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The Courier
The Courier
The Courier is a vampire Embraced twenty years ago and who has since become a messenger for anyone who'll pay.
- Action Girl: An option if the character is female. Nothing prevents her from being a combat monster.
- Action Survivor: The Courier can be this if they choose to focus on social/mental stats over physical ones and don’t have the disciplines like celerity, potence or fortitude to compensate. In that case they’ll focus on bluffing/persuading/intimidating people and using indirect methods to accomplish their goals. Or just running away to avoid being dusted.
- Antihero: If the player character balances being a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire with their own self-interest.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: You can buy really nice formalwear from the Covenant Pawn Shop: a Ring Jacket suit if male, a Valentino dress if female, or an eclectic mixed-brand suit if nonbinary.
- Bastard Understudy: Can act the part of Julian's loyal toady while secretly plotting to take over the whole 2100 project by selling him out to the Second Inquisition and making off with his research.
- Big Bad Friend: If they have a friendly relationship with Julian but wind up siding with the Second Inquisition.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: A Courier who knows Protean can make their razor sharp claws their weapon of choice.
- Blessed with Suck: You have a Horror Hunger, vulnerability to sunlight, and lots of enemies from birth.
- Cursed with Awesome: You can also learn a large amount of ass-kicking powers and abilities.
- Butt-Monkey: Your character starts as this, being forced to lure victims to a torporous Nosferatu Elder. A few years later, you've moved up to courier and that's a reasonably respected position (albeit not one with any power).
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: You can portray the Courier like this, playing the Camarilla and Julian against one another. You can go one step further and betray both sides by calling the Second Inquisition down on their asses. Though expect to have to fight your way out of Tucson is you do.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: You can play the Courier this way with them regularly subverting orders so they can help the victimized humans. It’ll cost you relationship with both Julian and Lettow, however.
- Dark Secret: Your character diablerized a Banu Haqim elder named Aila.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Their romances with Julian or Lettow can end up this way.
- If they romance Julian but end up siding with the Second Inquisition then the horrified (and betrayed) Julian disappears, never to be seen again.
- If they don't follow Lettow on his Beckoning induced journey to the Middle East then the two part ways for good.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Averted for once. A courier working for the Camarilla is still a subordinate position but it is a paid position that gets a reasonable amount of respect. You're a mercenary but not a disposable one until you are.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: While incredibly difficult, you can survive on bagged blood and save the lives of every mortal you meet. You can even save the ones trying to kill you.
- Flying Dutchman: A Ravnos courier cannot rely on a fixed haven for daily shelter, due to their clan bane. In order to secure shelter every morning, the Courier must constantly risk their neck breaking into different unoccupied homes, or make an arrangement with Madrigal Real Estate to provide alternating shelter (at a premium) to minimize the security risk.
- Heroic Seductress: You can feed through sex, and there's even an achievement for doing it three times or more.
- Horrifying Hero: Even if you play as the nicest, most kind-hearted vampire ever, the fact remains you are a blood-drinking undead abomination and you sometimes kill people by accident. Especially true for the Nosferatu, Gangrel and Tremere Couriers.
- Hunter of His Own Kind: You can become [a semi-ally for the Second Inquisition and hunt down the more evil vampires simply for the sake of justice if you like, especially if you ghoul Raul.
- I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Can easily denounce the actions of all of their sires, and may even kill a few of them.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Can potentially abandon the whole world of vampires and attempt to live some of their unlife out as a normal human in certain endings. High humanity Couriers fare better at this than low humanity ones.
- Instant Expert: Your character can rapidly master multiple skills to the 3rd level. While more believable than mastering it to the 5th level, this is part of Julian's experiment in enhancing vampirekind.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A possible playstyle.
- Kleptomaniac Hero: You can rob many people throughout the story. This can be lampshaded during endgame, if you rock up to a meeting driving a car that you stole from another one of the attendees.
- Last of His Kind: Is the only courier operating in Arizona by endgame, which is why Lettow keeps hiring them even if they have a terrible relationship with the Camarilla. In certain endings they're tasked with rebuilding the network by recruiting more vampires to fill the ranks.
- Like Father, Like Son: Or rather, like Sire like Childe - the Courier can wind up sharing a lot of similarities with their various sires. A Banu Haqim Courier who is not very traditional and who fully subscribes to their Sire's 2100X plan, a Ventrue Courier who winds up running off to Seattle and making a fortune off of the blood trade there, a Tremere Courier who dedicates their life to researching what secrets the 2100X serum that they've been injected with hold, a Gangrel courier who just wants to live among and understand humans...
- Like Father, Unlike Son: The Courier can also become the complete opposite of their Sire, with the most obvious example being a Banu Haqim who's highly traditional and aligns themselves with the Camarilla.
- Elin Olivecrona aimed to invoke this, as she intended for the Courier's skills and traits to shore up her own weaknesses.
- Love-Interest Traitor: Becomes this if they romance Lettow and/or Julian and then sells out all the vampires in Tucson to the Second Inquisition during the final chapter.
