Vampire as Horror by rags2rev I'm not posting on my ST skin here for a reason. I'm taking at this from the perspective of a player, and my very personal ways of looking at the venue. Also to warn, there is a heaping amount of tl;dr here. But hey, it's something I sort of wanted to put out. I was inspired by this article which points out much of the seeming immaturity that was in the old World of Darkness setting as well as the way people approached ap proached the themes of the game. As it points out though, the blame is really nobody's at all, but it's often forgotten just how much of a horror game that Vampire is meant to be. In the spirit of the article, I wished to take some of the basic themes of the game, as given by the five Clans, and posit how exactly I feel they relate to horror. More specifically, Gothic Horror. Horror. Also, this is directed at no one. In fact, I think the vast majority of the venue has a very good grasp of the themes. So why do I post it? Because I enjoy exploring the theory and thematics within the game, and trying to see what other people think about these ideas. Start conversations. That sort of thing.
The Clans Daeva The Joke: Daeva are highly emotional, scarlet-haired whores who are bombastic and are not much better than socialites. socialites. Instead: Each clan is a vampiric archetype. Daeva are the vampire as deadly seducer.
Daeva are perhaps the most misunderstood of the Clans in many ways. And at times they are the best understood. Ironically, this is part of what being a Daeva is. The Daeva is Vice. The Daeva is defined so utterly by their Vice that as the years go on, they lose much of their personality and fade into being little walking demons of sin, voyeurs and muses. But this isn't necessarily the Horror of the Daeva, that is their Tragedy (another important theme of Vampire, as far as I see it). Many see the Daeva as the most passionate and emotional of vampires, but I see them as just the opposite. The ones so doomed to being empty and hollow, and they know it, and it stings like fire. The horror of the Daeva is in what they are cap able of. Each Clan is monstrous. The Daeva are doubly so because of their almost inherent immorality (not to be confused with amorality). Majesty is not a delicate thing. It is blunt. It beats through their mind and forces them to play to your tune. It causes c auses their body to quake and their baited breath to beg. The Daeva are violators. They force themselves into your heart and area, and force you. Force is important about the themes of the Daeva. Every action they take is on that straddling line between willing and unwilling, and the Daeva oftentimes care little on what side they are on.
They play you like a little fiddle, breaking desires and emotions whenever something ugly that they don't like rears its head. This isn't merely restricted to social. The Daeva can just as likely be monsters of the flesh, taking as they will. The Greed Daeva may be a mental mastermind who hordes all and forces people into handing their greatest works to him. The Wrath Daeva suffers no insult or even the slightest of hindrances, destroying it as he very well damn pleases.
Gangrel The Joke: Absolute fucking idiots who go around popping claws in black leather and motorcycles. motorcycles. Instead: Gangrel are the vampire as animalistic predator.
The Gangrel are the Big Bad Wolf. The Gangrel Clanbook gives an important insight through the use of nursery rhymes, and the Red Surrender, and the constant references to mythological creatures. Baba Yaga? Gangrel. The dragons of Britain? Gangrel. The small little man with mouths on his hands and feet in the darkness of the Outback? Gangrel. Gangrel are the embodiment of monsters, if not nightmare and fear (we'll get to Nosferatu in a bit.) They are utterly on the inside and outside the closest to the Beast and it works with them on a personal level, whispering and cooing and tempting. They are consummate predators, whether Social, Physical, or even Mental in those rare few cases. They are the sort of vampires that you read about tearing people apart, taking them through the countryside tied up and dragged out, then draining them of their blood and flesh. They are those who run with wolves and in packs as if they were degenerating back to some state before humanity, something wholly primal. Gangrel are not werewolves, because Gangrel are not natural in the slightest. They are horrible things not of nature. They are the satanic demons that lurk in the night in the skins of wolves and of animals, but they are not welcome there. They trick the nature into giving them the means to hunt. The Gangrel are the Beast in its ascendant.
Mekhet The Joke: Meek and brainiac sneaks that are just pretty much boring. Or ninjas. Instead: The Mekhet are vampires as the shadowy keepers of lost knowledge.
Mekhet are almost too cosmopolitan at first glance. There is little to unify them at first, or make you fear about them. But the Mekhet know everything . Think about that for a moment.
