Characters / Vampire: The Masquerade - Extinct Clans and Bloodlines

"Extinct" Clans

Cappadocians

Known as Graverobbers, the Cappadocians were the original Clan of Death, scholars who sought to understand the secrets of death and undeath. In pursuit of that goal, they brought the Giovanni family into the clan - only to have Augustus Giovanni diablerise the Antediluvian, and the Giovanni wipe out the Cappadocians.

Weakness: The Cappadocians, being so close to death, experienced its ravaging effects even despite being animate. Over time, they grew increasingly corpse-like, making it hard for them to interact with mortals.

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• Absurdly Exclusive Recruiting Standards: The Cappadocians only Embraced individuals who could abide by the clan stereotype of the solemn, ascetic, death-obsessed scholar - not an easy thing to find in the Dark Ages. More to the point, this model was enforced by the Feast of Folly, in which anyone who couldn't live up to the standards of Cappadocius was sealed inside Kaymakli and left there for all eternity. They only point in which the clan relaxed their standards was with the venal necromancer Augustus Giovanni, who was a controversial choice within the Cappadocians. It didn't end well.
• Badass Bookworm: Scholarship was prized among the clan.
• Doomed by Canon: In any game set during The Dark Ages, where they are a playable clan, although the fate of individual Cappadocians may vary.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Some Graverobbers were prone to crippling and maddening prophetic visions which the Cappadocians who didn't deeply repress the traumatic memories identified as the eventual destruction of the entire clan. Cappadocians of Giovanni lineage were known to be strangely untouched by this phenomenon.
• God-Eating: Cappadocius received a vision which he interpreted to mean he should diablerise God, and sought to put it into practice.
• Necromancer: The secrets of death and undeath were their schtick.
• Not Quite Dead: More and more so in later books. The Samedi are implied to be survivors of the Cappadocians who escalated their clan weakness to better hide themselves from the Giovanni. The Mla Watu bloodline in Africa is also heavily implied to be splintered off from the Cappadocians. Then there are the Harbingers of Skulls... not to mention those rare few Cappadocians who survived without changing their blood. Cappadocius himself managed to survive Giovanni's attempt on his life and became a powerful disembodied spirit.
• Offing the Offspring: Cappadocius sealed forever thousands of his childer in what would be called the Feast of Folly, which essentially meant condemning many of them to death. He specifically did this to all those who cared little for knowledge or the Via Caeli. Not all of them died, and the survivors became the first Harbingers of Skulls.
• Proud Scholar Race: They were arguably the most passive (if not quite outright benevolent) of the clans. Needless to say, in the Classical World of Darkness, they, along with the Salubri, were (supposedly) wiped out first.
• Religious Vampire: Cappadocius himself was a priest before his Embrace and imparted his teachings upon his childer. They were the most avid followers of the Via Caeli/Road of Heaven, which allows them to suppress the Beast within them with their religious fervor for God. Back in the Dark Ages, the Cappadocians financed the construction of several European churches.
• Undeathly Pallor: Their clan flaw was an enhanced version of the one that afflicts most vampires - they can't even spend blood to temporarily appear alive. In some cases, it would progress to their bodies beginning to rot - this leads some of the older vampires to think that the Samedi and the Harbingers of Skulls are descended from the clan. The former might be, and the latter definitely are.

Salubri

Known as Unicorns, the Salubri were carers and protectors, divided into three castes: healers, warriors and watchers. They were the peacemakers in ancient times, before their founder, Saulot, was diablerized by Tremere in the 12th century. Following a massive smear campaign painting them as soul-sucking horrors, there are few healer Salubri left alive. Meanwhile, Adonai, a surviving warrior Salubri, was so angry at the Tremere that in order to seek his revenge he sided with the Sabbat and sired numerous childer to aid him. As such, there are about a hundred Salubri antitribu, who wield a corrupt form of the warrior caste's Valeren. Most of the watcher caste remains where it always has, hidden in the Far East seeking secrets.

Weakness: Healer Salubri could not bring harm to others; blood that was not willingly given did not nourish them at all. Warrior Salubri (and thus the antitribu) took the opposite path: they could not feed save by force, or by draining a fallen enemy.

