Vampire: The Masquerade Clans Explained

thegamer.com:

As a general rule of thumb, vampires in fictional settings grow stronger the older they get and the more they reproduce. As there's an entire vampire civilization in the setting of Vampire: The Masquerade, it goes without saying that there are some very old vampires who have produced a lot of offspring.

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As a particular quirk of the process by which vampires Embrace humans, characteristics inherent to their lineages are also passed down. This, along with the general tendency of any living thing to form into groups and societies, is what led to the myriad clans that make up the vampire civilization. There are quite a few clans in this universe, each with its own goals, motivations, and perhaps most importantly, weaknesses and compulsions. Let's go into detail about what sets each clan of Vampire: The Masquerade apart from one another.

Unless specifically stated to the contrary, the first rule of any clan is to follow the clan's philosophies to the absolute letter. This isn't just an unspoken law, however; the Blood of a clan carries the genetic memories of the individual that founded it, which means that particular vampire's desires and shortcomings are passed down to their progeny in the form of Disciplines, Banes, and Compulsions.

Disciplines are the particular vampiric abilities that a clan's members specialize in. There is usually some overlap here, but generally, there are some abilities that only certain clans can utilize. Banes are quirks or weaknesses exhibited by members of different clans. Some clans, for example, Embrace in less efficient ways due to their Bane, while others crave a particular kind of victim above all else. However, the most pressing concern