- Love Makes You Dumb: Applies to a Banu Haqim Courier if they chose to bite Julian during their intimate encounter in the final chapter, after already having consumed his blood in the Reremouse mission. Julian being the Courier's sire, this intimate nibble is what finalises the blood bond between them. The Courier admits they've made a horrible mistake seconds before the bond kicks in.
- Meaningful Name: Some of the preset names, depending on the path you chose. A Rook fits right in alongside Dove and the Eagle Prince in the Camarilla, Ransom perfectly describers a Courier who values money above all else and who'll squeeze everyone around them for their last dollar, and Pyre is an apt name for a vampire who choses to bring the fiery fist of the Second Inquisition down on all the Kindred of Tucson.
- My Greatest Failure: Diablerizing Aila is the greatest regret of a highly penitent and/or highly traditional Courier. The Courier can straight up refuse to let Julian back into their life out of disgust for what he made them do.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much:
- Only in It for the Money: You can repeatedly express a complete disinterest in the politics of Tucson.
- Predator Turned Protector: If they insist on never feeding directly from humans, go out out of their way to ensure any humans they run across on their missions make it out alive and/or ally with the Second Inquisition.
- Replacement Goldfish: Lettow rather obviously sees them as the second coming of his lost love Aila at the beginning of his romance path - though he starts growing out of this mindset as the game continues.
- Self-Made Man: A Courier who's amassed enough liquid assets over the course of the game can do very well for themselves by establishing a blood trading ring in Seattle.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: A valid approach to a number of missions. You can also chose up pack up and leave Tucson during the final chapter, rather than get mixed up in Julian and Lettow's feud.
- Self-Made Orphan: A Courier who's a Gangrel, Banu Haqim, Tremere or Brujah can kill their sire with their own two hands.
- Superior Successor: Of Julian's 2100 project, considering they survived the 2100 serum being injected into them without completely losing their mind like Julian's first guinea pig. Taken up to eleven if they successfully manage to unlock some of the serum's enhancing properties, something that even Julian is implied to be unable to do.
- Token Good Teammate: Can be this if they play as a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire who regularly subverts both Julian and the Camarilla.
- Vegetarian Vampire: You can survive on animal blood or bagged blood without feeding on humans. There's even an achievement for it.
- Villain Protagonist: You can be a truly monstrous character (but don't fall to 0 Humanity, because at that point you go full wight).
Your Potential Ghouls
Elena Prodan
Elena is the owner of a pawnshop called The Covenant. She can be recruited by the Courier as both a ghoul as well as love-interest.
- Action Girl: Is a mean hand with a Glock and uses it when necessary.
- Agent Scully: Downplayed. She scoffs at the idea of werewolves, but after interacting with the Courier over a period of time she does eventually admit that they're something more than human.
- Black Humor: Dresses as a Those Wacky Nazis (explicitly compared to Doogie Houser's outfit in Starship Troopers) to befriend some local bigots into letting them stay in their hotel.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Can actually be averted. You can blood bond her after explaining everything to her and the consequences. It doesn't seem to actually affect her opinion of you that much but just intensifies her current feelings.
- Cool Car: Has a Datsun that is much nicer than the Courier's (initial) car.
- The Cynic: Is disgusted by the treatment of migrants at the camp. However, she doesn't believe anything can be done to help them. You can prove her wrong.
- The Illegal: Is an immigrant who let her work visa lapse.
- If It's You, It's Okay: She says she's not usually into women, but she responds positively to a female Courier flirting (provided you have the charisma) even pre-ghouling.
- Kleptomaniac Hero: She always suggests robbing places as an activity.
- Killed Off for Real: If the player character puts her in (needless) danger.
- Love Interest: You can seduce her both before and after making her a ghoul.
- The Mafiya: Is a fence for their illicit goods. Her personal quest involves her and the Courier trying to get the Don to tone down the amount of stuff he's dumping on her.
- Not Brainwashed: Another ghoul can actually point out Elena's loyalty to you is abnormal because it comes naturally.
- Troll: Enjoys doing this to racists.
- White-Haired Pretty Girl: Just look at her picture. It's dyed, though.
- You Know I'm Black, Right?: You can sing the praises of the migrant blood harvesting ring before she points out that she's an immigrant who let her visa collapse.
Raúl Cañedo
- Aborted Arc: He will leave the story entirely if you refuse to ghoul him, even though he's not that mad about it and perfectly willing to continue working with the player.
- Badass Normal: Is more than capable of fighting ghouls and surviving vampire encounters even before he becomes a ghoul himself.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Or rather, ghoul, if you make him one.
- Hunter of Monsters: Starts off as the ordinary-freelancing "vampires ruined my life" kind, rather than a Second Inquisition professional. Though he can potentially start running with the Second Inquisition if he's hostile towards the Courier and is not turned into a ghoul.