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• Ascended Demon: Saulot himself, having reached Golconda; the surviving healer Salubri aspire to reach this state. Possibly subverted: Transylvania Chronicles has Saulot's written rant against Caine and his stating a desire to become the Demon King of the Sixth Age in Kuei-Jin cosmology. Metaplot flip flops on Saulot being good or evil depending on the book.
• Berserk Button: The warriors of the Salubri despise the Baali, and even gentle Saulot viewed them as an abomination. For diablerizing Saulot and branding them as outcasts, the Tremere are similarly loathed.
• Big Bad: Saulot admits his aspirations to be this in Transylvania Chronicles outright. Clanbook Salubri mentions perceptions of him being arrogant and haughty. Not to mention he created the Baali, hence why the Setites call him 'the Father of Demons'.
• Big Good: Saulot, in most interpretations of the character- including two out of the four Gehenna scenarios. A third, "Fair is Foul," reinterprets him as a Machiavellian schemer; he's still more benevolent than most Antediluvians, but a lot darker than he was when still in a state of Golconda.
• Defector from Decadence: Inverted - Adonai, burning with a need to punish the Tremere, defected to decadence by joining the Sabbat and founding the Salubri antitribu. Not quite accurate due to retconning. Adonai is likely the Adonai mentioned in Clan Book Salubri, the founder of the 'Vengeful' faction of warrior Salubri that existed in the Dark Ages. This would mean there was no defection, as he was likely never one of the 7 Healer Salubri that follow what was once the Path of Tears.
• Flaming Sword: A signature Valeren power from the Salubri clanbook lets a vampire coat any melee weapon with his blood, turning it into a blazing weapon that inflicts aggravated damage.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire:
  • The healers are likely to invoke this, as their weakness is that they lose health if they feed from an unwilling victim.
  • Subverted in their reputation as Soul-Stealers, which is not just Tremere slander, as proven by the Nkulu Zao bloodline. Although the Nkulu don’t represent the rest, and were only pushed into the desperation that led to the soul-stealing after the Tremere slandered the Salubri.
• Healing Hands: Obeah, the healers' signature discipline, can let them heal wounds (physical or psychological) or deal with pain.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: The Tremere smeared them as soul stealers.
• Inhuman Eye Concealers: The Third Eye is usually disguised as a scar when not active; however, one possible Flaw causes it to always remain open, forcing the character to hide it lest they be hunted down and killed by fellow vampires inspired by the Tremere clan's propaganda campaign.
• Mercy Kill: One of the abilities granted by Obeah. Euthanasia on its own wouldn't be that out of place for a clan of healers, but notably, doing this actually strengthens the Salubri, which certainly doesn't help the "soul stealer" stereotype. The warrior caste can also do this with one of the abilities granted by Valeren.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Armour of Caine's Fury and Fortitude can make the antitribu and Warrior Caste seem to possess this.
• Not Quite Dead: Although the Healer caste Salubri were mostly wiped out in Europe, a few of them managed to survive thanks to the Banu Haqim, who managed to save at least 7 Salubri, who've since rebuilt their clan. The Wu Zao remained unaffected and the Warrior caste was single-handedly revived by Adonai.
• The Purge: The entire European clan was a victim of this, courtesy of the Tremere and their allies. A few managed to escape but they remained well hidden from the Camarilla, so they latter are unaware of the Salubri's survival.
• Religious Vampire: Saulot was considered the Cainite most faithful to the Lord and as such he established the Road of Light to teach vampires how to control the Beast using religious devotion.
• Retcon:
  • Initially, the healers were the only Salubri, with the warriors, watchers, and antitribu being added later.
  • Whether or not Saulot is good or evil. Or both at different times.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Despite being near-extinct, the Salubri become ever-increasingly important in the metaplot, with Saulot being held as a messiah figure. Literally a messiah, in at least one plotline in Gehenna.
• Third Eye: This opens whenever a 2nd level or higher Discipline of the Obeah or Valeren discipline is used.
• Token Evil Teammate The 'Fallen Angels', Warrior Caste survivors, made demonic pacts in a case of Then Let Me Be Evil in order to avenge themselves upon the Tremere. Saulot himself might be able to hold this position among the Antediluvians due to him being one of the first Devil Tigers, and his aspirations of becoming the Demon Emperor, as he believes he'd do a better job.
• Token Good Teammate: To the entire vampiric race. They were even all but wiped out by the Tremere.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Possibly justified. Valeren/Obeah is implied via Kindred of the East to be a bastardised version of the Kuei-Jin Dragon Tears power that Saulot made after studying under Arhat Xue. Possibly Saulot himself or rather Zao-lat. Saulot may be nothing more than a mask hiding Zao-lat's true nature.
• What If?: V20 Dark Ages poses the question of what would happen if the Salubri reunified during the 13th century. The modern day setting would be one where the Sabbat is ascendant, headed by the Lasombra, Salubri and Tzimisce - and thanks to the Salubri presence, calmer and more philosophical than it currently is - while the Camarilla is limited to the American South and some European cities.

Bloodlines

Ahrimanes

An all-female bloodline that consisted entirely of female former Gangrel, the Ahrimanes began with a single Gangrel antitribu who renounced both sects and her own clan, altering her own vitae with unknown magic and becoming the first Ahrimane. These vampires were incapable of siring, but could turn other vampires into one of them.

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• Animal Eyes: A common form of the above; notably, their modern founder possessed cat-eyes as a result.
• Amazon Brigade: An all-woman bloodline who dressed for combat and did not shy away from violence.
• Beast Man: Not uncommon in the modern line, given that they were all former Gangrel, and any animal-like features incurred before becoming an Ahrimane would have gone unchanged.
• The Beastmaster: Left over from their Gangrel origins.
• Deep South: Most or all of the modern Ahrimanes made their havens in this part of the country.
• Does Not Like Men:
  • There were no male Ahrimanes, because the bloodline's founder had no interest in converting them. It's technically possible, but no one has ever done it.
  • Their Dark Ages predecessors would hunt down and kill a male Ahrimane and the female Ahrimane who sired him. Ahrimanes who were physically male but spiritually female, however, were accepted, favoring the spirit over the body.
• Fantastic Racism: In addition to their hatred against men, the modern Ahrimanes also disliked whites. They almost never Embraced white women, and often attacked whites unprovoked.
• Nature Spirit: Spiritus, the Ahrimanes' signature Discipline, allows the user to get in touch with these, from which vampires (being undead abominations) are usually barred.
• One-Gender Race: All Ahrimanes were female, although this is by choice rather than a requirement.
• Retcon: According to V20 Dark Ages, the modern Ahrimanes were the resurrection of a Dark Ages bloodline who traced their origin back to one of the Valkyrje. The Dark Ages bloodline, unlike their modern counterparts, were able to sire new childer.

Anda

A Gangrel bloodline who Embraced from the Mongols, seeing themselves as protectors of their mortal kin. Fell into decline after the death of Kublai Khan, and are believed extinct by the present day.

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• The Beastmaster: Animalism.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: More for pragmatic reasons than anything else, recognising the need to keep their tribe-cum-herd defended.
• Initiation Ceremony: Candidates for the Anda Embrace would be bathed in a river, a ritual funerary bathing in the Mongol tradition.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Fortitude.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Kept Protean as one of their bloodline disciplines.

