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The Assamite.
Topic Started: Aug 5 2016, 01:01 AM (8 Views)
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The Assamites are one of the thirteen vampire clans of the Classic World of Darkness. Based in their hidden fortress Alamut in the Middle East, they are traditionally seen by Western Kindred as dangerous assassins and diablerists, but in truth they are guardians, warriors and scholars who seek to distance themselves from the Jyhad. Throughout their history, they have remained self-sufficient and independent clan.

Due to their inherent clan weakness, Assamites grow darker with age.

Warrior Caste Weakness: The Warrior Caste suffers from an addiction to vampire vitae and an aura stained by diablerie. Even if they have never actually engaged in diablerie, their aura shows their blood lust clearly.

Sorceror Caste Weakness: Any use of Aura Perception on the Sorcerer Caste reveals that he practices blood magic, even if the character has no knowledge of Thaumaturgy or Assamite Sorcery and even if the observer fails on the static mental challenge required to read the sorcerer's emotional state.

Vizier Caste Weakness: The Vizier Caste has an Obsessive/Compulsive derangement that is related to the creative or intellectual ability in which he has the most Ability traits.



Organization

Before recent events, the main Clan was strongly unified, based on their ancestral home base Alamut. Traditionally headed by the Eldest, and supported by the Du'at, the Clan focused inward, sending his assassins out to gather blood for the alchemical potions the experiments of the sorcerers to break the blood curse. The Council of Scrolls was responsible for introducing new technology into the Clan and investigating recent developments outside Alamut.

Each Caste was headed by it's respective representative; the Caliph for the warriors, the Amr for the sorcerers, and the Vizier for the viziers. The protection of them lay in the hands of the Silsila.



Assamite Antritribu

The Assamite antitribu are almost identical to their non-Sabbat counterparts, except that they accept all races into their clan, granting membership to anyone with a warrior's heart. Also, most importantly, they were never subjected to the Curse of the Tremere. The Assamites of the Sabbat are free to drink the blood of all Vampires. Because of this, they may be considered a separate bloodline from all other Assamites.

The Assamites of the Sabbat, acting on the request of the Sabbat leaders, severed all direct association to the Assamite clan. The Sabbat Assamites have since that time made peace with their former clan. Assamite Antitribu will not battle non-Sabbat Assamites, and Assamites have never warred against the Sabbat Assamites. This unspoken understanding is at least recognized by Sabbat leaders.

The Assamite antitribu are the primary assassins of the Sabbat. However, they do not ask for blood from the leaders of the sect. Instead, they ritually slay the eldest of their own clan every 100 years through a special diablerie ceremony. This elder has some of the blood of the Lasombra founder, a third generation vampire, running through his veins. The elder exists for a century as the closest Assamite antitribu to Caine himself, ruling under the title Hulul. At the end of the 100-year reign, the next in line drinks the precious vitae from the previous ruler, and so it passes it through history.

With the breaking of the Tremere Curse by Ur-Shulgi, many Elders, including the current Hulul, of the antitribu, who have joined the sect to escape the humiliation of submitting to the blood wizards, have returned to Alamut and joined the Loyalist forces. Conversly, many young Assamites have fled to the Sabbat in order to escape the harsh laws under the new Eldest.



Culture

As a whole, the Children of Haqim hold themselves apart from the political squabbles of other Cainites. This is due in part to geography, at least before the advent of mechanized transportation, but mainly to a subtle sense of superiority. The Children like to feel that they have no need to resort to politics to achieve their aims. This is not to say that no member of the line is incapable of subtlety – indeed, many viziers have achieved great success in the political arena – but rather that the clan culture, such as it is, is predisposed toward more direct solutions. Of course, this political isolation has also had its drawbacks. Absence from the intrigues of the Damned means lack of enemies, but also of allies, which resulted in the isolated stance of the Caln after the formation of the Camarilla. Also, most Assamites are inexperienced in the games of power and Prestation other Kindred have played for millenias. Assamites are divided into three castes, which often have a semi-antagonistic relationship with each other. While all Assamites grow dark with age, have access to Quietus as a clan Discipline, and have a weakness related to some form of lust so powerful that it stains their aura, the different castes also have different Disciplines and weaknesses. The castes are all hereditary, that is a warrior Assamite will always sire warrior caste childer and never sorcerers or viziers. Despite this, the three castes are considered equally close to the Antediluvian Haqim who is said to have sired Assamites of all three types in the Second City.

Warrior Assamites are the primary fighters of the clan. They are the Assamites most likely to take assassination contracts and most likely to adhere to the Path of Blood. When other vampires think of Assamites, they are most likely to picture a warrior.

Younger Warriors typically came from Islamic countries, and may mix the tenants of the Path of Blood with Islamic ideas about holy war. They are often fanatical and ready to die for the cause. Elder Warriors may come from other religions entirely, and see themselves more as judges (and executioners) than as holy warriors or assassins.

Their weakness is an addiction to vampire vitae and an aura stained by diablerie. Even if they have never actually engaged in diablerie, their aura shows their blood lust clearly.



Embraces

Assamites typically try to embrace someone who will be 'useful' to the clan as a whole. This most often means someone who be willing to fight and die for the clan's (or at least their sire's) goals. However, during the long period that the clan labored under the Tremere blood curse, people may also have been embraced for knowledge in a specific (often obscure) area. Typically this had something to do with sorcery or medical research involving blood, but may also have included more obscure areas of research as well.