- The Illegal: Came over the border without documentation. This can be darkly lampshaded in the final chapter; if the Courier kills him, then they won't bother to hide his body, reasoning that investigating the death of an undocumented immigrant will be very low on the police's priority list.
- Killed Off for Real: Can potentially be killed by the wight or the Courier in chapter 2. Like all the Courier's other ghouls he can be killed off if the Courier puts him in enough danger during missions.
- Morality Pet: Can be this to the player character. He can frequently be asked what to do when choices present themselves and will always argue for the most moral one.
- Permanently Missable Content: He's the young man who breaks into the gas station the Courier is squatting in during chapter 2. If he's killed by the gas station wight or the Courier then obviously the Courier won't be able to make him their ghoul.
- Sole Survivor: Of his family, by the time the Courier runs into him in the migrant camp. His father was killed in a botched robbery before the events of the game, and the rest of his family is murdered by the roving wights Reremouse's presence attracts between the encounter at the gas station and Camp Scheffler.
- Token Good Teammate: Out of all the Courier's potential ghouls, being a vampire hunter who only goes after the worst Kindred and also being the one to always suggest moral actions.
- Vampire Hunter: If he's not turned into a ghoul, he joins the Second Inquisition (and can potentially kill the Courier in some endings). If he becomes a ghoul he still wants to hunt down the more monstrous Kindred out there, but is willing to work with a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire. He doesn't think of himself as a hunter, though, saying that he also helps solve mundane problems, like helping a woman get away from her abusive ex.
- Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Discussed and averted. He doesn't want all vampires destroyed and is actually willing to work with them, killing only the particularly monstrous ones. Also, he believes his primary goal should be saving people over killing vampires. (And of course he has no problem with the Courier, provided you've been halfway decent.)
Vani Anand
An Indian scientist working under Dr. Caul who's trying to set out on her own. She can be ghouled if you charm her during the visit to Caul's outpost and afterwards help her with a problem.
- Aborted Arc: Even if your character manages to convince Vani to come work for them after completing the Kiowa Xenogenetics chapter, it is entirely possible to lose Vani for good on that run if you accepted Dr. Caul's ring as payment from her. It will force a low-Resolve, low-Composure courier to strangle Vani to death with their own two hands the next time you visit her at her lab (in any other situation, however, Dr. Caul's ring has no negative effects). Needless to say if this happens, Vani, her sidequests, and her character arc will become inaccessible.
- Admiring the Abomination: She is fascinated by vampires and mostly wishes to become a ghoul because it's a much more hands-on approach to studying them.
- Bollywood Nerd: Indian and a research scientist good enough to be working for Doctor Caul. Though interestingly her parents don't see her as nerdy enough — she remarks that they'd rather her be a medical doctor rather than a research doctor.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Can possibly be a friend of the Courier who they've fallen out of touch with. It's not until the Courier rocks up to Doctor Caul research facility that they discover that she's also knee deep in the local vampire scene.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: If you accept Doctor Caul's ring then it can potentially cause you to murder her. Resignations Not Accepted when you work for Caul, apparently.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Her grasp on the facts about vitae, blood bonds and ghouls are...questionable at best, as seen when she asks the Courier to make her their ghoul. The Courier can either roll with those assumptions and happily make her their ghoul...or refuse her outright, stating (correctly) that Vani has no idea what she's really getting into.
- For Science!: Her desire to further study vampires and their secrets is what drives her to ask the Courier to make her their ghoul.
- Must Have Caffeine: Her signature drink. She also sips from a Dr. Pepper at one point.
- Non-Action Guy: Is useless when it comes to fights, and makes herself scarce should the Courier throw down with someone.
- Not That Kind of Doctor: When she and the Courier are infiltrating the hospital where Pattermuster has holed himself up in, she snarks that she's not actually a medical doctor (and that her parents will forever be disappointed about this fact).
- Professor Guinea Pig: Is perfectly happy to get herself exposed to vampire vitae to further study the effects of said vitae.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Has been planning to split from Dr Caul the moment she saw the latter beat someone to death. Depending on the Courier's actions it her escape can go well, or terribly.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Once she gets a nightclub appropriate outfit (instead of the stodgy button downs she usually wears), she's promptly mobbed by admirers.
Camarilla
Prince Lettow
Lettow Kaminsky, the Eagle Prince.
The Gangrel Prince of Tucson, Arizona. He is considered a light hand compared to most.
- Animal Motifs: Eagles. He's dubbed the Eagle Prince, and has a pet eagle named Riga that is always on him. If he and the Courier come to blows in the final chapter, he morphs into a massive eagle and chases them down.
- Blue Blood: Was a minor aristocrat in life.
- Boring, but Practical: His plan to get rid of a renegade Nosferatu methuselah is to use a ridiculously large stake on it.
- Been There, Shaped History: Played a big part in the fall of the Paris Commune in the 1870s.
- But Now I Must Go: Succumbs to the Beckoning and leaves for the Middle East in the final chapter. The protagonist can potentially tag along with him if they've successfully romanced him.
- Cool Car: He travels around in a classic Rolls Royce despite how attention getting it is.