Baali

Devoted almost entirely to the worship of demons and the spreading of carnage and corruption, the Baali are among the most twisted of all bloodlines. Their past is often mired in contradiction and myths: some stories state that they began with a rogue vampire calling upon demonic forces to wage war on the other clans; others claim they stem from an ancient cult devoted to appeasing a race of ancient demi-gods known as the Children; others still accuse Ashur or even Saulot of creating them.

They weren't always, though, according to the Cult of Moloch, the Baali who swore themselves to the True Black Hand. If you believe the Cult, the Baali, while never nice, originally wanted to keep their demonic patrons asleep by purging the infernal before it could wake them up. The Cult retains this mission, and thus, are experts at using the infernal to fight the infernal.

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• Anti-Hero: The Cult of Moloch are Creepy Good demonologists who pull off several of the same depravities their cousins do to keep the Children snoozing away the aeons, but they don't revel in them and wish humanity to thrive without Cain's influence.
• All Myths Are True: Huitzilopochtli, a God in the Aztec Pantheon, was, in fact, a Baali Methuselah, who to this day is in torpor beneath Mexico City. He's more Humanoid Abomination than kindred, complete with horns, vestigial wings, and stands at well over seven feet tall. He's Nergal. And he's achieved demonhood.
• Bee Afraid:
  • Inverted. The Cult of Moloch holds bees and wasps to be sacred animals and things to idolize in their particular Path of Enlightenment (the Path of the Hive). They're the nice Baali.
  • Played Straight with the Avatars of the Swarm, though; see Flies Equals Evil below. Of course, the Avatars of the Swarm aren't fans of the Destroyers, either.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: Sums up the whole paradigm between the Nergali Baali and the Molochim. The Nergali want to break the world by creating Hell on Earth, and are unapologetically evil, and damned proud of it. The Molochim, on the other hand, while still often using infernal powers themselves and more than willing to commit their own atrocities, realize how bad of an idea that is, and are hellbent on stopping the former, just as Moloch tried to stop Nergal himself in ancient times. Also unlike the Nergali, the atrocities the Molochim commit are done explicitly to keep the Children asleep, and are never done For the Evulz.
• The Corrupter: They attempt to corrupt the Camarilla and Sabbat to serve their masters, and if that doesn't work, kill them. The Cult of Moloch does the exact opposite, to it being a major sin in the Path of the Hive to not try to redeem an infernalist having second thoughts.
• Cross-Melting Aura: The "Unholy Aura" merit takes this trope to the extreme. Holy relics crumble in their touch, holy men and women flee in terror, and places of worship are corrupted to evil. This doesn't stop their clan flaw, however.
• Cryptic Background Reference: "The Unnamed," or the third progenitor of the Baali alongside Nergal and Moloch. Almost nothing is known about this kindred (including whether or not she's still even alive in modern nights), except that it's most likely a female, and the mere mention of her is a Berserk Button to both Moloch and Nergal. The Avatars of the Swarm are also believed to have been descended from her.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The Cult of Moloch isn't good either, but they are trying their best to defend the world from the infernal by safe use of the infernal.
• Deal with the Devil: Many of their powers stem from this.
• Devil Complex: The Celestials in particular practice infernalism not to serve demons, but to usurp them. Only two Baali in history, Nergal and Mary the Black, succeeded in this. Nergal in particular really plays this trope straight, referring to himself as "Shaitan" and "Huitzilopochtli."
• Devil in Plain Sight: They often pose as Tremere, helped by the fact their blood may well descend from Saulot.
• Eldritch Abomination: The Children; a cabal of primeval beings native to the darkness that existed prior to the creation of the world, they were almost wiped out by "Let There Be Light." Falling to the newly-created earth, the survivors burrowed into the earth and sealed themselves away there; eventually, humans discovered the sleeping monsters and began to worship them in the hopes of gaining some of their godlike power- up until they realized that doing so was actually bringing the Children dangerously close to wakefulness and The End of the World as We Know It. So, in a desperate attempt to lull them back to sleep - and keep drawing power from them without fear of death - their worshippers set about committing horrific acts of mass-murder and rape. According to the clanbook, the Baali are merely the latest in line to carry on their worship.
• Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: Averted wholesale. Aside from the fact that the Destroyer faction of the Baali are universally despised by the Celestials, Mysteries, and the Avatars of the Swarm (and the latter three aren't exactly friends, either), both Nergal and Moloch (as well as their respective childer) absolutely loathed each other, and tried to kill each other every chance they got. And then there's the third founder of the clan, 'the Unnamed,' of whom the very mention is a Berserk Button to both of them. Really, the only thing stopping the Baali from being perhaps the greatest threat in the entire World of Darkness is the fact that, despite years of purges by all of the other clans and sects, they still aren't unified as a bloodline, and spend more time fighting each other than they do everyone else.
• The Fettered: Moloch Baali tend to be this, and indeed the Path of the Hive they favor is quite strict about ethics.
• Flies Equals Evil: A particularly horrific Baali sect known as the Avatars of the Swarm embrace this trope wholeheartedly. They do not follow the Children or any of the other usual demonic entities that the Baali worship; instead, they devote themselves to the propagation of vast swarms of ghoul flies, even using human prisoners as incubators for the larvae. Favoured devotees are often haloed with clouds of insects (the Lord of the Flies flaw). Some members of the sect even make themselves into broodmothers for the swarms, allowing themselves to be used as incubators and ritualistically cutting themselves open to release the matured flies over and over again. As for the unique embrace for this particular sect... it requires an Orifice Invasion. In the introduction to the clanbook, the orifice of choice is the urethra. Enough said.
• Hated by All: The Giovanni are hated by everyone, but when it comes to the Baali, most everyone's policy is kill on sight. It's a measure of just how hated the Baali are that, in The Black Hand: A Guide to the Tal'Mahe'Ra, the Black Hand goes to extreme lengths, even by vampire standards, to ensure that the leader of the anti-infernalist faction is telling them the truth, including mentally and physically torturing him, thaumaturgically binding him, and ensuring that he and all the members of the faction are blood bound to patrons among the Black Hand, and even then there's still a good chunk of the Hand who want him killed painfully.
• Holy Burns Evil: The bloodline weakness; one way or another, they're particularly vulnerable to true faith, whether it's more effective against them or causes them more damage.
• Initiation Ceremony: Baali have arguably the most disturbing initiation ceremony of all clans or bloodlines. It starts with a prospective sire gathering a huge pit of decomposing corpses; then, a human heart will be filled with the sire's blood and buried at the very bottom of the pit; finally, the selected childer will be drained almost to death and flung into the pit. In order to survive, would-be-recruits have to crawl (or, depending on the consistency of the bodies, swim) through the corpses until they can find it and drain it. If they fail, they join the bodies mouldering in the pit.
• Join or Die: As disturbing as the Baali Initiation Ceremony is, it, ironically, makes the Baali the only bloodline or clan in the setting that routinely gives prospective childer the choice between death and the embrace.
• Mind Rape: The main build for most Baali characters tends to rely pretty heavily upon this. The one-dot ability of Daimonion, Sense the Sin, allows the Baali to learn an enemy's weakness, as well as traumatic incidents in their past, embarrassing secrets, their greatest fears, and the like. From there, the two dot ability, Fear of the Void Below allows one to exploit that weakness by speaking, which can induce anything from Rötscheck to catatonia, and the four dot ability, Psychomachia, creates a physical manifestation of whatever it is you learned with Sense the Sin, complete with the ability to harm its victim via Your Mind Makes It Real. Combine these abilities with Presence (another of the Baali's Clan Disciplines) for truly devastating results.
• Multiple-Choice Past: More so than most, even given the number of retcons over the line's history. Did they originate in the Second City or Ashur? Were they founded by a corrupt member of the Fourth Generation who turned to infernalism, or were they spawned by one of the Third Generation? If it was one of the Third Generation, was it Cappadocius, Saulot, the Tzimisce Antediluvian, or someone unknown? And how many 'original' Fourth Generation Baali were there - one, three, four, or thirteen?
  • The Baali's own take, as presented in the Baali clanbook and The Black Hand: A Guide to the Tal'Mahe'Ra, is that one of the Third Generation came to the Children-worshipping city of Ashur, and vastly displeased by the pettiness of their evil, massacred the whole city, tossing them into the well where they'd made their sacrifices to the Children. He then let some of his blood flow into the well, that some might be Embraced to remember his lesson, creating the first Baali. Even then, however, there are multiple versions of just what happened.
  • The Gehenna sourcebook states it was Saulot, which is in line with Clanbook Followers of Set Revised. V20 Black Hand, meanwhile, tags it as the Tzimisce Ante.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: The Black Hand: A Guide to the Tal'Mahe'Ra presents two factions of Baali: the Nergali infernalists everyone knows and hates, and the Moloch anti-infernalists, who are out to stop the infernalists from breaking the world, and are more than willing to eradicate them with extreme prejudice in order to do so. Neither side is good, both performing monstrous deeds in pursuit of their goals, but one side serves demons and the other side is hellbent on eliminating them.
• Red Right Hand: The "Touched From Beyond" flaw, in which the Baali's interaction with demonic forces begins to manifest on his body; this can range from the relatively subtle (warts, club feet, foul smell) to the obviously supernatural (rotting skin, additional limbs, or vestigial wings).
• Religion of Evil: Every faith espoused by the Nergali Bali. Subverted for the Moloch Baali, who worship Abel as an instrument of God and support personally good spirituality (though they hate organized religion, viewing it as inherently corrupted by Cain).
• Sealed Evil in a Can:
  • The Children, again. Unusually for this trope, virtually nobody, including most Baali, wants them unsealed.
  • Huitzilopochtli, a Baali Methuselah, lays in torpor beneath Mexico City (a major Sabbat stronghold). It's all but stated outright that he's actually Nergal himself, having achieved true demonhood.
• The Unfettered: Normal (Nergali) Baali morality is... not.