Assamites typically choose people with somewhat obsessive personalities for the Embrace. As they are typically involved with either hunting down miscreants or conducting obscure research, they tend to be highly motivated individuals. This often results in Assamites picking individuals who are fanatically devoted to a cause, religion, theory, or activity. The various caste flaws and the training they undergo after the Embrace tends to accentuate this even more. Thus Assamites can be said to select childer that will be eager to chase down their prey no matter how long it takes or how far they must go. That prey may be a physical target, an obscure piece of knowledge, or even pursuing the perfection of an art form.

The Assamites draw most of their childer from the Middle East, North Africa and surrounding areas, but this does not mean they are all Arab. They also Embrace childer from the Indian subcontinent, Persians, Turks, Malays, Central Asia groups such as the Uzbeks and Kazaks, and various Mediterranean groups. Assamites from European or far Eastern ethnic groups aren't unheard of, but are not common.

When thinking of the Assamites, most other vampires assume they will be Muslim. While they do draw the majority of their childer from the Middle East and other Muslim countries, this does not mean all Assamites are Muslims. While most are, and some Assamites from pre-Islamic times converted, it is not considered the official Assamite religion by any stretch of the imagination. Many elder Assamites come from pre-Islamic cultures practicing some form of animism or ancestor worship. Some are Jews, Christians, or Zoroastrianism, as these were also common in the area before the coming of Islam, and are still present in the modern era, though to a lesser extent. Virtually any religious background is acceptable for an Assamite, being a Muslim is just most likely.

Assamites tend to Embrace more men than women overall. In 1st edition sources, it was even indicated that they did not Embrace women at all until roughly 200 years ago. Later editions refuted this. They still tend to embrace more men than women.


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Quietus

Quietus is the signature Discipline of the Assamites that grants them influence over the blood of others. Though each of the Assamite castes possesses Quietus as an in-clan Discipline, it is primarily known for being an assassin's tool in the hands of the Warrior caste, and the lower level powers are largely geared towards that end. Developed by the Assamite Antediluvian, Haqim, in ages past, its use by his descendants is associated with passing judgment on Cainites and protecting mortals from their depredations. One strange side effect of such power over blood, however, is that it seems to leave bloodlines with an affinity for Quietus vulnerable to blood curses.

Official Abilities

Standard Abilities
  • Level One - Silence of Death : Make the area around you completely silent
  • Level Two - Scorpion's Touch : Create a contact poison that greatly debilitates a victim physically
  • Level Three - Dagon's Call : Cause harm from afar to a person who you have touched within the last hour
  • Level Four - Baal's Caress : An expansion on Scorpion's Touch, it allows the Vampire to transform his/her blood into a poison that destroys living or undead flesh
  • Level Five - Blood Essence: Extract the heart's blood of a vampire as a thick liquid that can later be consumed, granting the effects of diablerie
  • Level Five - Taste of Death: Spit acidic blood at a target



If you wish to know more about Quietus, please click here to visit White Wolf Wikia.


Obfuscate

Obfuscate is a Discipline that allows vampires to conceal themselves and create some manner of illusions. It is one of the more popular Disciplines practiced by Cainites, and is the source of legends surrounding the ability of vampires to vanish and appear seemingly from nowhere. Obfuscate is mentally based; its powers achieve their effects by manipulating the minds of others, not in creating any real changes, and thus will not work against creatures immune to such mental effects or technological sensors. Vampires with levels of Auspex may also bypass the effects of Obfuscate, as described on pg. 152 of Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition.

Official Abilities

Standard Abilities
  • Level One - Cloak of Shadows : Remain hidden so long as you do not move.
  • Level Two - Unseen Presence: Become invisible to others so long as you do not attract attention
  • Level Three - Mask of a Thousand Faces: Change your appearance and mannerisms to mimic someone else
  • Level Four - Vanish/Fade from the Mind's Eye: Disappear right from in front of someone
  • Level Five - Cloak the Gathering: Extend your Obfuscate powers to a group.



If you wish to know more about Obfuscate, please click here to visit White Wolf Wikia.


Celerity

Celerity is a Discipline that grants vampires supernatural speed and finesse by expending vitae. Normally each dot provides an additional action that can be used for movement, attacking, or other physical feats in a single round without penalties for multiple actions. This extraordinary speed violates the laws of physics in that the Cainite doesn't experience any change in momentum, friction, etc. A knife thrown by someone using Celerity isn't any faster, and a vampire moving at incredible speeds will never catch fire no matter how fast they move.

Unofficial Abilities

Standard Abilities
  • Level One - If the vampire sees/knows that a certain person is going to perform an action, they are able to use their Celerity to react faster in response. For example: if they know an opponent is going to draw a gun, they can use level 1 Celerity to draw your gun before they do. However, you need knowledge that they're going to do it before you complete this action, such as seeing them reach for their gun.
  • Level Two -The vampire's movement speed is at constant peak human sprint speed.
  • Level Three - The vampire's movement speed is double the speed of anyone that doesn't possess Celerity.
  • Level Four - The vampire's movement speed is triple the speed of anyone that doesn't possess Celerity.
  • Level Five - The vampire moves in a blur when running with Celerity activated.



If you wish to know more about Celerity, please click here to visit White Wolf Wikia.


Assamite Antitribu

Assamite Antitribu have the same Disciplines as the main clan.


[ * Credit to Caine of Vampire: The Masquerade Roleplay on Habbo. * ]
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