- Cool Old Guy: Is one of the oldest Kindred in the game and among the better of the Camarilla in the region.
- The Drifter: Before settling in Tucson he's mentioned to have lived the same nomadic lifestyle the Courier is living now, except with a plane instead of a car.
- Giant Flyer: Fights the Courier in the form of a giant golden eagle if you piss him off enough.
- Good Old Ways: Is very suspicious of the Mad Scientist experiments that his predecessors were supporting as well as Julian's Visionary Villain antics.
- Hopeless with Tech: His technological expertise doesn't extend much past the radar era, which means he usually relies on others (the members of his Court, the protagonist or Julian) to do most of the fiddling around with machines when the need arises.
- Implacable Man: As befitting a Gangrel Prince he becomes this if he's angry enough to hunt down the Courier during end game, tanking a ridiculous amount of damage while doggedly staying on the fleeing Courier's tail. The Second Inquisition firing everything they have at him is the only attack that seems to register on his radar, but their efforts don't even come close to taking him out.
- Kick the Dog: Has no problem exploiting Elin Olivecrona's migrant camp for blood to make himself rich.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: If the Beckoning hadn't claimed him, it's strongly implied he would have skipped out on Tucson if the situation with the SI got too ugly. As another vampire lampshades, one doesn't reach several centuries of unlife without knowing when to cut their losses and run.
- Lost Lenore: He is in love with the fallen Assamite Aila. Who you diablerized.
- Loving a Shadow: If romanced, it's pretty obvious to see that he's only returning the Courier's affections for him because he sees his lost love Aila in them. Though there are some indications that he grows out of it by the end of the game.
- May–December Romance: Aila was in the neighborhood of three times his age (she was over 800, while he's about 250). If you choose to romance him, he'll end up the much older partner in the equation.
- Noble Bird of Prey: An elegant Camarilla Prince accompanied by a majestic golden eagle famulus.
- Noble Demon: He is lenient on Kindred crimes and only punishes the worst offenses.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: If the Courier brings a Second Inquisition strike down on his Court, then he throws the Masquerade to the wind, turns into a monstrous eagle, and goes in for the kill.
- Pretty Boy: The Courier can note that Lettow is "pretty" at one point, and "obnoxiously good-looking" at another.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Is one of the rare ones in the Camarilla, paying good value for the services you render him and avoiding the Fantastic Racism so common of Princes against "low" vampires like Brujah, Anarchs and Thinbloods.
- When you're with him out in the desert, even though he can easily sink into the sand to protect himself from the sun, he won't do this if the Courier isn't able to as well. No matter how bad the Courier's relationship is with the Camarilla, he will stay with the Courier during the day as their involvement in the mission is his responsibility.
- Relationship Values: Since he's the Prince, your relationship with him is counted under the Camarilla stat. Help the Camarilla enough and he'll come to genuinely like you.
- Tragic Keepsake: Keeps lots of mementos of Aila close to hand, her sunhat and her quran being just some of them.
- He also wears a lot of turquoise jewellery. Turquoise is so-called because it's from Turkey, which is where Aila is from. The connection between turquoise and Aila is also alluded to in some of the Courier's dreams, which refer to turquoise rooftops.
- Vampire Vords: Has a European accent, which Julian quickly dubs a Dracula accent. Lettow notably says it's not.
- Villainous Valor: He's fully prepared to go after a Nosferatu methuselah in person, and is perfectly willing to use himself as bait to distract the Second Inquisition.
- Villain in a White Suit: Is always impeccably put together in a white linen suit.
- Weaponized Car: He's modified his Rolls Royce to act as a giant crossbow mechanism for the ridiculously massive stake needed to take out Reremouse. This is apparently also how he killed his predecessor. Plus his Syrena, which is equipped with enough weapons and gadgets to make 007's Aston Martin green with envy.
- Warrior Prince: He wields a crossbow with the best of them. He also has fought in dozens of wars.
- Your Days Are Numbered: Is suffering from the Beckoning and it is drawing him to the Middle East.
Elin Olivecrona
A Ventrue businesswoman who runs a migrant camp where blood is harvested from immigrants.
She is the sire of the Courier if they are a Ventrue.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: She's one of the worst Ventrue in the entire game.
- Blood Countess: She's a rich, vampiric businesswoman who runs a migrant camp where blood is harvested from immigrants.
- Blue Blood: A member of the Ventrue Clan and thus Kindred royalty. In particular, her sire was the last Prince of Tucson before Lettow.
- Dissonant Serenity: Is the only vampire who doesn't take the Second Inquisition remotely seriously. She really, really should, though.
- The Exile: Was exiled from Tucson for decades following her failed power play, and has only recently been allowed back because of her grip on the blood trade.
- Industrialized Evil: Is not satisfied with just feeding on one or two but making an endless supply of food for Kindred.
- Lack of Empathy: The workers under her care are food and slaves. Some are even in feeding pits.
- Man on Fire: Meets her final death after her car goes up in flames with her still in it.