Blood Brothers

A Sabbat bloodline created by Tremere and Tzimisce sorcerers to serve as shock troops. They're created in batches via blood magic, as they're designed to be unable to Embrace. Their creation process removes much of any individuality or creativity they might have possessed - anyone who comes through with their personality remaining gets killed. They operate in groups, and have usually been fleshcrafted to look alike.

Weakness: Members of a given "circle" of Blood Brothers have their ability to share attributes and abilities taken to an unfortunate extreme - they share pain as well, causing one's wound penalties to be extended to all the others in their circle.

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• Body Horror: A frequent result of their discipline, Sanguinus, as it allows them to share body parts with each other.
  • Blob Monster: What a group of Blood Brothers can become with the highest level of Sanguinus. If left to their own devices, they will remain one forever.
• Creative Sterility: To the extent that it renders them Dumb Muscle.
• Dying Race: With the eradication of the Tremere antitribu, no more Blood Brothers can be made, and more die every night. Eventually, none will be left.
• Elite Mooks: A step up from the shovelheads the Sabbat normally use when they're unwilling to stick their own necks out.
• Hive Mind: Enabled by Sanguinus, letting the Brothers share their abilities and senses, and communicate with each other via telepathy.
• Magic Plastic Surgery: Typically receive this so they all look alike.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Fortitude.
• No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: With the death of the Tremere antitribu, no new ones can be created.
• Super-Strength: Potence.
• Synchronization: Their weakness; when one Blood Brother feels pain, they all feel it.
• Undying Loyalty: To their handlers, and to the Sabbat.

Bonsam

Once, there was a hunter who stumbled upon a darkness from before time. Seeking a material host, the darkness poured into the hunter, succeeding only in killing him... but the hunter rose again the next night as one of the undead, now animated by the darkness.

