Post by Annabelle Devonshire on May 17, 2020 3:52:33 GMT -5
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A dhampir is a thing that Cainites believed could never happen: the offspring of a mortal and a vampire. Camarilla and Sabbat, elder and neonate, they all knew that their true blood ties came by adoption, through the Embrace. They knew that life never comes from the undead. Vampires have childer, not children.
But then, they never had 15th-generation vampires before, either.
Vampires can’t have sex - not really. They only go through the emotions, usually as a ploy to take blood while their partner is distracted by passion. Only the taste of blood gives Kindred pleasure. A male vampire does not produce sperm, and a female vampire does not receive it… except in the 15th Generation.
These vampire still get no great pleasure from sex, but sometimes the reflexes of life kick in and the reproductive system starts working again. A male vampire might ejaculate - and his seed will be fertile. His surprise, however, is nothing compared to the female vampire who learns that her mortal, male lover has gotten her pregnant.
In the Last Generation of Caine, therefore, the curse has taken a final, ironic twist. The weakest of vampires have a power denied to even the mightiest of their race - the power to create new life.
Even under the best conditions, such pregnancies only have a 50 percent chance of carrying to term. Half the time, the fetus miscarries and dies. Surviving children are a mixture of mortal and vampiric traits: a dhampir. Like a vampire, they convert blood into vitae. Like a mortal, however, they make their own blood. They have Disciplines, although a dhampir cannot normally master them beyond the first level. They can have mortal children of their own; sunlight does not harm them. Although they have a Beast that can drive them to frenzy, their difficulty to resist frenzy is always less than they would be for a vampire in the same situation.
Similar creatures already exist in the World of Darkness. When ghouls have children who are themselves ghouled from the womb, after a few generations the power of vitae becomes fixed in their blood. Such “revenants,” however, are confined to a few freakish families - all of them thoroughly dominated by vampires (chiefly the Tzimisce clan). Elder vampires could ignore them, and have done so for centuries. Few in the Camarilla have even heard of revenants.
Most revenants grow up surrounded by vampires, ghouls and other revenants. They barely know the mundane world exists. Dhampirs, on the other hand, usually grow up in relatively normal surroundings, in the company of mortals.
Quite possibly, the dhampir knows nothing of the secret World of Darkness. But she’ll find out…
Few things could surprise an elder more, by its mere existence, than a dhampir. The withered tree of Caine has borne living fruit. Is it a sign from God? Will dhampirs develop abilities no one can guess, like their thin-blooded parents? Will they breed true and spread vampiric powers throughout the mortal populace? The World of Darkness will never be the same.
Role
To the Kindred, dhampirs are the ultimate x-factor. Millennia of Kindred tradition says that such creatures could not exist. Dhampirs are still so rare that most vampires have never heard of them, unless one actually shows up in the neighbourhood. Even then, the vampires might take a long time to recognise the dhampir for what it is. At first, they may well mistake it for a masterless ghoul. Thus, dhampirs have no stereotyped role among the clans and sects.
One can easily predict some common reactions to dhampirs, though. Some vampires will hate and fear them, as they might hate and fear any new thing. (This reaction seems especially plausible for Sabbat vampires. A dhampir challenges their belief in their absolute separation from humanity.) Other vampires might react with awe, perhaps seeing a dhampir as a sign of God’s forgiveness: The dead have given birth: the child has the powers of the Damned without their weaknesses (or so it might seem upon casual inspection). No doubt, many Kindred will insist that any dhampir is a fraud, just a ghoul with a hidden domitor, or some elaborate Malkavian deception. No doubt, others will completely miss the strangeness, and simply ponder how to exploit this new resource.
Dhampirs start off on the wrong foot in this world, and things never get any better.
To begin with, the birth of a half-vampire child generally comes as a great surprise to at least one of the parents. It may be greeted with elation or superstitious disgust, but never without fear. For a female vampire, motherhood adds burden and danger to an existence already filled to brimming with both. She may have a rough time of it physically - her undead body is hardly suited to the task. She’ll also have a lot of explaining to do if another vampire catches her in maternity wear! A Kindred father may believe that his lover has been unfaithful to him (after all, it can’t possibly be his); but if he knows better, he must face a terrible decision. Should he stay, take responsibility and accept whatever befalls him and his new family as a result… or should be abandon his own flesh and blood?
