The Vampiric Standard

[Rosc]

Here's an idea I've been kicking around for a day or two now. Imagine the different kinds of things that present different kinds of vampires. The Underworld movie. Dracula. Vamprie the Masquerade. Blade. Now imagine that each of these variants of Vampires, these bloodlines, all exist in the same world.

The story takes place in America, current time. Your characters have been recetly-added to the ranks of the bloodsucking undead. Much squabbling has been happening between the elders of the Bloodlines, much more so than usual.

In this game, you will be allowed to creatre your own bloodline, with its own supernatural powers and weaknesses. You will be able to play around with what hurts you more and less, but there are some things that are common in all vampires.

- You must drink blood to sustain yourself.
- thanklfully, you've got a pair of retractable fangs to do this with.
- If you drink from a human but don't kill them, they'll be dazed and generally won't remember the encounter. As long as they have enough blood to keep kicking, the bite wound heals automatically. No one's the wiser.
- If caught in the sun's light, you will be destroyed. You'll sleep during the day.
- A stake through the heart will kill you.
- You are undead. You don't need to breathe, and cannot gain nourishment from normal food. The aging process is put on hold. Sexual reproduction is, of course, impossible.
- You regenerate wounds quickly, at supernatural speeds. Such healing leaves no scars behind. A severed limb is still a severed limb, however. And a severed head means one dead vampire.
- A religious symbol is harmless. When held in the hand of someone with true faith, however, it burns like fire.
- Vampire corpses instantly turn to ash.
- A Vampire is created when a another Vampire drains a human dry, and then feeds them at least a drop of their Vampiric Blood. The person who created the new vampire is that vampire's "Sire."

Otherwise, it's fair game. And of course, players are allowed to make characters of the same Bloodline as someone else.

Of course, some Bloodlines claim to have a limited resistance to these properties. Some are only paralized when staked. Some burn more slowly in the sun, and thus can survive for a minute or two if heavily cloaked. Now then, onto character sheets.

Character
Name:
Sex:
Birthplace:
Apparent age:
True age:
Physical description:
Bloodline:
Background:
Position within the Bloodline:
Posessions:

Bloodline (if creating your own)
Name:
Geological origins:
General function:
Primary power:
Lesser power:
Weakness:

And what would this be without an example character?
(still under construction)

Character
Name: Joey Wright
Sex: Male
Birthplace: St. Paul, Minnesota
Apparent age: 23
True age: 23 ...and a half
Physical description: Joey's that skinny, almost sickly looking fellow walking down the street with a hunched posture and his hands in the pockets of his sports jacket. His beady brown eyes are low, but they often dart around. His head is covered in dirty-colored brown hair, which is cut very short. Jeans a size too large hang over his worn sneakers as he shuffles about intently.
Bloodline: Kartanna
Background: Jeoy was the kinda guy that knew people. And not just his neighbors, either. He had connections in the underworld. This, coupled with a love of firearms and a general dislike of authority, lead him to become an illegal arms dealer. Joey was close to breaking into the big games, but had an unfortunate accident that would've killed him, had his Sire not been the one behind it all. Now he does more or less the same work as before, but misses out on the daytime shipments.
Position within the Bloodline: Now Joey works as an arms supplier for the clan. When his fellow Kartanna need a good heater, Joey's usually the guy to go to. He also sells weapons to other vampires... at a higher price, of course.
Posessions: Besides the clothes on his back and the gun in his pocket, he's got a rundown downtown appartment with no windows. In siad appartment he's got a few changes of clothes, three pistols hidden thoughout the house, and a shotgun. Spare ammo for them all, of course. The rest of his gun collection varies, as it's constantly being bought and sold. He owns an old blue van (with a spare set of alternate license places in the back) that he usually makes his shipment runs with.