Such is the story of the first of the Bonsam, a Dark Ages African bloodline. However, the original hunter claims he never Embraced... which, if he's telling the truth, raises some interesting questions about the bloodline's origins.

The Bonsam themselves are typically lone hunters who are extremely territorial about their chosen domains, expecting vampiric trespassers to leave immediately.

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• The Hermit: Bonsam aren't the sociable type; even when they sire childer, they leave them on their own to learn the basics before approaching them. If the childe doesn't make it, they obviously weren't up to scratch.
• Invisibility: Having Obfuscate means they don't give their prey a chance to see them coming.
• Stealth Expert: Such that their epithets are "Stalkers" and "Unseen".
• Super-Strength: Potence.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Via the Abombwe Discipline.

Danava

The Danava are Indian "cousins" to the Ventrue (both claim the other to be descended from them). Priest-kings in their native lands, they seek to use their Thaumaturgy to attain some form of transcendence, becoming something greater.

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• A God Am I/Devil Complex: Some Danava claim to be asuras (demons) in human form. Others claim to be descendants of the goddess Danu. All seek transcendence of their mortal form.
• Blood Magic: Thaumaturgy.
• Charm Person: Like their "cousins", they're wielders of Dominate.
• The Fettered: The Danava abide by the order the gods have set down, and find the idea of breaking oaths to the gods utterly abhorrent.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Fortitude.

Daughters of Cacophony

An all-female bloodline of singers known as the Sirens. They do not work with either the Camarilla or Sabbat, and are disinterested in the Jyhad.

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• Amazon Brigade: They are mostly women.
• Beautiful Singing Voice: Sirens normally embrace women that already fit this trope, but even the rare untalented Fledglings will quickly grow into their voices.
• Brown Note: Can evoke this with their songs and their unique Discipline, Melpominee.
• Incessant Music Madness: Their weakness means they always hear music, making Perception rolls difficult.
• One-Gender Race:
  • Subverted; there is nothing preventing them from recruiting men, and during the Victorian era, they did. But the men all disappeared around Revised and they stopped embracing them after that. However, the V20 corebook leaves the possibility of male members of the bloodline open, and Lore of the Bloodlines confirms there are a few.
  • Fanon calls male members of the bloodline Sons of Discord, which became ascended fanon in Vampire: The Eternal Struggle and By Night Studio's Mind's Eye Theatre live-action rules. The tabletop game nods to the name in Lore of the Bloodlines, mentioning some of the male members use it, but dismisses it as an official name.
• Shrouded in Myth: Their clan of origin. Toreador (they're devoted to their music in the same way the Toreadors are obsessed with art), Malkavian (Melpominee causes madness, much like Dementation), Ventrue (their other two Disciplines are Presence and Fortitude), and Caitiff have all been suggested.
• Super-Scream: The offensive uses of Melpominee do sound-based damage.

Gargoyles

In the Tremere's early nights, they found themselves in combat with the Tzimisce, who were... displeased, to say the least, at the Tremere's using Tzimisce in their rituals. As a consequence, they sought to create potent servants to protect them, and discovered a way to transform certain vampires (Gangrel, Nosferatu or Tzimisce) into Gargoyles. Eventually, many broke free of the Tremere's magics, becoming independent. They also developed the ability to Embrace mortals into their ranks as well.

Weakness: Their obviously inhuman appearances mean that the Gargoyles must keep themselves hidden from humans. Additionally, to make them easier to control, the Tremere deliberately made them vulnerable to all forms of mind control and thus suffer a penalty to their Willpower score.

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• Beauty to Beast: Typically somewhere in their origin.
• Body Horror: The Gargoyle change. Yes, even for former Nosferatu. Gargoyle wings come from somewhere, after all...
• Dishing Out Dirt: The Visceratika Discipline gives them a certain amount of power over stone - they can see throughout structures, and merge with and move through stone.
• Flight: A Gargoyle-specific Discipline, though they tend to see it as simply part of what they are.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Fortitude, primarily, although one Visceratika power allows them to bolster it.
• Super-Strength: They wield the Potence Discipline.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: The typical result of Gargoyle creation, thanks to the magic involved.
• Turned Against Their Masters: Free Gargoyles. Although, Tremere indoctrination runs deep, and most Gargoyles retain subtle programming so that, if nothing else, they won't defect to the Sabbat. So in spite of their animosity, most Freemen join the Camarilla, where the Tremere can keep an eye on them.
• Was Once a Man: Or vampire, depending on their origin.
• Weak-Willed: In addition to being hideous, Gargoyles are highly susceptible to mind control, from any source. A product of Tremere practices ingraining a slave mentality onto the bloodline.

Harbingers of Skulls

A mysterious cabal of necromancers and sorcerers, the Harbingers of Skulls are commonly allied with the Sabbat - but only out of convenience. Though there are only fifty Harbingers in existence and none of them have ever embraced, their proficiency in magic and necromancy makes them a force to be reckoned with. Desiccated and corpse-like, the few members willing to talk have claimed that they have actually escaped from the Underworld to inhabit the bodies of corpses, and are now seeking vengeance against the clan that wronged them...

Weakness: Their time in the Underworld has left the Harbingers with the appearance of rotted corpses, giving them the same weakness as the Nosferatu - an Appearance of zero that cannot be improved or overcome in any way.