Nor is the human parent likely to have it any easier. Just loving a vampire, knowingly or unknowingly, is enough invitation to tragedy. The additional strain of raising a baby in an atmosphere so charged with pain and uncertainty can break even the strongest spirits. Furthermore, mortal mothers of dhampirs often develop life-threatening complications during pregnancy and labour (whether due to the clash of mortal and immortal vitae, or more mysterious factors); depressed immune functioning, haemorrhaging, toxemia, etc.
With so many perils, it’s all too easy for a dhampir to end up abandoned or orphaned at an early age. Dad runs off and Mom died at the hands of the scourge. Or Mom succumbs to drug addiction and Dad decides that his child will be happier “among normal people.” That is, assuming Dad was ever told about the baby in the first place. Even if the family is intact (for now), their prospects for domestic bliss are slim in the World of Darkness. For one reason or another, many dhampirs must learn their true nature on their own, while being passed from foster home to foster home, or holding down a minimum-wage job to feed themselves and an ailing grandmother, or serving their time for assault in a juvenile detention centre.
Self Discovery
If the thin-blooded are ignorant of their heritage, then how much more so are their mortal offspring? A dhampir’s occult legacy usually doesn’t manifest until the onset of puberty; in addition to all the usual tribulations of growing up, the child must face a second layer of transformation, far darker and infinitely more mysterious.
The process varies from individual to individual. Most simply become aware, sometime during their teens, of a special reserve of physical strength that they can call upon - instinctively at first, in times of stress. They may be afraid of this power and the feral pleasure that accompanies using it, or they may be delighted to discover such a useful weapon against a harsh world and immediately set about finding its limits. Other dhampirs bloom later. For them, mystical dabbling or a sudden encounter with a vampire might be what it takes to spark their hidden potential.
In any case, once a dhampir is fully awakened to her supernatural essence, she can never go back. The Blood forever alters her physically and mentally. Her aging slows to a crawl (which can be a real social disadvantage when it happens in early puberty). She gains a limited ability to learn vampiric Disciplines. She also gains an inner Beast, which, though mild compared to a vampire’s, is still strong enough to test her heart and will. In other words, she becomes biologically indistinguishable from a revenant.
The most important differences between dhampirs and revenants are cultural. Revenants grow up in a freakish, monstrous subculture of vampires and ghouls. Only quite unusual circumstances could lead to a revenant growing up among normal, contemporary humans. A dhampir probably spent most of her time among normal humans. She might not even know about her supernatural heritage. Learning about the secret World of Darkness may come as a bit of a shock.
Life as a Dhampir
Dhampirs come up with a great variety of justifications and strategies for dealing with their heritage. Some curse their undead parent and seek to slay him, hoping that such action can cleanse them of their own darkness; others express their hostility in a more general fashion by becoming hunters. Some decide that they must be irrevocably tainted with evil and set about finding a dark power worthy of their servitude. (Stories have begun to circulate in Mexico City about a dhampir who firmly believes himself to be the Antichrist.) Many are either unaware of their vampiric ancestry or refuse to believe it, instead, they choose to see themselves as physic, enlightened or touched by a cruel deity.
A tiny number have enough contact with their vampiric parents to learn whatever they may know about the world of the undead (which usually isn’t much). This can be both good and bad. On one hand, the support of “someone who understands” can be of great help in weathering the disturbing changes wrought by Kindred vitae. On the other hand, if you’ve ever been embarrassed to let a friend meet Mom and Dad because they dress funny or make bad jokes…
Whatever the particulars, every dhampir must contend with the same dark legacy. Wielding the blood-strength is a source of exultant pleasure - a pale shadow of the vampiric Kiss, perhaps - but also of deadly temptation. Although dhampirs don’t need to feed as vampires do (in fact, most profess no taste at all for human blood), lost vitae replenishes itself only gradually, and the anaemic weakness and emotional letdown that result can be devastating. Some dhampirs become addicted to the rush of using their Disciplines and turn to powerful stimulants in an effort to reproduce it. Others discover a far more potent substitute: Kindred blood.
