Other Notes

Other Notes

**of Note**

Appearance: Daitya come from the Indian subcontinent; therefore, Daitya all look like pale Indians, Sri Lankans, Pakistani, and so on. Skin tone ranges from swarthy to brown, while nearly all Daitya have black hair. In public, they often wear stylish suites or saris like well-off Indian businessmen or their wives. In private they often wear priestly robes. Most Daitya wear the Shivaite cultic mark — a “V” on the forehead with the point at the bridge of the nose. Hundreds of millions of mortal Indians follow the same custom.

They tend to have formidable intellectual and communications Abilities, as befits their role as priest and teacher. Natures and Demeanors both tend toward the scholarly, the mystical and the conservative, although some combinations may seem quite unlikely to Western ways of thinking (for instance, a Deviant Demeanor covering a Traditionalist or Conformist Nature.) Retainers and Herds of cultists are nigh-universal but Daitya have less interest than their Setite cousins in building networks of Allies, Contacts and Influence. The Daitya practice their own versions of the Paths of Typhon and Sutekh, though in game terms most neonates follow Humanity.

Clan Disciplines: Obfuscate, Presence, Serpentis Weaknesses: The Daitya share their Western cousins’ special susceptibility to sunlight and other bright light.

Tlacique: Servants of the Sun When the Conquistadors came to Mexico, the Kindred of Europe came with them. They found cities as large and prosperous as any in the Old World. The Kindred also found vampires already in residence: Nosferatu, Gangrel… and a whole new lineage not hinted at in the most ancient lore. Did the New World also present a new clan? These “Tlacique” claimed descent from Tezcatlipoca, god of night and black magic, and many of them were very old and very powerful. The Kindred assumed that Tezcatlipoca must be a Methuselah and the Tlacique a very old bloodline — from the Gangrel, perhaps, or the Followers of Set. Whatever their origin, the Tlacique did not merely influence the native civilizations. They ruled as gods. The Tlacique shaped the mortals’ whole civilization around cults of blood sacrifice.

The Tlacique intrigued the Kindred, to say the least.

The Old World vampires had not wielded such open dominion since Carthage. Each autonomous clique of Tlacique, consisting of just one elder vampire and his brood, ruled one city. As a city’s fortunes rose and fell, so did the prestige of its ruling clique. The Aztec Empire grew from a triple alliance of three cities and their cliques, who dominated most of the other cities and cliques of Mexico.

At first the mortal Aztecs treated the Spaniards as honored (if dangerous) guests. The Tlacique began cautious negotiations with the Kindred. The Camarilla might have gained an eighth clan, if not for mortal greed.

Some cliques saw the Spanish as a way to break Aztec power and liberate their cities. As history records, several tribes and cities rebelled against the Aztecs and joined the Spanish cause. They, and the Tlacique, horribly misjudged the Spaniards’ power and intentions. The living and undead Mexicans also did not expect the indiscriminate slaughter by smallpox, a disease never seen before in the New World. The Aztec Empire collapsed and the Spanish took everything. The mortal Mexicans became serfs, worked until they dropped to feed the Spaniards’ insatiable appetite for gold. Rightly or not, the Tlacique blamed the Kindred for the debacle. The Spanish might have crushed the mortal Mexicans, but among the undead the war continued.

Then the Sabbat came and the Tlacique made their greatest mistake. The Tlacique decided that the enemies of their enemies were their friends: they allied with the Sabbat against the Camarilla. When the Jyhad ended, however, the Tlacique and Sabbat finally took a good look at each other.

Their erstwhile allies repulsed the Tlacique. The Sabbat enthusiastically copied many Tlacique rituals of blood and death, but they completely missed their meaning. The Sabbat delved into murder as a ritual of celebration, rather than a ceremony of faith. The Tlacique guarded a divine order; the Sabbat’s ideals opposed that very order.

Conversely, the Lasombra leaders of the Sabbat still saw themselves as Catholic (in a perverse and twisted way) and fully supported the mortal Spanish conquest and attempts to Christianize the natives. The Tlacique could serve as allies of convenience, but they were still heathens.

The Tlacique fought the Sabbat in turn, but they had lost too much power and could not change with the times. The Sabbat virtually destroyed the clan and diablerized its elders.

Lasombra priests carefully baptized each staked elder before the diablerie, so the vampire would meet Final Death in a state of grace. The Tlacique survived only in remote villages, or by fleeing into the trackless jungles of South America.