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• Back from the Dead: What they claim. It turns out they're telling the truth; more to the point, they're actually Cappadocians - hence their vendetta against the Giovanni. Although it's subverted in a literal sense but played straight in a figurative one. They are survivors of the Feast of Folly.
• Berserk Button:
  • The Giovanni. Also, the Tzimisce strongly advise against offering to repair their faces with Vicissitude; even being marginal allies with the Sabbat doesn't stop them from retaliating violently.
  • Lore of the Bloodlines adds another one: their Antediluvian, Cappadocius, thanks to his atrocities against the clan.
• Black Cloak: Most of them tend to wear cloaks and shrouds, partly to hide their desiccation but mostly to make dramatic impressions.
• Lean and Mean: They're basically skin and bone.
• Malevolent Masked Men: Many of them wear ceremonial masks.
• Multiple-Choice Past: Though it's clear that they're actually former Cappadocians, their origin stories tend to change slightly in different books: in some, they're just victims of the Giovanni and out for revenge, while in others they're actually survivors of the Feast of Folly and comprised of the clan rejects sealed at the bottom of Kaymalki by Cappadocius himself.
• Necromancer: One of their disciplines. They've adapted the Cappadocian signature Discipline, Mortiis, into the Mortis Path of Necromancy. Most Harbingers refuse to learn any Paths other than Mortis and the Ash Path.
• Nightmare Face: They look downright repulsive.
• Oh, Crap!: Tends to be the last words of any Giovanni unlucky enough to cross their path.
• The Reveal:
  • The Black Hand: A Guide to the Tal'Mahe'Ra reveals there's another faction of the bloodline in the Underworld which isn't interested in avenging themselves on the Giovanni, instead preferring to focus on necromantic pursuits. This branch of the Harbingers does Embrace in order to stay abreast of the living world.
  • Lore of the Bloodlines has another understated reveal: some or all of the Harbingers are sleeper agents of The Hierarchy, aiming to return *all* vampires to the deaths they've cheated.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Against the Giovanni and any of the other clans who allowed the Cappadocians' destruction to go unpunished.
  • Lore of the Bloodlines has them target Cappadocius for his crimes against the clan, along with his unwitting pawns such as the Giovanni and Camarilla.
• Skull for a Head: Thanks to the decay of their bodies, the Harbingers are just a thin layer of tattered skin away from being a clear-cut example of this; they already sport a very unnerving death's head grin. Some go the full hog and flay their faces off, leaving them with a literal skull face.
• Took a Level in Badass: In unlife, the Cappadocians were inquisitive scholars with little interest in anything beyond their studies. Betrayal, Final Death and the return from the Underworld transformed them into a driven, vengeful army of necromancers hell-bent on destroying those who wronged them.

Impundulu

The Impundulu are another Dark Ages African bloodline who do not claim descent from Caine; their founder was a necromancer who was killed by a spirit and rose to undeath thanks to the power it had left in him.

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• Charm Person: Have Presence as a bloodline Discipline.
• Necromancer: Their founder was, and they've inherited his talent for it.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Fortitude.
• Picky People Eater: The Impundulu can only feed off their founder's revenant descendants, the Bomkazi family of witches (fortunately, the Bomkazi's powers allow them to heal, meaning a given Impundulu needs only a few to feed off). However, the Impundulu are running into problems, since the Bomkazi are either becoming so inbred they're developing problems or so distant from the family their blood can't sustain the Impundulu.

Kiasyd

A fae-blooded offshoot of the Lasombra, the Kiasyd are only nominally Sabbat; their interests lie elsewhere, and there are so few Kiasyd that they often remain cloistered in their havens, undisturbed, for as long as their unlife lasts. Kiasyd are obsessed with the accumulation of knowledge, often on esoteric subjects like Wraiths, the Fae, and the afterlife.

Weakness: Their fae blood has given the Kiasyd a fae weakness. Cold Iron deals Aggravated damage to them.

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• Affably Evil: Tending more towards "Neutral" than "Evil."
• Alchemy Is Magic: According to Lore of the Bloodlines, before their founder Marconius became a vampire, he and his sister Hrotsuitha were alchemists who sought to create the perfect being. When he lost all his resources after the Embrace, his sister sacrificed herself that he might work the transformation upon himself, being changed from a Lasombra to the first of the Kiasyd. The bloodline sees themselves as unliving alchemical laboratories, and experiment with the blood of the supernatural in order to transform themselves further.
• The Bartender: Lore of the Bloodlines says that many Kiasyd have transitioned from the alchemical pursuits of their progenitors into mixology. Being Kindred, their recipes are things like "blood from a Toreador's veins, strained with absinthe, served over crushed ice."
• Bookworm: A clan-wide example, as Kiasyd can happily spend centuries in their own well-stocked libraries. Lore of the Bloodlines works to expand them beyond this.
• Casting a Shadow: They wield Obtenebration, like their parent clan.
• Cold Iron: Their clan weakness is that they take aggravated damage from cold iron weapons, as per their fae origins.
• The Fair Folk: Right down to their clan weakness being weakness to iron.
• Heel–Face Turn: Lore of the Bloodlines notes that in recent years, Marconius has gone over to the Camarilla, with some of the bloodline following silently in his path. The Sabbat are apparently happy to let them go.
• Loners Are Freaks: Their only interaction with others is generally limited to their own clan.
• Non-Action Guy: Individual Kiasyd may or may not have combat abilities, but even those associated with the Sabbat prefer verbal to physical sparring.
• Pointy Ears: A hint to their fae heritage.
• Reality Warper: Thanks to Mytherceria, they can use Fae magic to see through lies, percieve other forms of magic, temporarily erase other people's memories, permanently drain Abilities from others, and make themselves fully human for a day.
• Retcon: V20 Dark Ages retcons what the Kiasyd historically were, saying that in times past, they were what happened when a vampire successfully Embraced a faerie-blooded human, and any childer they sired would likewise be Kiasyd. Each "first generation" Kiasyd got Mytherceria plus two Disciplines from their sire's clan, along with some physical mark of their faerie nature, which they passed on to their childer. The established bloodline was a Lasombra-descended version with particularly noticeable markings. The Black Hand: A Guide to the Tal'Mahe'Ra says the established bloodline took the Kiasyd name for themselves, while other faerie-blooded vampires became known as the Maeghar.
• Sacred Hospitality: They pride themselves on being gracious hosts, so long as the guest meets their intellectual expectations.
• Seeker Archetype: Lore of the Bloodlines presents them as being obsessed with learning and experimentation, seeking out knowledge wherever they can, with some going so far as to become mad scientists.
• Undeathly Pallor: More so than other vampires, as their skin faintly glows in the moonlight.