The Beast is an even greater thorn in a half-breed’s side. True, a dhampir doesn’t often encounter the sort of provocation that might bring about a homicidal rage; but it takes only one such incident to break up a romance, destroy a friendship or scuttle a promising career. And even petty annoyances can add up. When a 17-year-old dhampir drives home through gridlock traffic after a day of flunking his classes to find his girlfriend has cancelled their date and the cat’s puking on his bed, his rage may exceed anything he has ever known.
Dhampir and Kindred Society
Dhampirs are a new phenomenon in the World of Darkness. Although legends of half-vampires have circulated for centuries (indeed, in one Slavic village the entire population claims descent from a common vampire ancestor, and its citizens bear the name Lampijerovic - “little vampire” - in testament to that belief), such stories have been almost universally dismissed as folk tales. Nevertheless, for all the scoffing, some Kindred remain fascinated with the idea - particularly those who died before they could satisfy their longing for a family of their own. Secretly, lest they incur the scorn of their fellows, the experiment with the various methods prescribed by myth: charms, relics, dark Tremere arts, pacts with the devil, even true love. All to no avail.
Now, suddenly, plain old-fashioned sex appears to be doing the trick for some. The existence of the dhampir is still contested by cynics, who suspect some kind of millennial hoax, but to those who have an inkling of thin-blooded oddities, the idea is all too plausible.
At present, a dhampir who falls into the clutches of a full vampire will most likely be mistaken for a revenant or a masterless ghoul - hardly cause for joy, perhaps, but good fortune indeed compared to the lot of the dhampir who is recognised for what she truly is. To Camarilla vampires, she is the ultimate Masquerade breach: an elemental and irrevocable mingling of Kindred and kine. To vampires of a scientific bent, particularly Tremere and Tzimisce, she is also an intriguing development in Kindred biology, and thus a prime subject for experimentation (her parents can expect to attract such interest as well, since they obviously must be unusual specimens themselves). To Sabbat and other die-hard Noddists, she is an ominous portent of doom - which may not be her fault, but killing the messenger is as honoured a tradition among vampires as among mortals.
A few Kindred, mostly elders who matured in times of greater religious faith, might take a more enlightened view of her emergence. To them, the spectacle of true life issuing from the withered loins of a vampire can only mean one thing: God is forgiving, and He has sent this miracle to show the Cainites that redemption is possible even for their cursed race. They may well honour her as a sort of living relic. But these Kindred are the ones she should fear most of all; a reluctant messiah is a perilous thing to be, and the same fanatics who appoint her High Priestess of their Gehenna cult tonight might decide tomorrow that she looks better atop the altar than behind it.
All dhampir possess the following traits…
Like ghouls, dhampirs start play with one dot of Potence for free. They can also have one dot in any other common vampiric Discipline. Character concept should guide the choice: A self-taught dhampir will probably develop a Discipline that fits his or her personality and needs, whereas a dhampir with a vampiric Mentor could learn one of the Mentor’s Disciplines.
Dhampirs make their own weak vitae. They have 10 blood points of vitae, which they regenerate at a rate of 1 blood point per day. (A dhampir can also drink vampiric vitae to regain expended blood points more quickly, or to replace some of its own blood points with more potent vitae. A dhampir who has at least one blood point of true vampiric vitae in his veins is also technically a ghoul. A dhampir does not gain any extra powers from being a ghoul, except for the potential to learn higher-level Discipline powers.)
Unlike a vampire, a dhampir‘s blood pool score has nothing to do with the amount of fluid in her veins. Instead dhampir “blood points” are purely supernatural. Dhampirs who spend every last blood point don‘t lose a single drop of physical blood, though they may show symptoms of anemia. They‘re merely exhausted, both physically and supernaturally. In a few days, the blood will regain its supernatural “charge” and become vitae again.
Dhampirs have the standard abilities of ghouls. They can use soak lethal and bashing damage, but not aggravated damage. They may expend blood points to raise their strength, dexterity or stamina, or to heal wounds. A dhampir can even try to regenerate a severed limb. Dhampirs cannot make blood bonds, create ghouls or sire vampiric childer; nor must they expend blood points just to stay active.
A dhampir may also frenzy, however. Dhampirs resist frenzy more easily than vampires can, but it still happens from time to time. Living in the thick of human society, with all its frustrations, a dhampir risks frenzy far more often than most vampires ever will.