- New Era Speech: A low-key one where she points out that the current government policies mean that she doesn't need to worry about running one lucrative migrant camp but can now build harvesting facilities in detention centers across the country.
- Non-Action Guy: Is the only one of the vampires in the first three missions who can't get in a fight with the Courier during her chapter. Though like the other two she still can be killed if the Courier plays their cards right.
- Offing the Offspring: Kills one of her Childer after they fail to help her advance her goals. If the Courier is her Childe, she tries to off them too after they make it clear that they're not going to follow her any longer after the debacle in Tucson.
- Resignations Not Accepted: If she's the Courier's Sire, then she sent her ghouls to kill them after the Courier cut ties with her in the backstory. In the present, though, she's given up trying to enforce this.
- Rich Bitch: One of the most condescending and snide characters in the game.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: One of the few times in the game the protagonist can express complete disgust.
- Take Over the City: Her goal in (un)life was to claim sole sovereignty over a US city in a hundred years. However her plans went belly up when she tried to launch a bid to take over Tucson, and she barely escaped the city with her life. When the game begins she's only just gotten back into the Camarilla's good books.
- The Starscream: To the old Ventrue Prince of Tucson. She's the one who encouraged him to launch a crusade against the other non-Venture clans, a course of action which eventually led to his Final Death. However, she failed to come out on top of the Evil Power Vacuum that ensured after the Prince's destruction, leading to her being run out of the city.
Invidia Caul
A short-tempered Tremere geneticist running a scientific research facility.
She is the sire of the Courier if they are a Tremere.
- Asian and Nerdy: Averted despite being a beautiful Asian bio-engineer.
- Bad Boss: Melts one of her employees just to make herself feel better. Can end up killing a lot more if not stopped.
- Berserk Button: Do not take away the funding for her projects. Or tell her to "calm down".
- Blatant Lies: The Hunters she plans to fake her death with are just harmless amateurs who have no ties to the Second Inquisition. They are a heavily-armed bunch of their finest agents.
- Calling Your Attacks: Tends to use Latin enchantments before she uses her more impressive examples of Blood Sorcery. However she also slips into Latin when she's pissed, which leads to an amusing moment when fighting her where the Courier thinks she's prepping an attack, but then realises that they're in the clear and she's just cursing their name.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Not only betrays her employees and the Camarilla but puts you in the path of the Second Inquisition if you agree to help fake her death.
- Death Faked for You: Has an honest to God clone of herself to accomplish this.
- Defector from Decadence: Accepts an offer from Julian to join his organization if you present it to her. She's not willing to acknowledge him as her boss but willing to enter into a partnership. From the Anarchs' perspective, this makes her an ally.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Reveals to have cut ties with Jasper Knowles because his experiments on Kindred disgusted even her. She's also upset about killing one of her blood dolls—not that this stops her from doing it in the first place.
- Evil Is Petty: Kills her own employees just to vent her anger. This can include using a magic ring to force you to kill Vani.
- Heel Realization: It takes an obscure branch of dialogue to see it, but Dr. Caul's shocked by her own rages and somewhat resents her status as a vampire, which might explain why she's so invested in making cloned blood — and her outbursts when something gets in the way.
- He Knows Too Much: Her reaction to the Courier knowing about her faking her death.
- Kick the Dog:
- Kills an employee just to vent her anger when getting bad news.
- Enslaves a Traditionalist mage, slowly breaking her mind as well as will.
- Betrays the Courier if they help her fake her death.
- Mad Scientist: Sheep, clones, and vampirism.
- Magitek: Combines Blood Sorcery and advanced science to create miracles of both.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: A vampire doctor who's experimenting with cloning and genetically modified animals, and who doesn't even flinch at enslaving people to work for her and killing off the ones who refuse to.
- Poisonous Person: Her go-to attack is shooting our streams of corrosive vitae from her hands.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Is working on creating genetically engineered blood substitutes for Kindred to feed on, as it's a lot easier to eat sheep than constantly try to hunt mortals.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Has this reaction if you worry about her enslaved Verbena ghoul.
- Take a Third Option: When ordered to shut down her operation by Prince Lettow, who thinks she's taking too many risks with the Masquerade, she can fake her death and potentially join the Anarchs.
- Vegetarian Vampire: Believes that science can provide alternatives to regular Kindred feeding. Notable that she is not a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire, this is about practicality, not being nice.
- Visionary Villain: Surprisingly, may actually be one of the most game-changing Kindred as her cloned blood and hybridized blood is stuff that Kindred can feed on.
D'Espine
A Toreador who runs a jazz club, the Cinderblock, in Dallas.
She is the sire of the Courier if they are a Toreador.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Noted as an unusual trait in older vampires, who tend to get thinner, creepier and less social as they age.
- Multiple-Choice Past: She likes to say she was a glamorous flapper when she was alive, but if you're her childe, the narration will note you later found out she's actually the daughter of a poor farmer. Apparently inventing more artistic and interesting human lives is common for Toreadors.
