casualvoidgoopfreak

[casualvoidgoopfreak]

"Den Mother of these mothers, and one pissed off bitch"

[casualvoidgoopfreak]

[casualvoidgoopfreak]

LILITH

AHI HAY LILITU. i raised a garden out of emptiness and fruit from barren soil.

vampire the masquerade notable kindred series — click here for more

[casualvoidgoopfreak]

I just know Damsel would have some creative insults for this crowd

The camarilla girls

You can tell my art style is not very consistent huh

[casualvoidgoopfreak]

👁

[casualvoidgoopfreak]

Finished a major uni assignment. Time for a pint and some light reading ;)

[casualvoidgoopfreak]

So I've been seeing the post about no good guys in VtM and I agree with that sentiment wholeheartedly. But it and others I've seen that talk about the sects still give the Anarchs too much credit towards being the good guy faction in my opinion.

I commonly see the Anarchs explained as a faction that wanted to escape the Camarilla, they wanted freedom, they chafed under the strict rules, and other similar sentiments. I can believe this would be prevalent in younger, post y2k kindred. Older kindred I can't see having such fanciful ideals. Describing them by those terms is painting them in good guy colors.

MacNeil had some righteous cause behind him, but what pushed him to being a leader of the second Anarch revolt was his own personal embarrassment. I think this is pretty vampire(tm). He had plenty of reason to want to take down Don Sabastian but ultimately lied to allies and hid behind the righteous cause to mask him taking revenge. The thing about perpetuating violence is that you have to keep being violent. It's not like if he just decided to stop, he'd be allowed to live peacefully. He has to keep fighting. Very Brujah of him, honestly. Also, the fact Don Sebastian was cartoonishly evil, so people were just ready to take him down and the Anarch revolt presented an opportunity for others. But back to the sect as a whole,

The new wave of Anarchs was formed by the two most volatile clans and that bleeds into the basic way Anarch cities are ruled, might makes right. There is no formal process for being a Baron or any kind of foundation for how leadership is chosen other than, if you dont like it, do something about it. For kindred already in positions of power this presents and opertunity to take more power and control without something like the ivory tower and its agents as watchdogs. If they are a baron then no one is above them to tell them no, that would be up to the subjects of the baron and the other barons. It's a balancing act of how much they can squeeze out of the other kindred without pushing them to fight back, not so much unlike how a Prince would act. The main difference is a baron has a lot less buffers than a prince so the baron has to actually put a lot more effort into maintaining this

I'll concede there may be some barons out there doing it for the cause and practicing actual fairness, but painting the Anarchs as freedom fighters and liberators of the oppressed just shows the veil righteousness is working. They also still treat thinbloods like shit so you see how far their righteousness stretches.

Anyways,

All Camarilla are bastards

Anarchs are self-righteous assholes

Sabbat are zealot monsters

Hecata want to do funky things with your corpus

Vampires are all one frenzy away from being irredeemable

Ramble over, feel free to refute me or share your opinion!

[casualvoidgoopfreak]

i thought about this for 2 weeks

[casualvoidgoopfreak]

This is something I think people miss about V5’s humanity system. I’ve heard a lot of people complain that it “locks you into the path of humanity” and I just can’t get behind that.

Humanity in older editions presented itself as “doing immoral things makes you less human” which on top of being iffy on numerous levels, just didn’t really allow for characters to have different moral frameworks like real people do (granted Dark Ages V20 solves this issue somewhat with it’s roads and paths system, but it’s not perfect imo). You either followed the path of humanity (in which stealing makes you less human) or you followed one of the sabbat paths which guaranteed that you were playing a monster.

At least the way *I* interpret V5’s humanity system is not that simply doing bad things makes kindred less human (after all, you can come up with all manner of justification for horrible acts which would not lead to stains) but instead that what makes them less human is betraying *themselves*. Giving up your ideals, whatever they may be, in order to satisfy the beast is what makes you loose humanity not because it makes you evil, but because it destroys your *self*.

Granted I’m not sure this interpretation is the dominant one even amongst the writers themselves, so I’m not declaring some secret genius of authorial intent. I’m just sharing an interpretation I think is cool

Can i say? I LOVE v5 touchstones as a concept, but i feel like a lot is missing out from v5 effectively removing the paths of enlightenment. (And no i dont count whatever they did in the sabbat book)

In v5 touchstones are human representation of specific morals the vampire holds, but with how v5 talks about them (or rather barely mentions them) they feel more like memorabilia and the need for them to be human or living gets lost. (Ive seen several people complain about them having to be human and i myself complained about it in the past).

I feel like them being tied to paths/roads of enlightenment or the games just generally putting more light on the passage from human to cainite/kindred and the changes in morality would really make this mechanic shine

A touchstone not necessarily as a person you care/cared about and now you cling to, but a touchstone as the living representation of the core values of your character.

If you mix it with paths of enlightenment, you effectively give your character a tangible goal, even if said touchstone is not on the path of enlightenment, while giving the character the illusion of humanity (if [touchstone] acts just like i do on this path, surely it means im still somewhat human!)

Also the frenzy mechanics with it OUGHH become so tasty. Harm and Death of a touchstone becomes harm to the core values of the vampire. You don't frenzy because someone you care about is dying/dead, you are frenzying because what makes you a person has been proven to be weak, breakable and maybe even wrong. And of course having your core values challenged would make anyone defensive

[casualvoidgoopfreak]

moment of unspeakable beauty today when one of my coworkers called another coworker "judas" for not splitting a can of white monster with her, and i got to watch the guy who sits next to me open a new google tab, type in "jeudis," and say quietly to himself "french thursday...?"

[casualvoidgoopfreak]

NAGARAJA

real terror is not the sight of death, it is the fear of death. what is the fear of death? terror of the UNKNOWN.

vampire the masquerade clan series — click here for more

[casualvoidgoopfreak]

Rooney Mara as Mary Magdalene smoking a cigarette beneath crucified Jesus

[casualvoidgoopfreak]

Oliver Prescott is a grade-A, all American prick. A ruthless businessman at a life insurance firm in life, he was controlling, perfectionist, excellent at climbing the corporate ladder and kicking down those beneath him. In other words, he was a perfect candidate for the Tremere.

Oliver has gotten pretty far in the Hartford chantry despite his relative youth; even becoming an ambassador to the Boston Camarilla. With this status comes status symbols, and none he values more than his ghoul Kyla.

Kyla Ducheski has known nothing but servitude her whole life, first to her family, then upon reaching adulthood, trading hands between many Tremere domitors until after over a century, finding herself in the possession of Prescott. In the absence of a pyramid bound by blood, ghouls have become an essential part of the chantry structure, carrying out orders that errant childer may not be trusted with. Kyla fills this role very nicely for Oliver; or so he believes

[casualvoidgoopfreak]

Ida, the wise Sabbat's priest. She'll share her wisdom with you if you agree to listen

[casualvoidgoopfreak]

Here’s an old piece of art of Vincenza and Viola dancing in their garden.

Sadly, life got in the way and I had to stop playing in that chronicle, retiring the characters, but I like to imagine they’re still dancing in the rose garden together.

Happy Valentine’s Day my kindred

[casualvoidgoopfreak]

Update: the architecture company did not like the horrible flesh spider.

I wonder if the architecture company I applied to will appreciate the horrible flesh spider I sent them

[casualvoidgoopfreak]

I wonder if the architecture company I applied to will appreciate the horrible flesh spider I sent them