© Copyright White Wolf Publishing, Inc.
Way of the Dhampir
------------------------------
A dhampir is a thing that Cainites believed could never happen: the offspring of a mortal and a vampire. Camarilla and Sabbat, elder and neonate, they all knew that their true blood ties came by adoption, through the Embrace. They knew that life never comes from the undead. Vampires have childer, not children.
But then, they never had 15th-generation vampires before, either.
Vampires can’t have sex - not really. They only go through the emotions, usually as a ploy to take blood while their partner is distracted by passion. Only the taste of blood gives Kindred pleasure. A male vampire does not produce sperm, and a female vampire does not receive it… except in the 15th Generation.
These vampire still get no great pleasure from sex, but sometimes the reflexes of life kick in and the reproductive system starts working again. A male vampire might ejaculate - and his seed will be fertile. His surprise, however, is nothing compared to the female vampire who learns that her mortal, male lover has gotten her pregnant.
In the Last Generation of Caine, therefore, the curse has taken a final, ironic twist. The weakest of vampires have a power denied to even the mightiest of their race - the power to create new life.
Even under the best conditions, such pregnancies only have a 50 percent chance of carrying to term. Half the time, the fetus miscarries and dies. Surviving children are a mixture of mortal and vampiric traits: a dhampir. Like a vampire, they convert blood into vitae. Like a mortal, however, they make their own blood. They have Disciplines, although a dhampir cannot normally master them beyond the first level. They can have mortal children of their own; sunlight does not harm them. Although they have a Beast that can drive them to frenzy, their difficulty to resist frenzy is always less than they would be for a vampire in the same situation.
Similar creatures already exist in the World of Darkness. When ghouls have children who are themselves ghouled from the womb, after a few generations the power of vitae becomes fixed in their blood. Such “revenants,” however, are confined to a few freakish families - all of them thoroughly dominated by vampires (chiefly the Tzimisce clan). Elder vampires could ignore them, and have done so for centuries. Few in the Camarilla have even heard of revenants.
Most revenants grow up surrounded by vampires, ghouls and other revenants. They barely know the mundane world exists. Dhampirs, on the other hand, usually grow up in relatively normal surroundings, in the company of mortals.
Quite possibly, the dhampir knows nothing of the secret World of Darkness. But she’ll find out…
Few things could surprise an elder more, by its mere existence, than a dhampir. The withered tree of Caine has borne living fruit. Is it a sign from God? Will dhampirs develop abilities no one can guess, like their thin-blooded parents? Will they breed true and spread vampiric powers throughout the mortal populace? The World of Darkness will never be the same.
Role
To the Kindred, dhampirs are the ultimate x-factor. Millennia of Kindred tradition says that such creatures could not exist. Dhampirs are still so rare that most vampires have never heard of them, unless one actually shows up in the neighbourhood. Even then, the vampires might take a long time to recognise the dhampir for what it is. At first, they may well mistake it for a masterless ghoul. Thus, dhampirs have no stereotyped role among the clans and sects.
One can easily predict some common reactions to dhampirs, though. Some vampires will hate and fear them, as they might hate and fear any new thing. (This reaction seems especially plausible for Sabbat vampires. A dhampir challenges their belief in their absolute separation from humanity.) Other vampires might react with awe, perhaps seeing a dhampir as a sign of God’s forgiveness: The dead have given birth: the child has the powers of the Damned without their weaknesses (or so it might seem upon casual inspection). No doubt, many Kindred will insist that any dhampir is a fraud, just a ghoul with a hidden domitor, or some elaborate Malkavian deception. No doubt, others will completely miss the strangeness, and simply ponder how to exploit this new resource.
Dhampirs start off on the wrong foot in this world, and things never get any better.
To begin with, the birth of a half-vampire child generally comes as a great surprise to at least one of the parents. It may be greeted with elation or superstitious disgust, but never without fear. For a female vampire, motherhood adds burden and danger to an existence already filled to brimming with both. She may have a rough time of it physically - her undead body is hardly suited to the task. She’ll also have a lot of explaining to do if another vampire catches her in maternity wear! A Kindred father may believe that his lover has been unfaithful to him (after all, it can’t possibly be his); but if he knows better, he must face a terrible decision. Should he stay, take responsibility and accept whatever befalls him and his new family as a result… or should be abandon his own flesh and blood?
