The Requiem chronicle allows for a measure of customization in the
form of Bloodlines. While there are only five Clans, any Vampire with
a blood potency of six or greater may focus their blood to establish a
bloodline. Once established, a Vampire who is descended from the
originator of the bloodline may activate their bloodline once they
reach blood potency two with the expenditure of a willpower dot. If a
Vampire wishes to join a bloodline they are not descended from, they
may do so at blood potency four. Joining a bloodline you are not a
descendant of also requires and Avus, or mentor within the bloodline,
who expends a willpower point and at least one Vitae, and the
expenditure of a willpower dot on the part of the joining member.
Once a Vampire joins a bloodline, they may not join any other
bloodline or force their blood to leave the bloodline.

White Wolf establishes several bloodlines to provide examples of the
style and flavor that bloodlines are supposed to take in the Requiem
chronicle. These bloodlines are already established by NPCs in the
Requiem source material, so players may app up to participate without
the founder's permission. Some remain unique to a particular area and
are relatively small; others are larger and more widespread.
Affiliates in which the bloodline originated may approve members at
high. All other affiliates may approve members at the top level to
represent the rarity of such members outside the country of
origination.

Custom bloodlines are those bloodlines created by players in the
Requiem chronicle. All player developed bloodlines require a player
character with a minimum of blood potency six to establish the
bloodline. Once a PC meets these requirements, the player must expend
a permanent willpower off their character sheet. Once that is done,
the bloodline has been established. Characters that come into play
having already created a bloodline in their history do have to expend
the willpower trait. (edit: Dec04 - this was a typo)

Next comes the part that makes a bloodline truly unique, the
development of the weakness and the process by which the discipline is
selected or created. Weakness creation is relatively undefined;
players should simply develop something appropriate to the clan and
bloodline that has hard mechanics for implementation. Bear in mind
that any bloodline weakness is in addition to and stacks with the
parent clan weakness.

Discipline development is a little trickier than bloodline weaknesses.
Some disciplines come easier than others. Understandably, the easiest
disciplines to manifest in a bloodline are the physical disciplines or
those found commonly amongst the Vampire community such as animalism
and obfuscate. Consequently, these are among the most prevalent
bloodline disciplines and are the easiest to justify. In the
Camarilla, we convey this ease of manifestation by only requiring Mid
approval to incept a bloodline with one of these five disciplines.

More difficult to incept as a bloodline discipline are the uncommon
Clan disciplines such as Auspex, Dominate, Majesty, Protean, and
Nightmare. While not unheard of, this process generally requires
significant time and energy to develop. High applications should be
detailed and well thought out with solid justifications. Not only will
storytellers look qualitatively at the application, but they will
apply factors such as game balance and demographics.

In unique situations, some bloodlines might be able to incept truly
wondrous powers never seen before. Global sanctioning through the
MST's office will allow players to apply for unique bloodline
discipline sets designed around the feel of the bloodline. Heavy
scrutiny will be applied by all levels of the storyteller chain,
especially by the MST's office and the affiliate NSTs to ensure
compatibility in the global chronicle.
 
 

Steps to Bloodline Sanctioning

1. Create a PC with blood potency six to be the founder of the
bloodline.

2. Organize others who might be potential players in your
bloodline

3. Determine the approval level of your bloodline and develop
your applications using pages 254-265 of Vampire: the Requiem and the
bloodline presentation format. * See Attached.

4. The player with the blood potency six PC should put an
application in the database for the requisite approval level.

5. Once the bloodline is approved, each player who wishes to play
a PC in the bloodline should put in an application for the requisite
approval level.

* Attachment: White Wolf Bloodline Presentation Format

Bloodline Name

Description: Some words about the general attitudes and disposition of
the bloodline in question. Include a reference to its parent clan.
Make it understandable why this is a bloodline - no bloodline exists
because some writer made up a cool new Discipline and needs somewhere
to stick it. What is the ecology of why this bloodline is different
from the parent clan? Give us an idea of history, the founder of the
bloodline (if it's known), when the bloodline first appeared (if it's
known), etc.

Parent Clan: The clan from which the bloodline originally hails.
Nickname: Vulgar lexicon reference for the bloodline.

Sect: A few words about the clan's relationships to the sects. Please
include all sects, such as "The Zargles often find themselves to be
followers in the Invictus but leaders among those unbound who observe
a hierarchy, and among the most devout of the Sword of Cain. Carthian
philosophy is sometimes a bit sterile for the Zargles, though some
members'
passions are fired by the modern scale of Carthian politics. They
occasionally find a place among the Circle of the Crone, but certainly
in the minority of that sect's members." Cover all the sects.