Bloodline
Name: Kartanna
Geological origins: The Kartanna can trace their eldest members to South America, and many say that they had strong connections with the Aztek Warriors. But that warrior's spirit they talk about rarely shows up in your average shifty Kartanna.
General function: Up until recently, the Kartanna have worked in most Vampire armies, serving as shock troops against Vampire hunters and Vampires alike. But as of late, they've grown tired of being used as pawns and meat puppets. Many of their blood have withdrawn from service, mush to the dismay of their past employers. As a whole, they've given the middle finger to Vampire high society.
Primary power: Members of this bloodline have an enhanced fortitude and threshhold for damage. They can take a greater degree of physical punishment than most of the other Vampires, which makes them exilent soldiers.
Lesser power: Vampires of the Kartanna bloodline have enhansed senses, giving them an enhanced perseption of their surroundings. Generally, they can only concentrate on one enhanced sense at a time, and they are more vulnerable to things such as loud noises, bright lights and horrible smells if they aren't careful.
Weakness: While the Kartanna are strong in the flesh, they don't turn out to look quite pretty for it. While normal vampires heal flesh as though it had never been cut, wounds closed on Kartanna leave hideous scars. Younger members of the bloodline are usually fine, but as they grow older, they most often grow uglier. Kartana elders look like Frankenstien-esque monsters.

One last thing I have to note. The potency of a Bloodline's power depends on the user. And the user's potency depends upon their age. So younglings can't hold a candle to their Sires, who are most often helpless against the elders.

[Lestat]

Now this looks to be a damned good idea. Hopefully SOMEONE else will join up, but you can pen me in just in case. I do like my vampires (pretty obvious from my username).

So...

Name: Cain Crimson
Sex: Male
Birthplace: Los Angeles, California
Apparent age: 19
True age: 24
Physical description: Cain is that rare breed of person who carries themselves well despite a somewhat shabby appearance. His dark brown hair is of medium length, and tied back in a short ponytail, but with bangs that he gells into an anime-style shape. Strangely, since his sireing it has started to go grey. His cool blue eyes sparkle with an uncanny light, yet deep within one can see the five years of uncomfortable unlife reflected in them. He wears a dirty grey buttoned shirt, with the first few buttons undone, which is untucked and slightly too large for him. He also sports a pair of torn, black cargo trousers and scuffed black leather boots.
Bloodline: Spirit Hand
Background: Cain grew up in a trendy part of LA with his twin brother Abel. However, shortly after the twins turned 19, a gang fight spread to their neighbourhood. Cain's parents were killed, and Abel disappeared. He was about to be killed in the crossfire, when a mysterious young man appeared and swept him away. The man introduced himself as Drew, and offered Cain a new life as a member of the Spirit Hand Bloodline. Having nothing to his name, and seemingly little to live for, Cain accepted and was sired. Five years later, he is very close to being released from his servitude to Drew.
Position within the Bloodline: Senior initiate
Posessions: Kris knife that he took from his human home. Drew procured a house on the outskirts of the suburbs, where the two vampires store their coffins.

Bloodline
Name: Spirit Hand
Geological origins: The Spirit Hand are rumoured to have originated in Egypt. Certainly, there are several elders who still reside there. In recent centuries they have spread to eastern Europe, and a small number of wanderers set up a coven in America in the late 19th Century.
General function: The Spirit Hand's unusual power made them invaluable soldiers, and they often served as officers in vampire armies. However, many members value the art of one-on-one combat as apposed to large-scale warfare, and it is more common for a Spirit Hand to be a mercenary, or simply a drifter looking for a worthy challenge. A few elders still act as generals however.
Primary power: The Spirit Hand absorb a portion of the spirit of their dead victims as well as blood. This spirit energy cumulates and can be formed into an energy melee weapon that manifests itself around the vampire's primary hand. However, these weapons draw upon the blood circulating in the vampire's system to maintain their power in the physical realm.
Lesser power: Spirit Hand vampires, due to their unique power, are extremely sensitive to spirit energy. They are therefore more likely to track their prey or enemies by their spirit, and with training they can even deduce age, sex and emotion from a spirit signature
Weakness: Obviously, overuse of the spirit weapons can severely weaken a Spirit Hand by consuming his or her blood. They are also weaker against religious faith than most vampires. Most of them will give places of worship a wide berth if the belief within is strong. Naturally though, if a foolish human with no faith attempts to use Christian methods to repel the Spirit Hand it will have no effect, and many of them will become very angry and tear the human to shreds.

