Editing Vampire: The Requiem (section)

== The Clans ==
Nobody knows exactly how the clans came into being or if they even have a common ancestor at all. In fact, the fluff strongly suggests that each clan is effectively its own species of vampire, with their common traits being a byproduct of convergent evolution rather than being a sign of any direct relation. 

Regardless of their origins, each one reflects one aspect of vampirism in some way or another. Additionally, each clan possess a staggering number of bloodlines, each with their own unique abilities and weaknesses added onto the original clan's own. Most of the V:tM clans which didn't make the jump to V:tR have been reclassified as bloodlines if they haven't been removed (e.g. the Malkavian clan is now the Malkovian bloodline, as well as a peculiar mind-virus called Malkavia that drives any vampire that catches it hopelessly insane). 

===The Core Five===
====[[Daeva]]====
[[File:Requiem Daeva.png|90px|right]]
''The Serpents''
*Notable Bloodlines: Toreador, Erzsébet
*Favored Disciplines: Celerity, Majesty, Vigor
*Favored Attributes: Dexterity or Manipulation

The Daeva are beautiful, but the adage "beauty is only skin deep" is very much in effect for them. For all their lustful attitudes, superficial charm, and espoused love of beauty, they're emotionally dead even by the standards of other vampires. This emotional deadening in turn leads many of their number to grow jaded and hedonistic, seeking ever-greater ways of indulging their vices in a desperate attempt to remember what it means to feel again. At the same time, they are more than willing to exploit their beauty and charm to manipulate both Kindred and kine alike. 

In 2e, their weakness was modified somewhat - now they have a tendency to grow addicted to a given person's blood if they feed on him/her more than once. The only way to break this addiction is via the death of the mortal in question.

They represent the vampire as a seducer and tempter.

====[[Gangrel]]====
[[File:Requiem Gangrel.png|150px|right]]
''The Savages''
*Notable Bloodlines: Bruja, Dead Wolves
*Favored Disciplines: Animalism, Protean, Resilience
*Favored Attributes: Composure or Stamina

The Gangrel are still the same nature-vampires they were in VtM, but in spite of their close connection to the Beast (or perhaps ''because'' of it) they have established themselves as scholars and philosophers of the Kindred's unique condition. That doesn't mean they won't tear you limb from limb if you piss one off, though.

While they've lost their vulnerability to Frenzying, they do have trouble thinking rationally at times as their minds become more bestial and they don't function very well in human or Kindred society.

They represent the vampire as a bestial hunter.

====[[Mekhet]]====
[[File:Requiem Mekhet.png|150px||right]]
''The Shadows''
*Notable Bloodlines: Morbus, Sangiovanni, Khaibit
*Favored Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Obfuscate
*Favored Attributes: Intelligence or Wits

The Mekhet are particularly attuned to shadows and darkness and translate this attunement into a degree of finesse regardless of what they set their minds to. They're particularly adept at scholarly pursuits and infiltration but in many cases can branch out to do a little bit of everything. However, their connection to darkness also exacerbates the typical vampiric weaknesses to fire and sunlight, and with no natural talent for controlling animals or people they have to make extra effort to keep their interference in mortal affairs as shadowy as themselves. 

Complicating this further is a tendency to develop banes more easily - esoteric weaknesses like growing confused when approaching a crossroads, or not being able to enter a house without being invited. 

They represent the vampire as a creature of darkness. Mekhet may actually predate human civilisation - the idea of their vampiric heritage being purely egyptian is shown to be false, invented with Akhenaten in the Mekhet Clanbook. Instead, their most likely origin involves a creature with sword tentacles and a crooning song.

=====Hollow Mekhet=====
Before the Mekhet knew about the embrace, they created more of their kind by finding the newly buried and working rituals to raise the corpse back to life by stoking the souls hatred. Most think of the Hollows as myths, but some still exist in the modern world, Mekhet who have no shadow and reflection, and can't be recorded in anyway.

The reason for this is that their ''Ka'', the spirit double/vital essence and a part of their soul, is separated from their body. This is also their weakness instead of their regular clan weakness. See, the Ka hates being unable to really live and experience things so it harasses the Hollow. It can't manifest outside of a reflection in mirror, a voice from a speaker or cellphone, or a text message, but it uses these to screw over the Hollows relationships and try to get him into trouble in some way. Also, when the Hollow goes into torpor, the Ka doesn't, so have fun waking up to find out all your pals hate your guts and that you're the worst person ever one night.

They represent the vampire as a shadowy stalker

====[[Nosferatu]]====
[[File:Requiem Nosferatu.png|140px|right]]
''The Haunts''
*Notable Bloodlines: Baddacelli, Usiri
*Favored Disciplines: Nightmare, Obfuscate, Vigor
*Favored Attributes: Composure or Strength

Like in VtM, the Nosferatu are monstrous (usually this means they're ugly as hell, but in some Nosferatu it may take more subtle forms like an unnerving voice, a gaze that makes people feel violated, or a shadow that seems to move on its own- some are even so beautiful that they seem more like mannequins than people), but compensate for it with a knack for stealth and an alarming amount of strength when provoked. They're also good record-keepers and many Nosferatu are capable of communicating with ghosts. Of course, they are also experts at using the fear that they generate in others as a weapon.

