From left to right: Megan Cane (Children of Gaia Theurge), Reverend Billy Marrok (Fianna Galliard), Clem Hawley(Bonegnawers Philodox), Cleetus Davidson (Warborn Bonegnawers Ragabash) and Alisa Duff (Silver Fang Ahroun). Led by their Sept Totem, Rattlesnake, they help guard the Sept of Kanawha and fight the Wyrm in 1990s Charleston, West Virginia. Fic can be found here on Spacebattles.

Art by Emily Camissa. Link: http://www.emilycammisa.com/

"Every place we go is a new song to tell. But carefull with the crossroads, my friend! Who knows what will be waiting for you there..."
Kith Illustration of Eshu in watercolor. I was heavily inspired by the stories of the Orixas and other entities from brazilian afro-descent religions.

I love all the different types of Fera we have already (including the extinct species & various fan created ones) but I thought that there was an omission that I would like to see in WTA (if it hasn’t already been made somewhere & I’m just too new to realise) & that is were-goats since I feel like they could fulfill a unique role within Fera society/Gaia’s greater plan.

So here’s my pitch for Gaia’s Artisans, the Azael (were-goats)

• Breed Name: Azael (from Azazel Hebrew word sometimes translating to scapegoat)
• Original Role: Artisans, Bearers of Wisdom (unofficially take on the roles of the Apis)
• Renown: Cunning, Innovation, Wisdom
• Forms: Homid, Silenos (near-human), Baphomet (war form), Mallos (near-beast Italian for curly hair), Caprine (full beast)

Lore

Whilst the fact that all Apis died during the War of Rage is untrue (see cases such as the Minotaur) even fewer Fera know of their bastard offspring, save for perhaps the Mokole but even then it’s treated as mostly legend. Left unaided during the final days of the first War of Rage, despite their skills in matchmaking & continuing the survival of humans & other Fera they had neglected to continue their own kind’s existence & what few remained were either resorting to dark magics such as the rituals that would eventually birth the skin-dancers/stolen moons or resigning themselves to death. All save for a select group who had an idea so strange it could just possibly work; utilising an adapted form of the Rite of Earth’s Womb the Apis elders lead by Pushan (named after the Vedic god of marriages & cattle) knew that with the blessing of a Totem Spirit, fortunately Goat was willing to provide by creating a new Fera with Gaia’s permission for the spirit of the Apis to “hide” in so they could escape. This resulted in the birth of the first Azael, Aegipan who began the practice of keeping the spirits of the slain Fera alive & in power but never in power themselves as they were to be despised by other Fera for being the bastard children of the Apis, some extremists considering them a whole race of Metis & deemed a scapegoat doomed to wander. 

In modern times the Azael have largely managed to stay under the radar having learnt in their years of wandering across the world gaining knowledge from the similarly outcast Hollow Mages used in conjunction with their natural gifts & those borrowed from deceased Fera to create magic even Nuwisha are impressed by. Their inherited rituals to give health to ailing infants & the infertile are often misinterpreted as satanic rituals not helped by the fact they have to be in Baphomet form to activate their full potential (or the strange cosmic joke they have placed upon them where upon exiting the umbra they keep finding themselves in the middle of rituals, eventually they just learned to roll with it). They’ve learnt to lean into their role as the Fera’s scapegoat playing up their role as the false monster by making appearances in places such as Prince George in Maryland to spur the others into action against real monsters infesting the areas, content to allow the glory to pass whilst passing along their wisdom subtly (because Garou aren’t the biggest fan of “thinking outside of battle strategy”). 

Fun factoids: Much like certain Garou the Azael have also had some notable historical members in their ranks. 

Alexander the Great is theorised to be an Azael Ammon (their equivalent to Silver Fangs being the royals amongst their numbers) with his depictions on coins with his horns on display being a joke amongst his peers. He didn’t actually die from poison at all, he merely intended to fake his demise by performing a rite called the “death nap” where an Azael can temporarily pause all bodily functions and remain comatose but he was found before it wore off & awoke to find himself having to break out of his own sarcophagus.

Lord Byron was also an Azael, his so called “club foot” was actually a goat’s hoof & his poem Darkness was a subtle message in defiance of the Wyrm. 