Lamia

A Cappadocian bloodline, almost exclusively comprised of women, who served as bodyguards for their parent clan. They were effectively wiped out following the Giovanni's usurpation, with the last known dying in the 18th century.

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• Amazon Brigade: Between most Lamia being women, and their role as bodyguards for the Cappadocians, they were pretty much this.
• Dying Curse: When Lamia, the founder of her clan, was diablerized by Giovanni, her blood-curse was transfered to him and his entire bloodline, giving them their painful and deadly Kiss.
• Necromancer: The Lamia have had several death-related abilities. Back in the Dark Ages, they could use their Cappadocian progenitors' signature Mortis discipline, and they created their own discipline, Deimos, which combined its humor manipulation with The Power of Blood to create deadly mind-wrecking poisons that could even knock other Kindred into Torpor.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Fortitude.
• Poisonous Person: Their bloodline weakness; they were carriers of Lilith's curse, a wasting disease that coursed through their Vitae, and ran the risk of spreading it to those they fed on.
• Posthumous Character: Averted. A small group of survivors fled to the Middle East, where they took up the name of "Lilin". When they merged with the Giovanni and the remnants of the Cappadocians to form Clan Hecata, they reclaimed their old identity as the Lamia.
• Power of the Void: In V5, The reborn Lamia, as part of Clan Hecata, are able to use the Oblivion discipline, which taps into the power of the Underworld's eponymous soul-destroying vortex. It also combines aspects of Casting a Shadow.
• Super-Strength: Potence.

Lhiannan

A Gangrel bloodline said to have been created from a fusion between a vampire known as the Crone and a spirit of the forests. Never very numerous, they were all destroyed by the end of the 14th century... though as so often with the Kindred, there are rumors of their return in modern nights.

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• The Beastmaster: Animalism is one of their disciplines.
• Blood Magic: Ogham, their bloodline discipline, which allows them to call on spirits to assist them in certain ways.
• Nature Spirit: Every Lhiannan is bound to a fragment of the spirit that joined with their founder, making them easier to spot with Auspex.

Nagaraja

Long ago, a Middle-Eastern death cult - who may or may not have been death-mages - became fascinated by unlife and vampiric undeath, eventually becoming vampires themselves. Necromancers and thaumaturgists, they are few in number and obsessed with the secrets of death, to the point that, until recently, they made their havens in the land of the dead.

Weakness: The Nagaraja hunger not just for blood, but for meat. They do not gain sustenance from blood alone, instead needing to eat human flesh to regain Vitae.

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• Horror Hunger: Even more so than other vampires. They don't just drink blood, they have to eat human flesh.
• I'm a Humanitarian: See above.
• Loners Are Freaks: Zigzagged. Initially, they were members of the Tal'mahe'Ra; however, in Revised, where the Tal'mahe'Ra were destroyed, the bloodline remained independent from both the Camarilla and the Sabbat, and the individual members were rarely in contact and had no overall organization.
• Our Ghouls Are Different: Although the term "ghoul" refers to something very different in the World of Darkness, the Nagaraja are clearly the gameline's incarnation of both the classic Arabian ghul and the Lovecraftian cthonic creature; a corpse-eating monster with a clever, scholarly side.
• Necromancer: It's one of their disciplines. Their specialty is the Vitreous Path, which only Nagaraja practice. The only others to have even heard of it are a few Giovanni.
• Slasher Smile: Intentionally averted by the Nagrajara, who avoid smiling since they have jagged, pointed teeth instead of the usual retractable fangs.

Noiad

A Gangrel bloodline who served as defenders of a nomadic tribe called the Samí. Unfortunately, in the name of protecting their mortal flock, the Noiad drove them almost to destruction, pushing them away from the herds that would sustain them. Their weakness prevented them from feeding on animals.

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• Aura Vision: Auspex.
• The Beastmaster: Thanks to Animalism.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Subverted; the Noiad ended up almost destroying the Samí in the name of protection.
• Seers: Had a preference for Embracing mortal diviners among their kin.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Thanks to Protean.

Ramanga

A Dark Ages African bloodline born from a Deal with the Devil between a sidelined royal daughter and a dark spirit, the Ramanga seek to ensconce themselves as the powers behind mortal thrones.

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• Casting a Shadow: With Obtenebration.
• Charm Person: Thanks to Presence.
• Evil Chancellor: Their preferred role, controlling mortal rulers as Puppet Kings.
• Manipulative Bastard: How they generally operate.

Samedi

A bloodline of unknown origin, but speculated to be an offshoot of the Giovanni clan due to their links to necromancy, death and decay, the Samedi all share one thing in common in that they all look like they are in a constant state of decay, which only gets worse the older they get.

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• Body Horror: To an arguably worse level than the Nosferatu, the Samedi become increasingly more decomposed and dead-looking as the time goes on, even to the point of making social interaction too difficult due to physical limitations.
• Invisibility: With Obfuscate.
• Make Them Rot: This is their unique Discipline, Thanatosis, in a nutshell.
• Shrouded in Myth: Which clan they originate from - the Cappadocians, Giovanni, or Nosferatu.
• Voodoo Zombie: While not zombies per se, the Samedi will eventually come to look like them as they grow older, and they have strong ties to voodoo magic.

True Brujah

An offshoot of the normal Brujah clan that claims its origins as the 'original' clan, either as vampires sired by the original Brujah antediluvian (known as Ilyes) or their childer. As such, they consider themselves the true clan Brujah. It is unknown if this is true or not; certainly the bloodline bears some similarity to the Brujah clan proper (They share two of their three disciplines, and Celerity bears similarity to Temporis). Others claim the story is a smear job. Either way, they seem to be freed from the blood of Troile's weaknesses; they are as unaffected by the clan flaw of the main Brujah clan. Due to this, they are extremely logical and emotionless, a direct contrast to the main clan.