- Paid Harem: A Chicago gangster moll before her Embrace (or at least, that's what she tells everyone). Her ghouls also serve as ornamentation and bodyguards.
- Tough Love: A Courier childe of hers who chooses the option that they were art project had this kind of relationship with her. She was unrelenting and cruel in reshaping you, because she was trying to make you strong enough to fight back.
- Vampires Own Night Clubs: A jazz club, specifically.
- Vampire's Harem: She has a lot of ghouls, surgically altered to look more graceful and beautiful. Her standards are demanding — a childe of hers can mention dancing lessons that people died in.
Millicent Rue
A Lasombra blood trader, formerly a great power among the Sabbat, now working for the Camarilla.
The sire of the Courier if they are Lasombra.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Millicent (like all Sabbat) believes that Humanity is a lie and the Kindred shouldn't try to hold onto it, instead viewing the paths of enlightenment as the best way to control the Beast.
- Deadpan Snarker: Her messy critical flashback shows she's this in spades.Courier: Is [the ghoul you just killed] dead?
Millicent: Well, his head sure looks dead. Let me go check on the rest of him, and yeah, sure thing [Courier], sure thing the rest of him is dead too. - Elderly Immortal: She was embraced in her 70s.
- Glory Days: She'll lament to a Courier who's her childe that selling blood for the Camarilla is petty and meaningless compared to her nights as the aristocracy of the Sword of Caine, fighting to stop the Antediluvians and unlocking the dark paths of enlightenment.
- Offing the Offspring: As part of the Sabbat, she regularly engaged in mass embraces, siring random people, hitting them in the head to scramble their memories, and sending them off to die. However, the rare childe who survived this process, she kept and trained.
Anarchs
Julian Sim
A Banu Haqim from East Asia who immigrated to the United States and became fascinated with technology.
He is the sire of the Courier if they are a Banu Haqim.
- Asian and Nerdy: Is both Asian and very nerdy. He is also a faithful Muslim and follower of the Path of Blood. Just unconventional about it.
- Big Bad Friend: Though he never quite becomes a fully fledged Big Bad, he can become this for a highly remorseful Courier who's friends with him after they discover that he deliberately manipulated them into diablerizing Aila as part of his 2100X project.
- Born in the Wrong Century: Born in the wrong decade really. Julian speaks highly of the (extremely recently) departed Sabbat and believes they were enlightened philosophers as well as avante garde scientists among their Thaumaturges. See Entertainingly Wrong.
- Broken Masquerade: He believes the Masquerade is destined to fall for the not entirely wrong reason that
Technology Marches On and the surveillance state already knows they exist. They have to, instead, do a controlled crash. - The Chessmaster: Is playing several different games at once. You're as much a pawn as anyone.
- Complexity Addiction: His plan to get rid of a Nosferatu Methuselah is to use a magic stone circle to send him to the Middle East.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: He can end up picking a fight with Prince Lettow after the latter describes him as a disappointment to Clan Banu Haqim. Unsurprisingly, picking a fight with a Gangrel Elder ends poorly for him.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Julian has a very high opinion of the Sabbat and expresses admiration for their posthuman morality and research. Fans of the game will know the vast majority of Sabbat were Fully-Embraced Fiend types and even their best were more like Jasper Knowles than Julian.
- Evil Former Friend: Can become this if you choose the Camarilla over him repeatedly.
- Evil Mentor: To a Banu Haqim Courier. Also steps into this role for a Caitiff and Gangrel Courier, due to both of them lacking a proper Sire to teach them the ins and outs of unlife.
- Everyone Has Standards: Confesses to you that he killed Jasper Knowles not as part of some part of his usually quite elaborate plans but simply because the man's experiments utterly disgusted him, and as a Child of Haqim it's his responsibility to stamp out the unrighteous. It comes off as one of the few genuine moments he has in the game.
- Go Seduce My Archnemesis: Encourages the Courier to seduce Prince Lettow, regardless of gender. Because you carry the soul of his dead lover in you via diablerie.
- Kick the Dog:
- He turns Pattermuster's hospital from a free Catholic one into a modernized for-profit one. Of course it should be noted that said hospital is described as basically being an abattoir where no one is really healed so how bad this is depends on your POV. Notably letting the renovation go through (and alienating both Julian and the Camarilla) is considered the "good" option and the only difference with Julian's plan is that he takes the renovations over by getting the director fired.
- His takeover of the migrant camp will do absolutely nothing to benefit the locals but make the collecting of blood from them even more efficient. This can be avoided, however. If you side with him to transfer the files but also made plans to save the immigrants he'll tell you that all he cares about is the data. The people escaping doesn't mean anything since there'll be other camps.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Was leading immigrants to their doom at a Nosferatu's jaws a few years ago. Now leads his own STEM-based Anarch faction.