In 2e, their Touchstones, mortal people they're close to that keep them tethered to their humanity, are now immune to their evil appearances, so there's that at least.

They represent the vampire as an inhuman monster.

====[[Ventrue]]====
[[File:Requiem Ventrue.png|140px||right]]
''The Lords''
*Notable Bloodlines: Malkovians, Gorgons
*Favored Disciplines: Animalism, Dominate, Resilience
*Favored Attributes: Presence or Resolve

Still the same stuck-up egotistical assholes that they were in VtM, and also the clan whose members are most likely to be either in positions of power or actively scheming to attain those positions of power. Their mind-control powers are just as good at helping them fulfill their ambitions as they were in VtM, but it also tends to make them particularly vulnerable to acquiring derangements. After all, power corrupts, even among the undead.

2e changes their weakness slightly to a greater risk of losing their Touchstones - the people or things that remind vampires what it was like to be humans. Losing these Touchstones weakens a vampire's ability to resist detachment, and if they're all lost the vampire feels a sudden and overwhelming urge to enter Torpor.

They represent the vampire as an aristocratic lord of the undead.

===Minor Clans===

====Amari====
''The Winter Kings''

*Notable Bloodlines: n/a
*Favored Disciplines: Obfuscate, Protean, Resilience
*Favored Attributes: Manipulation or Stamina

In the 19th century, the Amari were the undisputed rulers of the Arctic, claiming entire cities of ice for themselves. But their numbers were weakened first by a war instigated by jealous rivals and then by the melting of the polar ice caps that they called home. Many Kindred assumed they went extinct, but the clan still exists. And its survivors are looking forward to exacting revenge on the descendants of those who wanted to wipe them out. 

They are able to survive off of less Vitae than most vampires and can solidify it for prolonged storage- a necessity for survival in the frozen North. However, they are especially vulnerable to frenzying from exposure to fire and sunlight.

====Bekaak====
''The Prophets''

*Notable Bloodlines: n/a
*Favored Disciplines: Animalism, Obfuscate, Vitiate
*Favored Attributes: Presence or Composure

The Bekaak aren't the only kind of vampire that can grow old, but they are the only ones who can then reverse that aging. They can do this by entering Torpor, but the more effective approach for them is to literally steal the youth from another being, vampire or otherwise. They're closely affiliated with the Lancea et Sanctum, who see them as a fine example of the inevitability of God's judgment. 

Their bane, apart from aging, is that they cannot easily lie to anyone whose Integrity equivalent is greater than their own.

====Nhang====
''The Water Serpents''

*Notable Bloodlines: None
*Favored Disciplines: Celerity, Protean, Resilience
*Favored Attributes: Stamina or Wits

Named after an Armenian word for "sea monster", Nhang receive their nickname from their distinctive appearance. They resemble humanoid reptiles in their natural state, with nictitating membranes and webbed hands/feet that let them thrive in aquatic environments- and more importantly, they are shielded from sunlight so long as they are underwater. While they have an increased vulnerability to damage when their Vitae is low and cannot leave the water for very long, they have a unique Devotion that briefly allows them to steal the appearance of a victim they have recently drained of blood and consumed. 

While uncommon and nearly forgotten by All Night Society, the Nhang are dangerous to other Kindred: according to legend, their ancestors were betrayed and diablerized by a vampire who promised them forms better suited for land, and the Water Serpents have sought revenge ever since. The Strix heard of their grudge and were happy to help...on the condition that any Kindred they found were given up to the Strix.

====Twice-Cursed====
''The Stalkers''

*Notable Bloodlines: Technically any that a Daeva or Nosferatu can take
*Favored Disciplines: Celerity, Obfuscate, Vigor
*Favored Attributes: Dexterity and Strength

The Twice-Cursed have it almost as bad as the revenants do- nobody knows how it happened, but somehow they inherited ''both'' the Daeva and Nosferatu weaknesses at the same time, dooming them to a nasty mix of isolation and thwarted desire. Most of them have settled into the niche of hunting other vampires, in no small part to spite those who aren't nearly as scorned by the All Night Society. It doesn't help that there's a persistent rumor that their curse can spread to other vampires in the wrong circumstances. Rumor has it that there are other forms of Twice-Cursed that similarly blend the weaknesses of two clans together, and they are no doubt just as wretched in their existence.

===Extinct Clans===
====Akhud====
[[File:LogoAkhud.png|150px|right]]
''The Ahranites''
*Notable Bloodlines: Dunia, Rexroth, Stawa
*Favored Disciplines: Celerity, Obfuscate, Praestantia
*Favored Attributes: Strength or Wits

The Akhud are a clan most kindred regard as merely bogeymen and myths, supposedly having been wiped out long ago. They tell that the clan descended from the king of Gomorrah, which was destroyed along with Sodom by God for its wickedness. According to legend, the king of Gomorrah was Embraced and compelled his people along those of Sodom and the lesser cities of Admah, Zeboim, and Bela to commit great sins, ultimately leading to their destruction by fire and brimstone.  

