saber de clanes 344257123-V20-Lore-of-the-Bloodlines-11056187-pdf | Page 7

Introduction
“A truth that’s told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.”
- William Blake, Auguries of Innocence
These nights I think a lot about my sire. She was irritable,
frustratingly enigmatic, spoke half in English and half in
Icelandic, and had a tendency to punctuate her lessons
with mortal wounds. Regardless, I still miss the insane
old bat. She was incredibly intelligent, and once I was
released as a vampire (after a grueling dissertation which
required me to recite my 100-page thesis from memory
while the blood was slowly drained from my body), she
lied to me less than any other vampire has.
Now that I think about it, maybe her insistence on the
truth was another one of her petty cruelties.
Anyhow, I thought of her a lot as I worked on my
compilation of the “truths” of the thirteen Clans a couple
of years ago. Having never had a cultural identity that
stems back to one of the grandchilder of Caine (or one of
the grandchilder’s diabolical usurpers), I find the whole
concept fascinating. What must it be like to be Embraced
into a miniature culture complete with thousands of years
of oral history, social expectations, and pre-packaged
enemies? Intellectually I understand the nature and scope
of the Jyhad, but there must be something galling about
having your side chosen for you as soon as your blood
leaves your body. Or maybe it’s comforting, having such
weighty decisions as “who was right” and “why do I need
6
to punch him” taken away from you. Like I said — I find
it fascinating as an outside observer.
But the fact that such an outside observer exists reveals
the existence of an “outside.” For all their perceived
dominance in Kindred society, the Clans are not the only
vampires that strut, if I might steal from the Bard, upon
this great stage of fools. There are the errant Kindred
inaccurately collected under the sobriquet of “bloodlines.”
False starts, biothaumaturgical experiments, and vampires
changed by their very faith — nothing binds these vampires
together neatly, like a mangled and misunderstood legend
of a Biblical grandfather. And yet, while their role in the
eternal conflict between the childer of Caine may be small,
it is often incredibly impactful.
As such, I provide this corollary to my original study. It
would be the work of several lifetimes to find and document
every tiny aberration or fleeting dead end that constitutes a
variation from one of the thirteen. Instead, I have focused
on nine groups that I know for certain have an impact in
our little culture war of the dead. From the brain-washed
abominations of Tremere magic to vampires twisted by
demonic will to the remnants of Clans long thought to
be dead, each of these so-called “bloodlines” have their
place in society. Even our little family of the Kiasyd make
Introduction