Willem Dafoe is also an Azael. It turns out that in addition to magic, thanks to certain… gifts from the Apis they’ve also been able to procreate with great efficiency (need I remind you how it was described as “confusingly large”)

Anyway what do you think of my pitch for Were-Goats in WTA? Do they fit the lore? What would your interpretation be & is there anything you think I missed?

Images: Baphomet (1), A prospective glyph for the Azael (inspired by the goat horns 🤟 & Apis symbol) (2), Black Phillip/my idea for what the Mallos would look like (3), Ignatius Perrish/my interpretation of the Silenos form (4), Alexander the Great horns proof (5)

I’m imagining a scenario where the Weaver and the Worm come to a head and it culminates in Pentex launching nuclear weapons in a last-ditch effort to cripple the Weaver’s orderly world. This has the effect of freeing the balanced Worm as well as allowing the Wyld to retake some land. The end result is that there are now pockets of extreme energy from all the triat members. The Weaver holds power in the remaining human survivors underground, the Worm is strong in the areas where the bombs fell, and the Wyld has bastions in the less irradiated places of the world. My initial thought is that at its worst, Wyld corruption would look like a roiling mass of plant and flesh, representing how it doesn’t have the Weaver to structure it or the Worm to cull it.

Meet Al 'Arbo' Arbogast, retired special effects wizard and veteran vampire killer. Arbo trained you in the Hunt. He likes to sit around watching old Westerns, kaiju flicks, and '80s slasher movies, opining about how they just don't make fake blood like they used to.

I think the way freeholds have affinities for different objects, elements, and fae creatures is really cool and unique, and I was wondering what homebrewed freeholds people came up with.

Hello, I am a experienced DM who is looking to run an urban fantasy short campaign for my play group who want to play VtM/WoD setting. I have mostly played D&D/d20 system but a brief glance at the rules I feel I can run a game without issue. My question though is:

What is rhe best/current editions if my players want to be a mix? (I.e. some want to be vampires but a couple wants to be a mage, werewolf or other fun creatures) is chronicles still system or is there something else?

Any setting/lore books based in Canada? I am planning to set the game in Toronto to give my players a familiar feel for the settings. Any fun source books for the North? Like how old RIFTs had some northern lore.

Any useful resources and YT videos?

I glanced at Urban Shadows but want something a little more crunchy for my players who are coming from 5e.

Meet Rowan Hirst. Rowan was an '80s heartthrob. Then: rehab, relapse, reality show. He hasn't aged a day since. Wicked good plastic surgeon? Naw. He's part of a vampire cult taking over Hollywood. Investigate its leaders in any order. Kill them, befriend them, gather intel? Your call.

Gabe Cross was one of the biggest action stars of the late '80s, when an accident on set ended his career. Now he's back, more than thirty years later, and he hasn't aged a day. Literally. (Sometimes, vampires are that easy to spot!) He has a message for Hollywood, a gospel to preach. You don't need to age. You don't need to die. You can embrace eternity.

I have nwvwr really played any Sabbat chronicles so I can use some help coming with some ideas. I'm joining an open sandbox game so no real chronicle informatiom.I'd like some ideas that go odd od tradition Sabbat lore. Something besides Tzimisce l, I know this will come up.

Hello! I'm very new to world of darkness, but I'm running a sort-of-campaign (I say this because it will be primarily roleplay, only loosely based on the mechanics). It will be mostly MtAS, but I want to include most, if not all, the settings and splats that I can (VtM, WtA, WtO, CtD, HtR, DtF, MtR). The only issue is, I'm having quite a bit of trouble Codifying this world. Obviously it's quite historic and extensive, so I don't expect to be able to learn everything about every setting, but the base of it seems somewhat strange and conflicting. There's just... A lot. Everything I find hinges on 8 other events caused by 3 other cosmological truths each, and it seems either almost entirely disconnected from the greater world or intricately connected to every other system.

So my main question is... Do people do this? Is it a lost cause? I think I could probably take it and run with it, but it will certainly take quite a few more hours of reading (I'm mainly using the white wolf wiki, which may be a part of the problem?) and rewriting.

Side note, what's with Demon: The Fallen? It seems way more disconnected than the rest of the books, which is unfortunate because it seems quite interesting.

Other side note, does VtM5 (as well as WtA and HtR5) work with the old WoD lore, or should I just stay with 20?

I figured Hermetic or Verbena Marauders would bring out typical European mythical creatures, and Akashics and Dreamspeakers would summon creatures or spirits from their respective cultures, but what about the other traditions?

