Vampire Material: More crap to read (Character:)

[Sam Akabara]

Introduction:

Bela Lugosi's dead, and so am I. But what's left of Bela is rotting in a pine coffin somewhere, while I have the opportunity to sit here on the balcony, enjoy my drink and look at you. Correct me if I’m being presumptuous, but i suspect that i have the better end of the deal.
I can tell by looking at you that you're not comprehending. Of course you're not- these are cynical, rational times, and you're not going to believe that I’m a dead man just because I say so. A century ago it would have been different - well, it was quite different the last time I had this little talk with someone - but this is the age of facts. And the facts are that corpses don't move, don't walk, don't talk. I'm terribly sorry, my dear, but i have a surprise for you: This corpse does.
So sit down. Please, I insist that you make yourself comfortable. Pour yourself something to drink, preferably from the bottle on the left - the stuff on the right is an acquired taste. It's going to be a long evening, and you're going to need a stiff drink or two, I suspect. After all, in the next few hours I’m going to explain to you in excruciating detail why everything you think you know about life and death is wrong. In other words, you don't know a blessed thing about the way the world really works, and I’m going to open your eyes.
But I’m afraid, my dear, that you're not going to like what you see.

What I am:
Before we go any further, allow me to tell you that you're getting a un-precendeted opportunity here. My kind doesn't talk about itself to your kind- not now and, for the most part, no ever. We've spent five centuries weaving a stage curtain that we call the masquerade to hide the real show from you, but in the end it comes down to one simple fact: We vampires don't want you mortals knowing we're out there. It's for the same reason the wolf doesn't want the sheep knowing he's around. It makes our work so much easier. And so, for example, though we do indeed possess the sharpened canines with which dime novels and cinema have branded us, you mortals will not see them unless we choose to reveal them.
~Vampire: The Masquerade (revised) 1999.

At first reluctant to kill, the vampire is finally forced into murder by circumstance or need- and killing becomes easier as the years pass. Realising that they themselves are untrustworthy, they cease to trust others. Realising they are different; they wall themselves away from the mortal world. Realising their existence depends on secrecy and control; they become a manipulative user of the first order. And things only degenerate as the years turn to decades and then centuries, and the vampire kills over and over, and sees the people they loved age and die. Human life, so short and cheap in comparison to theirs, becomes of less and less value, until the mortal "herd" around them means no more to them than a swarm of annoying insects. Vampire elders are among the most jaded, unfeeling, paranoid - in short, monstrous - beings the world has ever known. Maybe they are not demons exactly- but at that point who can tell the difference?

The embrace:
Vampires are created through a process called the Embrace. Some vampire clans embrace more casually than others, but the embrace is never given lightly. After all any new vampire is a potential competitor for food and power. A potential childe is often stalked for weeks or even years by a watchful sire, who greedily evaluates whether the mortal would be a good addition to Kindred society.
Once the sire has given the childe blood, the mortal “Awakens” and begins drinking of his own accord. But, though animate, the mortal is still dead; their heart does not beat, nor do they breathe. Over the next week or two the mortal’s body undergoes a series of subtle transformations; he learns to use the blood in his body and they are taught the special powers of their clan. They are now a vampire.
Kindred:
Each vampire is unique, with their own fascinating story to tell. The most important characteristic all vampires share, though, is their damnation. More important than any lineage, clan, sect or cause is the fact that vampire are undead predators. Fealties and duties fall second to the inescapable urge of hunger. Without exception, vampires are parasites, cursed by the fate to prey upon those from whom they originated.
Vampires are monsters: How does it feel to dump a bloodless corpse in a dumpster? To manipulate mortals like pawns on a chessboard? To suspect that the elders wield you as an unwitting weapon against their ancient foes? To eke out an unlife of secrecy and bloodshed? To succumb to the wiles of the beast and tear innocent victims to shreds?
In response to their environment, the Kindred have evolved a complex society that exists just out of sight of the mortals who surround them. Age, clan, sect, sire, power, influence and many other aspects of unlife make the kindred who they are. Part of any Kindred’s being is membership in a number of social castes that grace vampire society. By creating and enforcing divisions and roles for themselves, no matter how artificial, the kindred seek to escape the beat that roils within them.
Not only do vampires hide from Mortals, they hide from themselves as well, pretending they are not the horrors they have truly become.



Character concept:

Everyone wants his character to be someone special. It’s true. We don’t play games to be ordinary characters. We want to be the extraordinary ones. But being extraordinary requires a lot more than playing a rare bloodline, or not conforming to a stereotype. What really differentiates your character from all the others and makes him special and unique isn’t conveyed by the number of learning points you’ve got.
It’s who he really is, what he’s trying to accomplish, why it’s important to him and how he manages to do it. A character truly comes to life only when he’s involved in a story. A characters personality is defined by how he acts and reacts to other characters, events and situations around him. The initial character concept is only the beginning, the tip of the iceberg. Characters should be dynamic creations, ever changing as their story continues, whose personalities are shaped by their goals, dreams, rivalries and feuds, and built on past experiences.
Whether your initial concept is a street kid, police detective, runway model or con artist, that’s really only the prelude, you have the opportunity to create not only a character concept but also the beginnings of a personal storyline that establishes your characters past as well as where his past will lead him in the future.