Quick question: What’s the “legality” of vampirism? For example, is Lord Scurlock left alone only because he’s, well, Lord Scurlock, or is society “accepting” of vampires?
I was thinking a new vampire might be shunned by society at best, but a being of Lord Scurlock’s power is left alone because meddling with him is more costly than it’s worth, unless he himself meddles enough to warrant retribution.
In my group’s interpretation of the setting, vampires are explicitly illegal, and perhaps feared more than ghosts since they can blend in among regular humans. However, while Lord Scurlock is rumored to be one, he is left alone largely for the reasons you suggest – power and influence.
Other newly ‘born’ vampires are hunted by the spirit wardens and sometimes independent vampire-hunters hired by the city or imperial gov.
In our game, the Slide resurrected his girlfriend by allowing her to possess the hollowed body of Ulf Ironborn’s daughter, so my group should be seeing how society responds to that sort of thing pretty soon if they aren’t careful.
I think it’s the latter — messing with him is more costly than it’s worth — but I’m not an authority on the subject, that’s just my gut feeling. I’m also not certain it’s public knowledge that he’s a vampire.
I like the idea of vampires being worse than ghosts, to the point that seeking out vampirism as a goal is against the law. I can see tremendous political pressure from the church to crush such practices, allowing for zealous, church-funded vampire hunters.
Hmmm…I just thought about something: If one wanted to do the whole “sire/child” dynamic, maybe there’s a ritual where a vampire creates another, but said ritual places the new vampire under the creator-master’s sway. This influence is passed on to the child’s child, if the same ritual is used, and so on.
Yeah, I’m using this.
There may be cults of wannabes as well if it’s so taboo. Normal humans pretending to be vampires – just to add to the confusion.
Someone made a vampire template for Blades, I am on tablet and wish i had my PC handy, it’s in my internet history there
Scores to prove NPC is an actual creature of the night is good stuff for this setting!
I could see killing a poseur vampire and thinking, “Whoops! He, uh…well…he was, like, REALLY easy to kill…shit…”.
I totally agree, Mark! Discrediting a powerful figure by proving his “demonic nature” would be a fantastic way to hit a target sideways.
Oh! I meant to ask, but did I miss how a hollow is created, or is it up to us? I have some ideas, but if there’s an official “springboard”, I’d love to know.
Also, little off-topic, but my friend wondered if he could be a Jekyll and Hyde type of character, which got me thinking about one helluva Devil’s Bargain for a Leech. 🙂
Thanks, Ben Liepis!Â
Seems to me you can go about it two ways. If you don’t have time to make a hollow beforehand, just grab a willing or unwilling host and let your ghost-buddy possess them. If the ghost isn’t exorcised in time, possession causes Trauma that will eventually destroy the spirit of the host and allow the ghost to possess it indefinitely. The newly made vampire will need to feed on blood, flesh, fear, dreams, etc. to keep the body fresh, however.
If you don’t want to do that whole ghost-on-spirit combat, you can just do some crazy attune ritual to destroy someone’s spirit leaving them a hollow. Or give them some sort of arcane poison. Or… something else. Pretty much anything you can imagine is fitting.
I’m now thinking it might be interesting to have a specific artifact do it. And it has a specific shape. Could be used to explain movie vamps’ aversion to crosses. Just make it some other shape but same effect…