There is not a single piece of information in the world that a Mekhet is not privy to (for the purposes of our thematic discussion here). The Clan as a whole may not know about it. But above all this is why the family of Shadows is feared. They simply know too much. much . When it's late at night, you can often imagine figures in the darkness in your peripheral vision. Skulking faces and hushed whispers. Something hiding in the closet, under your bed. Within crowds or clubs that person shadowing you at night. Faces in the static of the TV screen, the prophesy within the entrails of birds. Those are all the Mekhet, watching you. The Mekhet are frightening in the regard that there is no privacy. The Daeva violate emotionally, but the Mekhet have a more insidious violation, seeping into the mind and tearing away knowledge of your feelings, thoughts, desires, and then laying it out plain as th eir dominance over you.
Nosferatu The Joke: Fugly little sewer rats crawling around and being creepy.
Nosferatu are the vampire as monster. Instead: Nosferatu Let the Gangrel have their overtures ove rtures of mythology, mythology, of calling to powerful legendary beasts and predators. The Nosferatu are simply fear. Fear incarnate. incarnate . The flaw of the Nosferatu is not frightening. So they're ugly? They make you feel bad? They smell like graves? That isn't horrible, that's unfortunate. Pitiable. No, it's the reputation of the Nosferatu. It's the way they hold themselves. You see that hairless guy in the hoody over there? The one who is constantly staring at you, grinning, even when he's facing away, the eyes seemingly on the back of his head? Or that glossy haired woman who is so beautiful it hurts you, because when you look at her you know she can't be human, that she's some horrible monster pretending to be beautiful so she can eat you? Or that man who smells like the grave, with a little scarlet he forgot on the side of the faith, with yellowed teeth and eyes? He's not too terrifying, right? Except... You know that he eats the bodies of the dead. You just know. know. Or the terror of unknowing is just as worse. Nightmare is the same. The Nosferatu are a clan that can destroy minds or kill with simple fear. They are embodiments of irrationality within humankind, everything hated and unwanted. And remember, none of this reputation is upon the mortals only. The vampires fear the Nosferatu as well. And through this fear hate them. For every Nosferatu who builds good rapport, there are fifteen Haunts pushed away, ignored, pushed out of the mind's eye. Nobody wants to know they exist. Because knowing Nosferatu exist frighten even monsters.
Ventrue The Joke: Uppity aristocrats too busy playing their parlor games to see the big picture. Also batshit insane.
Instead: Ventrue are the vampire as noble and monarch.
Ventrue always win. Does that frighten you? It should. In the Requiem, no matter how great your works are, no matter how much you have "tried" and done well, the Ventrue will be ahead of you. They will have the best territory, the best privileges, the greatest resources, and the most allies. If they do not have the Praxis they will soon have it or they will control their "King". You can't win in the long run. It's simply not possible. Nothing is your own. The Lords already own everything. Blood, land, money. Your very mind and soul. Your free will. They can work the smallest of changes so that they can make you squeal like a pig like a pet, and snuff the air like hunting for truffles. They can make you destroy nations and slaughter millions. You can kill Ventrue. You can even make their schemes fail. But in their mind, and in the long run, they have won. They are mad, utterly mad. So mad that even when they lose they have won. And there is nothing that a little insect like you can do to change that.
Ghouls by rasen an d Walking-Talking Blow Up-Dolls. The Joke: Sex Toys and The Reality: The addict. The junkie. The person who would do anything, including sex, to have another taste. They are tools, with an addiction so deep that it is harnessed and refined by vampires far and wide. The Addiction of Vitae is part of the tool to control the Ghoul, and it is powerful. Like I mentioned, it's more powerful than heroin, speed or angel-dust or any combination of the trio or more. It isn't pretty. Their lives change to suit the Vampire. Slowly the ghoul loses her identity and her self-agency in favor of doing what it is their Domitor wishes.
They become another arm of the Domitor, and it only really benefits the Vampire. Think about it, a Vampire is active from the hours of 7pm to around 4 am EST. Normal life, for mortals, take place between 8 am till about 10 pm EST. When, pray-tell does a Ghoul sleep and keep a normal life, while working to benefit the Vampire? It starts affecting their normal lives, it starts affecting their work-life. Personal relationships die on the vine or are never really used (especially without the tacit agreement and/or direct movement from the Vampire). Their work suffers, eventually, without resorting to things like Vigor (should they be lucky enough to have it), or working on their own stamina just to stay up through the day. Hell, I wouldn't put it past them that they would become coffee addicts on top of what they already are addicted to. Meanwhile, Vampires are demanding. Needy. Desirous creatures that for the new ghoul is put through the ringer of learning what the fuck bumps in the night. What they are. Coming to grips with the fact they drink blood or even Life. Life. Yes, that shouldn't be overemphasized enough. enough. For a new ghoul, it is an absolute SHOCK that you drink BLOOD like a fiend.
