History Characters / VampireTheMasquerade

* PrimalPolymorphs: Ennoia, the Gangrel Antediluvian. Even before she was Embraced, she is said to have grown up as a WildChild abandoned by her mother and literally RaisedByWolves (at least in one version of the story). As a vampire, she is often depicted as a wild and sometimes even monstrous figure made all the more ominous for being the undisputed master of Protean. [[spoiler: Taken to the logical conclusion in the ''Gehenna'' scenario "The Crucible Of God," in which Ennoia has gained such mastery in Protean that she manifests entirely as ''the ground beneath people's feet...'' and she's so alien and so ''hungry'' that she can't even operate on a vaguely human level, instead simply levelling cities with Protean so she can feast on the vampires inside.]]

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. There is only one explicitly female Antediluvian, the Gangrel's, but some others might be female. The Brujah Antediluvian has an ambiguous gender and the Toreador Antediluvian is most likely but not definitely a woman. [[spoiler: Malkav is male but during Gehenna appears in the form of a hive minded horde of extremely creepy girls.]]

* ThatThingIsNotMyChild: Absimiliard, the Nosferatu Antediluvian, absolutely ''despises'' his Clan and seeks to wipe them out entirely, typically through sending Nos-hunting monsters called Niktuku after them. Half of the reason the Nosferatu made [=SchreckNet=] was to keep track on Niktuku sightings to help better protect themselves from the wrath of their collective sire. [[spoiler:This is because Absimiliard is scare shitless of Caine's wrath after the 3rd Generation were ordered to keep their numbers and generations low in the wake of the fall of the First City, and his first childe Baba Yaga went rogue and founded an entire clan to spite him for Embracing her. The Niktuku are a bloodline specifically sired by Absimiliard to annihilate his wayward childer, and he considers ''them'' to be his true clan and not the Nosferatu.]]
* TokenGoodTeammate: Haqim is the only one of the Antediluvians who doesn't abuse his children and in the Gehenna scenario where all the antediluvians start a vampire apocalypse, he's one of the few to rule with justice over vampire and human alike. Saulot was downright saintly when first introduced, but DependingOnTheAuthor varies ''dramatically''.

* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: Tremere and Augustus Giovanni are technically not Antediluvians (literally "before TheGreatFlood") since they simply diablerized Saulot and Cappadocius. [[spoiler:Giovanni finds out the hard way in Gehenna that death does not come easy to such godlike vampires; As for Tremere, he's already discovered this the hard way and has been dealing with the consequences of his actions for close to a millennium.]]

* ThatThingIsNotMyChild: Absimiliard, the Nosferatu Antediluvian, absolutely ''despises'' his Clan and seeks to wipe them out entirely, typically through sending Nos-hunting monsters called Nicktuku after them. Half of the reason the Nosferatu made [=SchreckNet=] was to keep track on Nicktuku sightings to help better protect themselves from the wrath of their collective sire.

* GenderBender: [[spoiler: Malkav was male while human but during Gehenna takes on the form of a group of extremely creepy young girls connected by his HiveMind.]]

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler: Many of the Antediluvians get this. For example, the Eldest is obliterated by [[BoltOfDivineRetribution the power of God]].]]

* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: The awakening of the Ravnos Antediluvian led to drastic changes across every existing gameline, effectively ended TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion, and indirectly created three new gamelines.

* RealAfterAll: Obviously the Antediluvians eventually turn out to be very real. ''The Week of Nightmares'' had the Ravnos founder Zapathasura wake up and start raining death and destruction. This was such a big event that the [[TabletopGame/KindredOfTheEast Kuei-jin]] sent their strongest warriors while [[TabletopGame/MageTheAscension the Technocracy]] authorized [[GodzillaThreshold Code: Ragnarok]] just to stop him.

The further a vampire is removed from Caine, the more their vitae is diluted, and the less his curse seem to affect them. This is especially true for the so-called "Thin-Blood", also known as "the Duskborn", who are considered the furthest removed from him. Some Kindred, however, would claim that they are actually doubly cursed, as they occupy a quite uncomfortable spot in the merciless hierarchy of Cainite society, as they are definitely not human, having the exact same hunger for blood as any other Kindred, but they are not considered full-fledged vampires either; their powers often being nothing but pale imitations of those of their sire, and they themselves (by all appearances) entirely lack the ability to sire Childer. This has frequently caused their persecution at the hands of superstitious Elders throughout history, as their very presence is often interpreted as a bad omen. As a consequence, it is often hard to separate fact from fiction when it comes to the Thin-Bloods, as they are only very sparsely studied by Kindred scholars, and many things about them are poorly understood at best. Amongst the most frequent rumors are that they are capable of walking in sunlight, are less dependent on blood, still physically age (albeit at a remarkably slower rate), have a heartbeat, the need to breathe, and the ability to eat and digest food without any problems. Most controversial is that they have been proven to be able to father and, even more rarely, give birth to children, both with each other, but also with regular humans; such offspring are known as "dhampirs", and their nature is considered an even greater mystery than that of their parents.

* MonsterProgenitor: Clan Progenitor, rather. For turning against and killing the Second Generation, Caine cursed each of them with a curse that would become each clan's signature flaw.

* TookALevelInBadass: In V5, where they renamed themselves the Duskborn, developed their own unique form of magic which lets them steal Disciplines from others and began taking advantage of their DaywalkingVampire characteristics to become a major force in the rising Anarch movement.

* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: Tremere and Augustus Giovanni are technically not Antediluvians (literally "before TheGreatFlood") since they simply diablerized Saulot and Cappadocius. [[spoiler:They find out the hard way in Gehenna that death does not come easy to such godlike vampires.]]

