the bloodline founder, Xiao Jun Jie. As he created more childer, the founder sent them to other cities to spread the cult. Only a few were successful, though. Princes usually resent such intrusion on their domains and stomp out Sect cells with cold efficiency. No Xiao cell is known to exist in the American Midwest or on the East Coast.
Most Sectarian Xiao still reside on the West Coast, and all members in a given city share a Haven and form a coterie. The single largest Xiao cell is located in California, where the bloodline founder resides. Some other West Coast states also boast a Xiao cell, usually consisting of one Kindred cell leader, two to four other coterie members, either vampires or Ghouls, and at least 10 or 20 human followers. These independent cells often have something in common with the main Californian cult, but they also reflect their local leaders’ personalities to some degree. A few work like secretive, paranoid militias; others have closer ties with organized crime and run extensive drug and prostitution rings under the religious faÁade. Regardless, all cult members are expected to show absolute loyalty to their cell leader.
Rogue Xiao don’t usually keep any ties with members of their bloodline. A few crusading Apostates, though, have taken upon themselves the duty to help others escape the Sect. Over time, informal rings of Apostates have sprung up in a few cities. These loose affiliations provide each other with counsel and mutual protection, but have little in the way of formal organization, and most are rarely willing to trust any member of the line they don’t already know.

Nickname: The Sect (members of the bloodline in good standing) or Apostates (rogue Xiao)

Parent ethnicities

• Daeva

Character Creation: As with all Daeva, Xiao favor Social Attributes and Skills. Furthermore, they all excel at Intimidation and Persuasion and receive at least some training in Academics and Occult. The Striking Looks Merit is a given for any Xiao, and Sect members should invest some dots in Herd and a communal Haven.
Bloodline Disciplines: Celerity, Kingjan, Majesty, Vigor
Weakness: All of the Xiao suffer the weakness of the Daeva, their parent clan.
In addition, Xiao Jun Jie’s psychosis has twisted the blood of his line. All members of the Xiao are sociopaths, and do not experience the normal range of human emotion. They suffer a –2 dice penalty on all rolls involving Empathy, Expression and Socialize. Any time the Xiao is involved in circumstances that demand a display of compassion or remorse, he becomes irritable instead. If the circumstance persists, he may have to test for a frustration rage frenzy (requiring three successes on a Resolve + Composure roll to resist).
Concepts: Doomsday preacher, spoiled socialite, angstridden runaway teen, frustrated writer, ex-cult member, paranoid militiaman, commune leader, conspiracy theorist, jaded polygamist, abusive office boss.