Weakness: The detachment the True Brujah value so greatly is their weakness as well as one of their strengths. They have a hard time maintaining their hold on their morality, making it more difficult for them to regain lost Humanity or progress on a Path of Enlightment.

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• Badass Bookworm: Tend to be much more cerebral than the regular Brujah, while still retaining the same martial prowess.
• Black Sheep: It is heavily implied in one of the Gehenna scenarios that Ilyes did only sire Troile, meaning the claim that the True Brujah are the direct bloodline from Ilyes himself is an outright fabrication. As such, it is also implied that Ilyes hates the True Brujah even more than the normal clan.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: A lot of the high-level abilities provided by Temporis are insanely powerful, but take a toll on the user's body and can cause him to die if he doesn't stop it at the right moment. In-game, the Temporis user can take Aggravated damage if they misuse their powers, and they WILL take it if they use some of the stronger abilities. Too much abuse, and Permadeath will follow.
• Fantastic Racism: They are not fans of the regular Brujah, who they see as "Troile's bastards".
• The Mole: A lot of them actually hide within the ranks of the main Brujah clan, in order to bring them back into the fold when the time is right.
• Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: If Temporis is used to stop time, no other Disciplines can be used while time is stopped. Trying to stack Celerity on top of Temporis will be instantly fatal to the user.
• The Spock: Quite apart from their calm, analytical minds, True Brujah have a hard time even summoning the slightest emotion, much like their original sire.
• Straw Vulcan: A justified weakness. True Brujah prefer logic and calmness of mind to emotion. Unfortunately, the emotion of remorse is a very necessary one for keeping one's Humanity and a vampire who is too good at rationalizing why an atrocity was necessary will soon lose to the beast - which is why Conscience rolls to thwart Humanity loss are at increased difficulty for the bloodline.
• Time Master: Through their signature Temporis discipline. Believed to be a refined form of the normal Brujah's Celerity, Temporis allows its users to alter the flow of time using the magic that keeps the Kindred's bodies from decaying. Among other things, they can slow the temporal perception of their foes, remove objects, locations and even themselves from time, rewind time up to a day and see the immediate and long term consequences of their actions. The higher level abilities are dangerous to their user, and the True Brujah rarely teach the discipline to outsiders.

Caitiff

Technically not a clan or even a bloodline, Caitiff are pure and simple clanless vampires. Often castoffs from vampire society and almost universally looked down on, Caitiff often have a very hard time getting by night by night simply due to the fact that nobody wants them. While their lack of clan ties cuts them off from their clan benefits, however, they are not affected by the clan flaws of their sire's clan either.

The Sabbat take a different view of the clanless. Due to the agitation of a Caitiff named Joseph Pander, the Sabbat, not wanting a third civil war, declared all those without a true clan heritage as a clan of their own, the Panders. Aside from the name and a minor degree of recognition, however, there isn't really that much difference - Panders are still the bottom rung in Sabbat society.

Weakness: Caitiff are unique in that they have no "clan weakness"... but being the unwanted bastards of vampire society is easily bad enough.

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• Black Sheep: Usually just get abandoned by their sires after embrace due to the lack of clan traits displayed. The Nosferatu in particular are disgusted by their embraced Caitiff due to this.
• Butt-Monkey: Literally the lowest kindred on the vampire chain aside from thin-bloods (who often tend to be caitiff themselves). Vampire society isn't exactly kind to anyone, but these people get it worse than anybody.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: A minor example. Caitiff are not traitless Vampires, and their pre-conceptions about Vampires have a tendency to influence them somewhat. This not only influences strengths and weaknesses, but is the canon explanation for the disciplines they have when sired. If they believe vampires are "supposed" to be physically far superior to mortals, they'll start with Celerity, Potence, and Fortitude. If they believe Vampires Are Sex Gods, they'll start with Presence and/or Dominate.
• I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Not surprising with how much their sires usually hate them.
• Parental Abandonment: Often simply get abandoned shortly after getting embraced- not a good thing if you live in a Camarilla city.

Children of Osiris

The Children of Osiris are more of a sect than a clan or bloodline, focused on learning how to overcome the Beast and maintain Humanity. Vampires join by choice, rather than being Embraced, and members of any clan or bloodline can join. Children of Osiris keep their original Disciplines and weakness, and gain access to the unique discipline of Bardo. Their founder, Osiris, was torn to pieces by Set, but was brought Back from the Dead by Isis, at the cost of being unable to sire new childer, which led him to found the sect.

Weakness: Continuing the theme of being unusual, the Children of Osiris actually have a sect-wide weakness. Joining causes their blood to become magically sterile just as their progenitor's was; they can no longer sire other vampires or create or sustain ghouls.

In the Revised timeline, Osiris, now effectively the god of the underworld that Egyptian myth held him to be, transformed loyal members of the Children into humans.

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• Arch-Enemy: The Followers of Set. They might be willing to accept a truly repentant Setite, but so far the situation has never arisen.
• Came Back Wrong: Osiris, albeit mildly so.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: The only Sect in the game to truly fit the bill in spirit and letter; their Bardo discipline is all about rejecting their vampire condition by mitigating its darker aspects.
• Humanity Ensues: Those who followed Osiris' codes to the letter and spirit were transformed back into normal humans when he finally fully manifested as God of the Underworld.
• Mechanically Unusual Class: Despite technically being a tiny Sect, the Children of Osiris are mechanically treated as a Bloodline any vampire can freely, if not easily, join, complete with their own unique Bardo discipline, while gaining an additional weakness in the form of sterilized blood.

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