* AmbiguousGender: In the "Nightshade" scenario of ''Gehenna: The Final Night'', the Toreador Antediluvian is described as "so beautiful even that it is impossible to tell its gender."

* AssimilationPlot: [[spoiler: The Tzimisce Antediluvian's end goal in "The Crucible of God" scenario from ''Gehenna: The Final Night'' involves turning every vampire ''and'' human in the world into an extension of his own body.]]

* BeneathNotice: Thin-Bloods might be considered "weaker" vampires, but this is also potentially their biggest asset. As they are more life-like in general than "normal" vampires, they are also less likely to set off the [[invoked]] UncannyValley response that fully-fledged vampires are normally met with, allowing them to have a much easier time blending in amongst humans, and their potential to be {{Daywalking Vampire}}s also makes it much easier for them to maintain a convincing civilian cover identity and avoid the attention of vampire hunters. Elder vampires also tend to dismiss at them as non-threats due to their weakened mastery of Disciplines, and such they often end up severely underestimating the danger they can potentially represent.

* SmurfettePrinciple: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. There is only one explicitly female Antediluvian, the Gangrel's, but some others might be female. The Brujah Antediluvian has an ambiguous gender and the Toreador Antediluvian is most likely but not definitely a woman. [[spoiler: Malkav is male but during Gehenna appears in the form of a hive minded horde of extremely creepy girls.]]

* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: Tremere and Augustus Giovanni are technically not Antediluvians (literally 'before TheGreatFlood') since they simply Diablerized Saulot and Cappadocius. [[spoiler:They find out the hard way in Gehenna that death does not come easy to such godlike vampires.]]

* DaywalkingVampire: Thin-Bloods only take limited damage from sunlight and are often able to wake up during early dusk and can even stay awake a bit past dawn. A selected few Thin-Bloods, the so-called "Day Drinkers", can even walk around outside in daylight without experiencing any major discomfort, though they are still WeakenedByTheLight, losing access to their powers as long as the sun is out. And even Thin-Bloods also need to keep up with their supernatural sleep.

* PowerAtAPrice: Downplayed. Thin-Bloods doesn't have all the strengths of a "true" Vampire, but they tend have severely diminished versions of their weaknesses, and might even entirely lack some of them. Most notably, while the majority of Thin-Bloods have weaker versions of their sire's Disciplines, they just as often doesn't have their clan weaknesses either.

* TookALevelInBadass: In V5, where they renamed themselves the Duskborn, developed their own unique form of magic which lets them steal Disciplines from others and began taking advantage of their DayWalkingVampire characteristics to become a major force in the rising Anarch movement.

The further a vampire is removed from Caine, the more their vitae is diluted, and the less his curse seem to affect them. This is especially true for the so-called "Thin-Blood", also known as "the Duskborn", who are considered the furthest removed from him. Some Kindred, however, would claim that they are actually doubly cursed, as they occupy a quite uncomfortable spot in the merciless hierarchy of Cainite society, as they are definitely not human, having the exact same hunger for blood as any other Kindred, but they are not considered full-fledged vampires either; their powers often being nothing but pale imitations of those of their sire, and they themselves (by all appearances) entirely lack the ability to sire Childer. This has frequently caused their persecution at the hands of superstitious Elders throughout history, as their very presence is often interpreted as a bad omen. As a consequence, it is often hard to separate from fiction when it comes to the Thin-Bloods, as they are only very sparsely studied by Kindred scholars, and many things about them are poorly understood at best. Amongst the most frequent rumors are that they are capable of walking in sunlight, are less dependent on blood, still physically age (albeit at a remarkably slower rate), have a heartbeat, the need to breathe, and the ability to eat and digest food without any problems. Most controversial is that they have been proven to be able to father and, even more rarely, give birth to children, both with each other, but also with regular humans; such offspring are known as "dhampirs", and their nature is considered an even greater mystery than that of their parents.

* [[Characters/VampireTheMasqueradeCharactersCamarilla Camarilla Clans]]
* [[Characters/VampireTheMasqueradeSabbat Sabbat Clans]]

The further a vampire is removed from Caine, the less his curse seem to affect them. This is especially true for the so-called "Thin-Blood", also known "the Duskborn", who are considered the furthest removed from him. Some Kindred, however, would claim that they are actually doubly cursed, as they occupy a quite uncomfortable spot in the merciless hierarchy of Cainite society, as they are definitely not human, having the exact same hunger for blood as any other Kindred, but they are not considered full-fledged vampires either; their powers often being nothing but pale imitations of those of their sire, and they themselves (by all appearances) entirely lack the ability to sire Childer. This has frequently caused their persecution at the hands of superstitious Elders throughout history, as their very presence is often interpreted as a bad omen. As a consequence, it is often hard to separate from fiction when it comes to the Thin-Bloods, as they are only very sparsely studied by Kindred scholars, and are often misunderstood as a consequence. Amongst the most frequent rumors are that they are capable of walking in sunlight, is less dependent on blood, and still physically age (albeit at a remarkably slower rate), have a heartbeat, the need to breathe, and the ability to eat and digest food without any problems. Most controversial is that they have been proven to be able to sire and give birth to children, both with each other, but also regular humans; such offspring are known as "dhampirs", and their nature is considered an even greater mystery than that of their parents.

* TokenGoodTeammate: Haqim is the only one of the Antediluvians who doesn't abuse his children and in the Gehenna scenario where all the antediluvians start a vampire apocalypse, he's one of the few to rule with justice over vampire and human alike.