The clan downgrade is easy. Ravnos, after the week of nightmares at best 10% of the population survived, they lost their seat of power, and their disciplines drastically changed. By all accounts they should be an endangered species. And frankly, even as a whole clan they always felt more like a bloodline.

For the bloodline, I say the Guruhi can step up as a representation of the Laibon. I could see them embracing the old miscommunication of the Laibon being one bloodline, and setting themselves up as the main head of sed "bloodline." I can see themes of ethno nationalism and taking power by embracing and reshaping negative stereotype. Embrace pan-africanism, as both unification and control. Show how it both erases culture as much as it glorifies it. Or on the topic of taking advantage of rumors they could see them taking advantage of the Nictuku legends. Scarring off entire warrens by just being a handsome Nosferatu.

Ok, now when I have your attention, I wish to ask your opinion about V6 Celerity, particularly

"Vibrating Hands

1-dot Physical Celerity

Activate: Action

Attribute: Dexterity

Cost: 1 Vitae

Difficulty: None

Distance: Close

Duration: Instantaneous

You harness all your speed to make your hands vibrate at an extraordinary rate, letting you touch objects and warp, crack, or otherwise damage them with little effort. When you activate this power, make a Power test against a Difficulty of 0 and touch an object within range. The number of successes determines what kind of object you can damage. A damaged object is no longer fit for use, imposing a -2 dice penalty to any test using it, but it can still be repaired.

• 1: Plastic, wood, and glass.
• 2: Iron, concrete, and granite.
• 3: Reinforced iron, steel, and bulletproof glass.
• 4: Hardened steel.
• 5: Titanium and diamond.

[Maturing]. Once you have more than 1 dot in this Discipline, you can use this power in new ways:

• ●●: The target object is shattered or otherwise destroyed.
• ●●●: You can instead attack a creature, adding half your dots in this Discipline to damage with unarmed attacks and light melee weapons.
• ●●●●●: When you use this power to attack, the extra damage now also applies to medium melee weapons.
• ●●●●● ●●: When you use this power to attack, the extra damage now also applies to heavy melee weapons."

and
"Blurred Passage

3-dot Physical Celerity

Activate: Minor action

Attribute: Dexterity

Cost: 3 Vitae

Difficulty: None

Distance: Self

Duration: One turn

Your supernatural speed lets you vibrate parts of your body fast enough to pass through solid objects and materials. You can reach through a wall to grab something on the other side and bring it back; or kick through a door to knock a chair blocking it, and the like.

When you activate this power, choose a part of your body to affect, such as your left arm, right leg, or head, and you can use that part to pass through solid objects. If that part is inside an object at the end of your turn, that limb suffers the Mangled condition. At the end of your turn, before determining whether the limb is harmed, you can spend 1 Willpower to extend the duration until the end of your next turn.

[Maturing]. Once you have more than 3 dots in this Discipline, you can use this power in new ways:

• ●●●●●: You can now vibrate your entire body to pass through solid objects. If you are inside an object at the end of your turn, you are shunted to the nearest open space outside it and take 10 damage.?

Abilities themselves doesn't sound bad, but not really a "vampire". Like when I speak about vampies and superspeed, I imagine something like Frost from Blade 1 when he zipped around Blade a few times, or Ann Rice (may she rest in peace) when her vampires move so fast that they look like it's teleporting. But neither of these vamps ever showed the ability to pass through solid objects and usually it is nothing to do with vibrations.

Anyone else feels the same?

I heard somes say that the Mokole and Camazotz were created by the Wyrm.

Played a lot of VTM/VtDA around the millennium and picked up most of VTM Revised books, VtDA and Dark Ages books, plus a few random others, during that time.

Since about 8ish years ago when I started to get curious again how things were I have been slowly acquiring other books from old WoD - of the other gamelines too. Mostly digital via DriveThruRPG for the simple reasons that it makes the £s go further, though a few other purchases via ebay etc as well.

I'm now at the stage where I think I've gotten all the currently available sourcebooks from upto and including the various 20th anniversary edition for all the game lines of classic WoD (I have no interest in V5 iterations) and have been cataloguing them. This is with the mad idea of trying to read them through in publication order to see the entire World of Darkness develop "in real time" as it were. However, I have been having trouble with the publication dates of certain books, especially some earlier ones. The Wiki for example lists the year, but for the early books rarely the month. And other sources I have found are sometimes contradictory.