[Rosc]

Cripes y hoi, someone replied! For a second there, I was affraid that his one was going to rot in a dark corner...

Alright, I'm glad to see you like the idea. I'm going to be working on it a bit, and waiting for other players to see if they arrive. I'd like at least 1 other player to join

[amnclown]

i hope this isnt to late sounds like this would be fun to run with



Character
Name: brock
Sex: male
Birthplace: Phoenix, AZ
Apparent age: 23
True age: 23
Physical description: athletic brock used to play football so he looks like he keeps himself in shape. black hair brown eyes about 5'11"
Bloodline: lilitu
Background: brock got into partying hard in college and finished with a degree in pyshical therapy. one night when brock was walking home late he saw a women being attacked by a man in a alley and rushed to help, not knowing both were vampires of rival bloodlines. brock was easly thrown aside but took the attention from the female vampire. her reward to him was more then he could have imagined. he now serves her as a assasian teaching him the way to kill other vampires and humans alike.
Position within the Bloodline: initiate
Posessions: lilitu took all he had and took it away from him. during training he was given a wakazachi or a small 8" katana like weapon. along with his weapon of choice the lilitu have granted him a below ground loft which is close by his sires residence to protect him during the day. during the night he travels either by foot or one of the vehicles the lilitu compound has in thier garage.

Bloodline (if creating your own)
Name: lilitu
Geological origins: Babylonian era
General function: lilitu is known for thier knowledge in martial ways and lost arts of assasination. theh have been hired by various clans to terminate unwanted political figures or elders that have diffrent ideas then others.
Primary power: in the shadows the lilitu can literally dissapear into thin air only to reappear in antother shadow behind thier foe.
Lesser power: lilitu members are granted a lesser power inabling them to jump from great heights to get the jump on a foe and attack from above.
Weakness: they are not as strong as thier advisaries in areas like strength or vigor. they are silent killers meant to kill from the shadows or from on hight they are not front line soldiers.

[Rosc]

EDIT: Alright, things are going wel. I got two palyers and I've started the RP.

One thing I'd like you to notice is that I've changed the rules slightly, ading a new bit that says you can drink from a person and not kill them. Check it out.

That, and one thing I'd like to say about your "Position within the clan". Perhaps I didn't word it right. I didn't mena it as a way of saying that you're new and not an elder yet, I meant it to say what you do within your clan. After all, your clan alders msut have aproved of your embrace for SOME reason or another. So.. of you two could edit your psots a bit, that would be nice. Having a function within hte bloodline makes it easier for me to move the sorty along, hehe.

[Rosc]

Sorry to double post, but there's something I must address to one of the players.

amnclown, You seemed to have procured a katana, even though your profile says your posessions were taken. How, exactly, is that so? No, you know what, nevermind. I'll let you have a Katana (even though traditional ninja didn't use that weapon)

But please, PLEASE update your character sheet with an actual inventory. If you don't put anything there, then I'll assume that all you own is that katana and a set of clothes. And a set of clothes won't keep you sheltered come next sunrise....

[amnclown]

sorry about that, while i was writing i noticed brock had no weapon, my bad i edited my profile pls look it over and tell me if it going to be up to adiquette. also his weapon is not a ninja weapon but more of japanese decent Wakizashi. its similar to a katana but not as long.

[Rosc]

Alright... we got the RP going and stuff. Anyone else want to join? I could totally use another character or two.