Nor is the human parent likely to have it any easier. Just loving a vampire, knowingly or unknowingly, is enough invitation to tragedy. The additional strain of raising a baby in an atmosphere so charged with pain and uncertainty can break even the strongest spirits. Furthermore, mortal mothers of dhampirs often develop life-threatening complications during pregnancy and labour (whether due to the clash of mortal and immortal vitae, or more mysterious factors); depressed immune functioning, haemorrhaging, toxemia, etc.
With so many perils, it’s all too easy for a dhampir to end up abandoned or orphaned at an early age. Dad runs off and Mom died at the hands of the scourge. Or Mom succumbs to drug addiction and Dad decides that his child will be happier “among normal people.” That is, assuming Dad was ever told about the baby in the first place. Even if the family is intact (for now), their prospects for domestic bliss are slim in the World of Darkness. For one reason or another, many dhampirs must learn their true nature on their own, while being passed from foster home to foster home, or holding down a minimum-wage job to feed themselves and an ailing grandmother, or serving their time for assault in a juvenile detention centre.
Self Discovery
If the thin-blooded are ignorant of their heritage, then how much more so are their mortal offspring? A dhampir’s occult legacy usually doesn’t manifest until the onset of puberty; in addition to all the usual tribulations of growing up, the child must face a second layer of transformation, far darker and infinitely more mysterious.
The process varies from individual to individual. Most simply become aware, sometime during their teens, of a special reserve of physical strength that they can call upon - instinctively at first, in times of stress. They may be afraid of this power and the feral pleasure that accompanies using it, or they may be delighted to discover such a useful weapon against a harsh world and immediately set about finding its limits. Other dhampirs bloom later. For them, mystical dabbling or a sudden encounter with a vampire might be what it takes to spark their hidden potential.
In any case, once a dhampir is fully awakened to her supernatural essence, she can never go back. The Blood forever alters her physically and mentally. Her aging slows to a crawl (which can be a real social disadvantage when it happens in early puberty). She gains a limited ability to learn vampiric Disciplines. She also gains an inner Beast, which, though mild compared to a vampire’s, is still strong enough to test her heart and will. In other words, she becomes biologically indistinguishable from a revenant.
The most important differences between dhampirs and revenants are cultural. Revenants grow up in a freakish, monstrous subculture of vampires and ghouls. Only quite unusual circumstances could lead to a revenant growing up among normal, contemporary humans. A dhampir probably spent most of her time among normal humans. She might not even know about her supernatural heritage. Learning about the secret World of Darkness may come as a bit of a shock.
Life as a Dhampir
Dhampirs come up with a great variety of justifications and strategies for dealing with their heritage. Some curse their undead parent and seek to slay him, hoping that such action can cleanse them of their own darkness; others express their hostility in a more general fashion by becoming hunters. Some decide that they must be irrevocably tainted with evil and set about finding a dark power worthy of their servitude. (Stories have begun to circulate in Mexico City about a dhampir who firmly believes himself to be the Antichrist.) Many are either unaware of their vampiric ancestry or refuse to believe it, instead, they choose to see themselves as physic, enlightened or touched by a cruel deity.
A tiny number have enough contact with their vampiric parents to learn whatever they may know about the world of the undead (which usually isn’t much). This can be both good and bad. On one hand, the support of “someone who understands” can be of great help in weathering the disturbing changes wrought by Kindred vitae. On the other hand, if you’ve ever been embarrassed to let a friend meet Mom and Dad because they dress funny or make bad jokes…
Whatever the particulars, every dhampir must contend with the same dark legacy. Wielding the blood-strength is a source of exultant pleasure - a pale shadow of the vampiric Kiss, perhaps - but also of deadly temptation. Although dhampirs don’t need to feed as vampires do (in fact, most profess no taste at all for human blood), lost vitae replenishes itself only gradually, and the anaemic weakness and emotional letdown that result can be devastating. Some dhampirs become addicted to the rush of using their Disciplines and turn to powerful stimulants in an effort to reproduce it. Others discover a far more potent substitute: Kindred blood.