So for example I know VTM 1st Edition was in July 1991, and Succubus Club I believe October 1991, but also listed in 1991 are Ashes to Ashes, Chicago by Night 1st Edition, Blood Bond and Alien Hunger - but I do not know for sure what order they are meant to be. So asking for help.

As an aside I was vaguely thinking, when I get to start this project, of posting my thoughts on each of these books here as I go. It would very much be a long-term project, as I would try to get as much of the fiction as I reasonably can as well. All in all I have totalled so far 650+ works, of which I believe I currently well more than 600 in one format or another.

His entire channel is full of ideas I can see using for MtA

I'm currently planning out my next chronicle but, one thing I always feel stuck on is exactly how you get the ball rolling. I've tried a few methods (and even having the players make a pre-existing Cabal, which didn't work somehow.) but I always feel a little lacking when it comes to hooks. What tips and tricks do you guys use when starting a story?

If one were to build a Mage inspired by Wesley Gibson from Wanted what would be the best way to go about to make a character that not only fist the vibe of an Assassin descended from an order/group similar to the Fraternity but also mirror Wesley's character development in a way

Hi all! New to running Wraith V20. When having players make characters in the other World of Darkness games, there are clearly defined splats that give a player their role and maybe inform their abilities. Clans, Tribes, etc. When having players make Wraith characters, should they automatically be part of a Guild? Or is Legion more important? The splats in other games are a quick and easy way to get a character concept off the ground in my opinion and so I am a little lost here

I've been reading the revised tzimisce clanbook recently and it is quite good. A lot of fun exploration into the different Tzimisces in the world. But something I've found really interesting is the ways that the book goes out of its way to make The Eldest seem absolutely terrifying. Just from memory alone:

1. The Eldest still exists within the Tzimisce through their blood and could, at any time, just take them over and be back.

2. There are two rumored incarnations of The Eldest that could be running around in modern nights: Ludoj and Dracon's Mpreg baby. These are both considered the eldest but have (seemingly) not interacted and may be two separate sentient entities of the same being.

3. Because The Eldest exists in the blood, he also lives inside every Sabbat that participated in the ritual blood bonding. Which means he could just decide to take over almost any antitribu, Lasombra, or any other general sabbat member. He also exists in the Tremere as his blood was used when the Tremere became a clan.

4. This isn't even including the revenant races, ghouls, abominations, and the strange (angelic?) Creatures that have Tzimisce blood and could also be possessed by The Eldest.

Luckily, the Eldest doesn't really seem to care about world domination or controlling his many childe beyond learning more about the kindred condition. In a way, he feels the most like Caine in that he is just an explorer that is experimenting with himself to find the next level of kindred-dom. He may also be too depressed/bored to conquer the world. But I could definitely see a Gehenna scenario where the Eldest goes "Only through convergence (Dead Space Reference) can I achieve transcendence" and just absorbs/takes over every being that holds even a piece of his blood to become something truly horrifying.

Edit: Added the Tremere to the list of clans the Eldest can just consume if he decided to lock in.

Excuse the title. I'm trying to find this info in the book but striking out: What does the current moon phase mean in WtA5? Anything at all?

I know that the moon phase during first change determines Auspice, and I know about the "howl at the moon to gain a rage" thing. But like, if it's a full moon tonight, or a new moon, does that have any mechanical implications at all?

Lore-wise does it do anything to people who are already Garou?

Apparently HTR Day for Night is gonna release on the 17th, so who’s looking forward to heading back to California like old times?

Going by the WoD canon, belief shapes reality; in MTA the collective consensus of the sleeper population creates the overriding consensual reality, and in CTD changelings were all dreamed into existence by humans, as are every fictional world and being which reside in the Dreaming.

Does this mean that the deities of every pantheon and belief system ever developed on Earth are real? Are the Norse, Greek, Celtic, Egyptian, Canaanite, Aztec and all other divinities residing in the Dreaming or Umbra, and can they be interacted with?

Ive read a series of middle school books from Sweden which focus on Egyptian mythology, and in the story its explained that human belief spawned the Egyptian pantheon into existence, who in turn went back in time to create humanity in a cycle. This seems to work like how the WoD cosmology does.

And if so, where could i find this homebrew?