- I Hate You, Vampire Dad: His sire planned to use him to spread the Banu Haqim into South Asia but Julian was unsuited for it and promptly abandoned the job. Julian moved to the United States instead. Can also be the relationship between him and the Courier if he's their sire and don't agree with his plans. The Courier can even personally kill him in the endgame.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: He's not really a fighter and prefers to rely on his brains, sorcery, or just cutting and running, but he's still a vampire. He can potentially enter your haven to request use of your sink, having gotten covered in blood killing a few hunters and stuffing their bodies in a dumpster. Pick the right choices in the endgame, and he'll slice Donati to ribbons using his supernatural speed and a karambit.
- Mirror Character: He's a scheming neonate genius with no regard for human life versus a scheming elder with no regard for human life.
- More than Mind Control: Of course he's trying to manipulate the Courier. Some of his manipulations run deeper than others. He definitely intended for you to diablerize Aila, for instance, and may have tried other methods to make the Courier more susceptible to his influence. It's also possible to end up bound to him (be a Banu Haqim and drink his blood both times you get the chance), after which he won't need to manipulate you anymore because you'll have to do what he wants.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much:
- The Banu Haqim are stereotypically stoic, zealous and sometimes slightly anachronistic destroyers of evil. Julian mentions that he believes in the last bit a little, but otherwise, he is mostly a playful, combat-shy enthusiast of modern culture and technology.
- The Anarchs are, depending on who you ask, either the reformist wing of the Camarilla or an outside movement trying to demolish/replace it. They are also very closely identified with the gimmick of Clan Brujah, protection of the weak, strong sense of justice, self-sufficiency, anti-authoritarian rebel behavior and so on. Julian's modus operandi is not that different from that of the Camarilla and he appears to hold a mostly neutral stance on them, helping or hurting as it benefits him, only disagreeing on one major point: how to handle the Masquerade.
- Not So Above It All:
- Writes erotic vampire fiction about you and he. The player character can be amused or irritated about it.
- Later subverted. For all of his edgy counterculture persona, he's still a faithful member of the Banu Haqim and executes unworthy Kindred.
- No Social Skills: While he's enthusiastic and talkative, the actual details of his interactions with people show that he's terrible with them. If he was the one who ditched the Courier and not the other way around, he clearly has no idea that you might be mad about it, even if you select the dialogue options that establish you were dating at the time. He pops right back into your life like nothing happened and is genuinely shocked if you lash out at him. Romance him and you'll also get several lines that show he's uncomfortable around too many people and is far more at ease around just you.
- Relationship Values: You can only side with him if you help him with several of his projects.
- Stealth Expert: A great user of Obfuscate, which he used to kill Jasper Knowles and conceal his projects as well as himself.
- Trickster Mentor: Gets the Courier to discover for themselves just one of the myriad ways that they're under surveillance in Tucson, to underscore to them how much of a pawn they're viewed as. Judging by the Courier's griping he's apparently very fond of imparting knowledge in the form of challenges.
- Visionary Villain: Fully plans to revolutionize the Kindred race.
- A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Comes off as a guy who should be working at Google rather than an immortal creature of the night. This is part affectation on his part to get people to underestimate him.
- You Have Failed Me: Averted. A Banu Haqim Courier mentions that he's rarely disappointed in failures of others, because he doesn't expect much from them in the first place. He is thus willing to overlook some of your actions like freeing the migrants so long as you make it up to him later. Even then, if you don't actively antagonize him, the most he'll do is tell you you're making a mistake.
Pattermuster
A Brujah doctor who is running a free hospital where the dregs of Tuscon's Kindred feed.
He is the sire of the Courier if they are a Brujah.
- Character Development: Is a very different sort of person from the pointlessly defiant rebel to a tough doctor dealing with a lot of human as well as Cainite problems.
- Dual Wielding: A pair of katanas that he's named Duncan and Connor. The Courier notes that he's genuinely very skilled with them.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Played with. He's a medical doctor who wants to save as many lives as possible but has turned his hospital into a feeding ground. The hospital itself is also described as having horrible conditions and is home to a drug smuggling ring. He's also not above sabotaging any attempts to improve it in order to keep it as a feeding ground.
- Gone Horribly Right: See Nice Job Breaking It, Hero below. He Embraced a Brujah Courier without permission first essentially to make the former Prince look weak, knowing the Prince wouldn't want to kill him even though the laws dictate it. It worked, but a little too well.
- Good Is Not Soft: If you convince him to spare one of his servants who murdered another, he stakes them and leaves them imprisoned for a year.
- Hidden Depths: Attempts to save as many humans as possible while also giving Kindred a place to safely feed. He might have a temper, but he does care.
- Horrible Judge of Character: You can easily deceive him into believing you're on his side.
- Hospital Hottie: Very handsome as well as a doctor.
- Killed Off for Real: The Courier can become a Self-Made Orphan if they're a Brujah and kill him. You can also just scare him off or ally with him.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His Embrace of you to humiliate the Prince resulted in the Prince's overthrow, leading to years of chaos in the city, and also nearly getting you both killed.