The Beast is an even greater thorn in a half-breed’s side. True, a dhampir doesn’t often encounter the sort of provocation that might bring about a homicidal rage; but it takes only one such incident to break up a romance, destroy a friendship or scuttle a promising career. And even petty annoyances can add up. When a 17-year-old dhampir drives home through gridlock traffic after a day of flunking his classes to find his girlfriend has cancelled their date and the cat’s puking on his bed, his rage may exceed anything he has ever known.
Dhampir and Kindred Society
Dhampirs are a new phenomenon in the World of Darkness. Although legends of half-vampires have circulated for centuries (indeed, in one Slavic village the entire population claims descent from a common vampire ancestor, and its citizens bear the name Lampijerovic - “little vampire” - in testament to that belief), such stories have been almost universally dismissed as folk tales. Nevertheless, for all the scoffing, some Kindred remain fascinated with the idea - particularly those who died before they could satisfy their longing for a family of their own. Secretly, lest they incur the scorn of their fellows, the experiment with the various methods prescribed by myth: charms, relics, dark Tremere arts, pacts with the devil, even true love. All to no avail.
Now, suddenly, plain old-fashioned sex appears to be doing the trick for some. The existence of the dhampir is still contested by cynics, who suspect some kind of millennial hoax, but to those who have an inkling of thin-blooded oddities, the idea is all too plausible.
At present, a dhampir who falls into the clutches of a full vampire will most likely be mistaken for a revenant or a masterless ghoul - hardly cause for joy, perhaps, but good fortune indeed compared to the lot of the dhampir who is recognised for what she truly is. To Camarilla vampires, she is the ultimate Masquerade breach: an elemental and irrevocable mingling of Kindred and kine. To vampires of a scientific bent, particularly Tremere and Tzimisce, she is also an intriguing development in Kindred biology, and thus a prime subject for experimentation (her parents can expect to attract such interest as well, since they obviously must be unusual specimens themselves). To Sabbat and other die-hard Noddists, she is an ominous portent of doom - which may not be her fault, but killing the messenger is as honoured a tradition among vampires as among mortals.
A few Kindred, mostly elders who matured in times of greater religious faith, might take a more enlightened view of her emergence. To them, the spectacle of true life issuing from the withered loins of a vampire can only mean one thing: God is forgiving, and He has sent this miracle to show the Cainites that redemption is possible even for their cursed race. They may well honour her as a sort of living relic. But these Kindred are the ones she should fear most of all; a reluctant messiah is a perilous thing to be, and the same fanatics who appoint her High Priestess of their Gehenna cult tonight might decide tomorrow that she looks better atop the altar than behind it.
All dhampir possess the following traits…
Like ghouls, dhampirs start play with one dot of Potence for free. They can also have one dot in any other common vampiric Discipline. Character concept should guide the choice: A self-taught dhampir will probably develop a Discipline that fits his or her personality and needs, whereas a dhampir with a vampiric Mentor could learn one of the Mentor’s Disciplines.
Dhampirs make their own weak vitae. They have 10 blood points of vitae, which they regenerate at a rate of 1 blood point per day. (A dhampir can also drink vampiric vitae to regain expended blood points more quickly, or to replace some of its own blood points with more potent vitae. A dhampir who has at least one blood point of true vampiric vitae in his veins is also technically a ghoul. A dhampir does not gain any extra powers from being a ghoul, except for the potential to learn higher-level Discipline powers.)
Unlike a vampire, a dhampir‘s blood pool score has nothing to do with the amount of fluid in her veins. Instead dhampir “blood points” are purely supernatural. Dhampirs who spend every last blood point don‘t lose a single drop of physical blood, though they may show symptoms of anemia. They‘re merely exhausted, both physically and supernaturally. In a few days, the blood will regain its supernatural “charge” and become vitae again.
Dhampirs have the standard abilities of ghouls. They can use soak lethal and bashing damage, but not aggravated damage. They may expend blood points to raise their strength, dexterity or stamina, or to heal wounds. A dhampir can even try to regenerate a severed limb. Dhampirs cannot make blood bonds, create ghouls or sire vampiric childer; nor must they expend blood points just to stay active.
A dhampir may also frenzy, however. Dhampirs resist frenzy more easily than vampires can, but it still happens from time to time. Living in the thick of human society, with all its frustrations, a dhampir risks frenzy far more often than most vampires ever will.
© Copyright White Wolf Publishing, Inc.