The sons of those cities' kings survived at the expense of becoming vampires themselves, and became obsessed with punishing the ones who led them into ruin. Eventually, a descendant of one of these lost kings' sons summoned a demon called Shaddad in a fit of desperation; the demon (who might have been a Strix) claimed that if all other vampires were slain, they would be granted a new Gomorrah to rule. They may be linked to VII. 

Their weakness is that they have difficulty hurting other members of the clan, mortal descendants of clan members, and other vampires in vinculum to one of the Akhud ''intentionally''. In first edition they also suffered a penalty on derangement rolls.

====Julii====
[[File:Requiem Julii.png|150px|right]]
''The Founders''
*Notable Bloodlines: Ventrue (rumored)
*Favored Disciplines: Animalism (1E), Dominate, Resilience, Vigor (2E)
*Favored Attributes: Presence or Resolve

The Julii ruled the Camarilla in the age of the Roman Empire. They invented the modern Masquerade, a derivation of the Mekhet concept, but merely hid the fact of their existence as creatures of the night, rather than completely disappearing from mortal view. They claim descent from Aulus Julius, childe of Remus, the twin brother of Romulus. Remus was never Embraced but had become a vampire in a pact with the Strix in exchange for serving them after Romulus left him for dead following their dispute over where to found the city that would go on to become Rome. 

This clan disappeared over time, and by the time when the Visigoths sacked Rome in 410 AD they had been wiped out with the Camarilla. Their tenuous grip on their humanity (a side effect of the pact Remus made) probably contributed to their decline, as did their unwise decision to betray the Birds of Dis when the owls started demanding that the clan surrender their mortal relatives to them. 

The specific similarities between the Julii and Ventrue and the fact that the Ventrue didn't seem to exist during the Camarilla's reign lead many to believe that the Ventrue are descended from the Julii, but anything that might hint at the truth has long since vanished to the Fog of Eternity. Some of the Strix might know, but they have no intention of revealing the truth of the matter.

In 2E, some of them did apparently survive through the fall of Rome and the Camarilla, but pretend to be members of other clans. Their clan weakness is now the Strigid Curse, where their Humanity score affects how well they can resist the powers of the Strix and other ephemeral beings. Of course, some might argue that the Striges' intent to finish what they started is a curse in itself.

====Mikhaili====
*Notable Bloodlines: None
*Favored Disciplines: Animalism, Fortitude, Bereschligost
*Favored Attributes: Stamina or Manipulation

Once, the Mikhaili were the most powerful clan in Siberia. They were rare, but they boasted many elders and were said to have possessed very potent blood. But when the Gangrel arrived from the south and east, they began Embracing en masse in a desperate attempt to drive out the invaders- only to dilute their blood so badly that even diablerie could not restore its potency. Now the clan exists only as a cautionary tale warning against Embracing too frequently, though some say that Revenants created by Gangrel whose ancestors diablerized the Mikhaili show lingering traces of their power. 

The original Mikhaili weakness was an uncontrollable urge to enter torpor from the spring to the fall; when they woke up from it, they were invariably starved for blood. On the off-chance any Mikhaili have survived their presumed extinction, their blood has thinned to the point that their Embraces can only create Revenants, meaning that it's still only a matter of time before the clan ceases to exist.

====Pijavica====
*Notable Bloodlines: None
*Favored Disciplines: Animalism, Protean, Resilience
*Favored Attributes: Stamina or Wits

The Pijavica (pronounced pee-yah-veet-sah, meaning "leech" in Serbian) were a particularily strange clan, if they were even kindred. Upon embrace, the embraced would die, their extremities withered, and stomachs swelled massively. If the corpse wasn't simply cremated, it would burst open to reveal a mass of sentient blood. Over the course of 40 nights (provided they didn't die first- and most did, as they were very vulnerable to the weaknesses of vampires and could only subsist on spilled blood and blood from open wounds due to having no way to hunt on their own), the Pijavica "larva" transformed first into a gelatinous blob-thing, then into a shapeshifting mass of flesh, and then finally into a mostly-human looking vampire. They're believed to have died out by the 19th century, probably due to the sheer unlikelihood of their surviving long enough to assume their human form.

It's said a prominent member of the Ordo Dracul had extensively studied Pijavica "larvae" to determine how they reacted to being exposed to different types of blood, but both the research and the researcher were destroyed after a local pack of werewolves expressed their displeasure over the use of their blood for her experiments in the Uratha's...usual manner. The only traces of her work now are just some half-finished notes and smashed specimen jars. 

Their weakness is the Mutative Curse, where they take penalties to their social and mental attributes when their blood potency is below 4 and penalties to their physical attributes when it's above 7.

{{NWoD Clans}}