Centuries later, less than 200 Tlacique exist, scattered from Baja to Tierra del Fuego. Reluctantly, the remaining Tlacique have begun coming together in the interests of unity. They hope to rebuild their power, locate sleeping elders missed by the Sabbat and eventually retake their homelands.

The war has already begun.

Doctrines The Tlacique believed that their descent from Tezcatlipoca entitled them to set themselves over other vampires as well as over mortals. In Mexico, they succeeded; the Peruvian branch of the bloodline had to compromise more with the native Nosferatu and Gangrel. In every culture where the Tlacique held power, however, they pushed the native religion toward increased human sacrifice. The Aztecs, for instance, routinely sacrificed Clanbook: Setite tens of thousands of victims each year, ripping their hearts out to feed the Sun — while those Tlacique who could stay awake for the daytime ceremonies waited in hidden chambers beneath the altars, and enjoyed blood feasts of epic proportions.

The Aztecs, Incas, Mayans and other peoples sincerely believed that without these offerings of hearts, the Sun would die and the world die with it. The Tlacique believed that they played a role in this cosmic drama as well. Their rituals and consumption of blood preserved the Sun through his nightly death. Unlike the Followers of Set, their divine progenitor was never cast out. Tezcatlipoca was an obstreperous god who twice destroyed the world in fits of pique, but that was just the sort of thing gods did. In the same way, the Tlacique permitted themselves to use their divine powers for vindictive ends, cruelly destroying anyone who offended them, because gods had that privilege. Before the Europeans came, the Tlacique followed a distinctive Path of Enlightenment with some aspects resembling the Paths of Night, Blood and Power and the Inner Voice. The destruction of their cultural milieu rendered this Path impossible to follow, however, so all Tlacique now use Humanity. Like their Sabbat enemies, they seldom achieve high ratings.

Organization The bloodline has not yet stabilized into a new social order. This distresses the elders, who fondly remember the highly structured life and unlife of the pre-Columbian cities. The juniors must revere their elders, if only for their experience at surviving in Sabbat territory. On the other hand, the elders are woefully out of their depth in coping with the modern world; even the ones who didn’t spend centuries in torpor hidden in rural regions where change came slowly. The real authority in the bloodline passed to the ancillae, vampires old enough to gain some power and prove their competence, but who aren’t yet totally befuddled by a swiftly-changing world. The ancillae decide policy; neonates handle the details dealing with really contemporary stuff; and the elders give their blessing, teach Disciplines to their juniors and perform tasks requiring greater magical power.

Originally all Tlacique came from the priestly caste of Pre-Columbian society — the cream of their intelligentsia.

That has not been feasible for some centuries. Instead, the remaining Tlacique Embraced village folk who carried on native traditions of folk magic, such as peasant sorcerers, shamans and rain-makers. Less than a dozen of the pre-Columbian priestly Tlacique — the true elders of their bloodline — remain active (although they include some dismayingly powerful blood sorcerers). Ancillae and neonates are mostly native people as well, with a few mestizos. In the last 20 years, the Tlacique expanded their range of recruits to include native-rights guerrillas and anyone else they think might help their cause.

Rural Tlacique dwell in houses (or huts) with well-made cellars. Those who master Earth Meld need no haven at all.

Urban Tlacique take whatever haven they can get. The elders encourage younger clan members to keep products of native handicrafts in their havens if at all possible.

Learning their form of Thaumaturgy automatically raises a Tlacique’s status in the clan. A Tlacique who lacks Thaumaturgy can never win more than one dot of Status. Striking a blow against the Sabbat brings prestige. Reviving interest in traditional art, customs or religion in mortal society also confers merit, but true Status comes only through seniority, demonstrated divine power (Disciplines and Thaumaturgy) and success in war.

Other Notes Appearance: Elder Tlacique are all Central American natives. Ancillae might be mestizos. The elders recently authorized looking beyond Central America to Central and South American immigrant communities in the United States. (For instance, Dallas, Texas now has a neighborhood of Guatemala Mayans — and a resident Tlacique.) All Tlacique try to blend in wherever they go, so their Sabbat enemies won’t recognize them.

Clan Disciplines: Obfuscate, Presence, Protean. Serpentis is unknown among the Tlacique.

Weakness: Although their lineage cannot be traced, the Tlacique really are a Setite bloodline, for they share the Setite weakness. Sunlight inflicts an extra two health levels of damage on a Tlacique, and other sources of bright light (such as magnesium flares or spotlights) impose a -1 die penalty on dice pools for all tasks.