Second Inquisition
Agent Samantha Donati
A Second Inquisition agent working for the FBI Special Affairs Division.
- The Baroness: The Rosa Klebb version, serving as the face of the Second Inquisition. Amusingly, she's an American despite ticking most of the boxes.
- Big Bad: If you choose to straddle the fence between Julian and Lettow. You can also work with her.
- Braids of Barbarism: Hers veers towards this given her general Viking-esque style.
- Brawn Hilda: Donati is a very husky woman, which contrasts to the majority of female characters.
- Church Militant: Possibly. She is originally from Rome and apparently has been a hunter for a very long time already (centuries, to be exact). Since the Second Inquisition is a relatively new phenomenon, it's quite possible she was originally trained by the only major hunter organization before them, the Society of Leopold.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Depending on your choices, you can kill her or help your allies kill her in a variety of ways, some of which are at least quick, some of which are...this. If you hold her off til Dove and her retainers show up, they'll surround Donati and shoot her to a pulp. If you kill her with your bare hands and a Discipline, it's even worse.
- Empowered Badass Normal: She is actually a masterless ghoul who survives by drinking the blood of vampires she has killed, giving her low levels of Super-Strength, Super-Toughness and a Healing Factor.
- Fate Worse than Death: Keeps some vampires impaled through their heads and feeds off their blood to keep herself young.
- Hero Antagonist: She wants to destroy all the vampires in Arizona, which is probably for the best — at least for the humans.
- Horrible Judge of Character: You can fool her that you're a low level flunky rather than a vampire yourself.
- Humiliation Conga: The Camarilla and Anarch endings where she's stripped of her rank in the FBI, gets a hundred hunters killed in a trap, and then is killed by the Courier or Lettow/Julian.
- Hunter of Monsters: She's a vampire hunter as well as a government agent.
- Metaphorically True: Before she figures out whether you're a vampire, she says that Lettow is a notorious crime lord that controls much of the smuggling in the region.
- Really 700 Years Old: She is a ghoul, and claims to be older at least than the United States.
- Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Possibly if you're an extremely High Humanity vampire. Her fellow Inquisitors also have a very high tolerance for collateral damage.
- Villains Out Shopping: She approaches you while you're getting oil at an Autozone. The Courier can react by grumping that they just needed the damn oil.
- You Are What You Hate: Since she lives off imprisoned vampires, the logical conclusion is that she occasionally has to procure human blood for those, lest they run out completely. Just like a vampire.
Other
The Lampago
A fabled monster that was once Kindred, supposedly destroyed by the Second Inquisition.
The sire of the Courier if they are a Gangrel.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Goes hand-in-hand with all the shapeshifting the Lampago does.
- No Name Given: Strictly speaking the Lampago no longer has a name and didn't need one, since it didn't walk among humans or even other vampires, and wasn't interested in civilised interaction with them. "Stephanie" is an alias.
- Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Considered a monster by all, but when you meet the Lampago in Biosphere Zero, you can find through dialogue options (unlocked with the right skill points) that the Lampago feels it has suffered enough and just wants to be left alone in peace. Provided you are a very good negotiator, you can talk the Lampago into letting you leave without violence.
- Not Quite Dead: The game drops hints into the lore of the Lampago but otherwise implies that it was destroyed long ago, which makes the Lampago's appearance in Biosphere Zero a twist. It's also possible to try and destroy the Lampago, but it ultimately survives an otherwise brutal attack from the Courier.
- Playing with Syringes: From the lead-up to encountering the Lampago, one would expect a dangerous and cunning but ultimately feral monstrosity. The Lampago is indeed all of those things, but due to painful and horrible experimentation by Jasper Knowles has been able to assume a human shape and produce human speech once more.
- Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Once the transformation begins to take hold, "Stephanie" becomes the Lampago for good.
Chiara della Passiglia
A Hecata treasure hunter and scholar of necromancy, she wants the Courier to help her get a powerful wraith's fetter.
The sire of the Courier if they are Hecata.
- Adventure Archaeologist: Regularly goes into danger to acquire rare and powerful artifacts, although more often in the past than now.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The della Passiglias are usually related to each other by blood and keep a close watch on their mortal bloodlines, which is how they choose who to Embrace. Family is eternal—but no one hates like Family, either. If you're a Hecata Courier, the reason you were separated from Violetta (as she was known when she turned you), was a massive strike on the della Passiglias by the Giovannis.
- I Love You, Vampire Son: If you're her Childe, in the backstory she deliberately painted you as a mere mortal servitor to make sure you didn't get killed in the Hecata civil war, and she's pleased to see you again. (Although this changes if you don't get her that fetter, of course.)
- My Grandson, Myself: Regularly fakes her own death and has her "niece" (who conveniently has the same academic interests and qualifications as her "aunt") inherit all her stuff.
- Necromancer: A powerful necromancer. She wants the fetter so she can interrogate the wraith about what happened at the Family Reunion, which formed the modern Clan Hecata, and hopefully use what it tells her to solidify an alliance between the Ministry and the Hecata.
