They want your freedom in exchange for safety. They want your soul in exchange for blessing. They want your body so they can “improve” you. They want to you to show up for coffee and donuts and talk about revolution.
They want all that. But they’re getting your middle finger. Because you’re free. Your secrets are yours to keep or share. Your soul is yours to mold or discard. And your conscience? It shuts up and does as it’s told.
<Click here for the working draft of the Circle of the Crone>
(If reposting, please don’t copy and paste. I sometimes make minor changes while the docs are on display.)
“suspiciously friendly laird of the manor” – summer is a-coming in!
I made kind of an offhand reference to 70s horror in the redlines, and Wood stuck that in. 🙂
Hmm… The talk about being free and the bliss of monstrosity and hunts and human sacrifices and such makes me think that the Invictus and Lancea Sanctum are probably going to vote their local Cronies as “most likely to become a crazy draugr”. But then again, I have Humanity on my mind lately.
“the name they give to their vicious and open-ended system of vicious blood magic.”
vicious vicious vicious vicious vicious vicious vicious
In a “default” city, that’s probably exactly what they think. They have good reason to, but the average Acolyte has a strong sense of self, and a Touchstone(s)* the same as any other vampire… they’re just individual or micro-community focused, instead of subscribing to an ideal that comes from above.
An Acolyte views Kindred society as people he hangs out with either because he wants to or because he has to, not because he agrees with their institutions. Like the doc says — Acolytes have their own morality, they just don’t get it from up top. (In practice, that might describe members of other covenants, too, but it’s not how they’d characterize themselves.)
Fixed “vicious”… though keep in mind that the playtest docs and now the previews go up without seeing an editor.
* Vampires don’t know about Touchstones (which are also practical, not magical), but they do generally understand that a vampire with ties to humans is less likely to become uncontrollable.
“though keep in mind that the playtest docs and now the previews go up without seeing an editor.”
Yeah, I realize that. The part about blood magic just seemed especially funny to me. It’s really, really vicious. 😛
They’re the viciousest!
If “do as thou wilt” becomes the law under the Circle, I’m afraid to know what happens with Unaligned or Belial’s Brood. While I realize that both groups will likely never seize praxis, the Unaligned at the least can carve out some territory to call their own even at the edges of a city.
This section definitely made the Circle darker in my eyes. While the “we’re not going to take it from you” attitude towards the other covenants seemed like the Circle, the bulk of it (especially the part about a near-constant state of cold war with all of the other covenants) really came across as more of a description of the Brood (granted, a piece of the Brood with an ounce for subtlety).
If Belial’s Brood seizes power, then rather than a savage vampire society without human pretenses, you see a breakdown of any society at all. It’s not “do what thou wilt,” it’s “do the most damage.”
I’m not sure how I’d define the Unaligned seizing power — once a group of them do, they become less Unaligned and more of a local covenant. You’ll be seeing more local covenants as the game goes forward.
As for the Brood comparison, the covenant relations were perhaps a little broad-strokes — I spent a few minutes clarifying them. And as the write-up says, it’s not that the Acolytes don’t have morality or human ties… it’s that those things are personal, not institutional.
To me, that’s part of what makes playing an Acolyte fun. You have a loose spiritual basis to flip your middle finger at any part of vampire society that doesn’t make you better at being a vampire. In practice, you deal with humanity and consequences as much as anyone, but no one’s forcing you to make confession or report back to party headquarters.
Very interesting stuff. I’d be quite interested in seeing the rules for Cruac. Will it be anything like blood magic from Masquerade, like thaumaturgy and fleshcrafting? Or something completely different?