Appearance: This should be fairly straightforward.

Haven: Ditto.

Background: From which realms of society and what sorts of
personalities does the clan tend to Embrace?

Bloodline Disciplines: List the four proposed in-clan disciplines
here.

Weakness: Outline the bloodline's drawback here. Remember that this is
in addition to the parent clan's weakness and should have defined
mechanics.

Organization: Give us some idea of how bloodline hierarchy operates.
Does the bloodline have formal titles? Rites or customs it observes?
If it's a regionally based bloodline, where is it strongest?

Concepts: From 10 to a dozen brief descriptions of suitable character
concepts, beginning with the straightforward/archetypal and ranging to
the less immediately obvious but still accessible. You can give one
utterly incongruous concept per clan, but don't feel like you have to
and still keep it within the realm of sense and mood.

Quote: A flavor-setting quotation from a member of the clan. It
doesn't need an attribution (that is, we don't need to know who's
saying it), but I want it italicized.

History:
Origin stories, creation myths or other background on the bloodline.
The nature of this entry will vary from bloodline to bloodline. Some
will have spiritual takes on how vampires began while others will have
very straightforward accounts of clan origin.

Society and Culture:
What do vampires of your bloodline do? What's the gimmick? As a player
of one, what sorts of crazy stuff am I going to end up dealing with?

Bloodline Discipline:
If you are creating a custom unique bloodline discipline, here is
where you describe it. You should outline five levels of your
discipline, but no more. Players should utilize Vampire: the Requiem,
pages 254-265 in the creation of their bloodline discipline. This will
be the model by which the application is judged, so it is important
the bloodline discipline conform to this.

Bloodlines mentioned in WW books that have no detailed write-up
aren’t truly available as player characters as there are no full
details of their backgrounds, histories, characteristics and
special powers. WW/the MST’s office may provide detailed write-ups
of those bloodlines in the future; players should not detail those
bloodlines themselves although they are available to play (with
the traits of their parent Clan) as custom bloodlines; the sole
difference – for the time being – is purely titular and/or social.

Custom Covenants

So you want to create a covenant?

One of the most exciting feature of the Requiem game world is that
players have the opportunity to create their own political factions.
These factions can be quite varied but often have a philosophical
foundation upon which the Covenant is based. This allows for a more
dynamic and rich setting in which players can influence the setting
and direction of our game.

Step One: The Coterie.
All Covenants had their beginnings as Coteries. A group of Kindred
come together and unite under a common goal. Once you have your core
group of Kindred you can begin politicking in a fashion that allows
you to recruit more to your cause. There is no guideline on the size
and structure that you need to fully accomplish this step, simply
focus on the initial development and make it sound.

Step Two: The Social Movement.
If you've developed your Coterie and begun politicking, you should
easily have recruits in multiple cities that believe in a similar
philosophy. Find some way to organize, either by establishing a
mission, charter, or some other identifying feature. A strong social
movement should cross domain and regional lines and has at least ten
coteries.

Step Three: The Covenant.
Now that your Social Movement is strong and has connections that span
regions, you may begin the move to be recognized as a fledgling
Covenant. To attain official sanctioning to be classified as a
Covenant, your group must meet these two minimum requirements: Ten
Coteries, located in ten different domains and two regions. Fifty PC's
represented by fifty Camarilla members in good standing. Bear in mind
that meeting the minimum requirements does not guarantee Covenant
status, you will need to submit an application to the AAMST - Requiem.
Applications should be thorough and include details such as locations
and numbers of the Coteries as well as the character names, player
names, and membership numbers of all participants. The MST's office
will be looking for applications that enrich the culture of the
Requiem continuity and develop the Requiem material in ways that
preserve or enhance White Wolf's vision of the Requiem universe.

Step Four: Covenant Development.
After you have gained global sanctioning by the MST's office to be
recognized as a Covenant, you can then develop your Covenant and it's
goals on a global level. As you grow your Covenant and develop it's
focus, you can apply for custom mechanics that emulate the advantages
or specialized disciplines or powers of the five established Covenant.
There are no established rules, but as a general guideline the
Covenant must cross Global boundaries and hold significant numbers to
be a challenge to the five established Covenants. While not
impossible, this will be a huge undertaking that most Covenants will
never achieve. Players should keep this in mind and focus more on the
role-play aspects of developing an in-character organization.