In Vampire: The Masquerade vampires create other vampires by draining all the victim's blood and providing a drop of the progenitor's vitae. Because of this, the childe shares many attributes of the sire. In Vampire: The Masquerade the childe of a vampire who belongs to a bloodline will always belong to the same bloodline as her sire, and there's no set way to change one's lineage. Bloodlines in Masquerade are generally the product of unique supernatural events, and are functionally just smaller clans.
The exhaustive list of potential bloodlines in Vampire: The Masquerade is as follows:
Main Bloodlines
These are the Bloodlines presented in the Books Guide to the Camarilla, Guide to the Sabbat, Storytellers Handbook (Revised Edition), and Storytellers Companion:
| Bloodline | Progenitor | Disciplines | Nicknames | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrimanes | Unknown | Animalism, Presence, Spiritus | Cats | Because of the nature of their existence, Ahrimanes cannot create offspring and cannot use their blood to bond others. They can still be bound to others. If Merits and Flaws are used in the Chronicle, they can still take the flaw "Thin Blooded" but it is only a one-point Flaw. |
| Baali | Shaitan or Nergal, Moloch | Daimoinon, Obfuscate, Presence | The Baali fear and are repulsed by religion and the trappings therein, even more so than the rest of the Kindred. True Faith works at twice its normal efficacy against these creatures. Many Baali cannot bear to gaze upon or handle even the most mundane articles of religious paraphernalia, borne by those of faith or otherwise. | |
| Blood Brothers | None (artificially created via Thaumaturgy & Vicissitude) | Foritude, Potence, Sanguinus | Frankensteins | May not embrace; all Blood Brothers of the same circle feel each other's pain. |
| Daughters of Cacophony | Melusine | Fortitude, Melpominee, Presence | Sirens | The Daughters of Cacophony are so caught up in their music that they hear it constantly. As a result of this distraction, the difficulties of all a Daughters Perception rolls are increased by one. Additionally, a Daughters Alertness can never exceed three. |
| Cappadocian | Cappadocius | Auspex, Fortitude, (Mortis) | Graverobber | All Cappadocians have a corpse-like complexion, resembling death. Difficulties of social rolls for Cappadocians - any rolls involving a social attribute - increase by one. |
| Gargoyle | None (artificially created via Thaumaturgy) | Fortitude, Potence, Visceratika, (Flight) | Appearance trait of 0, -2 Willpower to resist Dominate and other mind-controlling effects. | |
| Harbingers of Skulls | Unknown, possibly Lazurus | Auspex, Fortitude, Necromancy | Appearance trait of 0, all Appearance rolls automatically fail. | |
| Kiasyd | Marconius | Dominate, Mytherceria, Obtenebration | Weirdlings, Scarlets | Wounds caused by iron weapons inflict aggravated damage, being in the presence of iron (within a number of yards equal to the Kiasyd's Stamina) raises the frenzy's difficulties by one, and touching iron causes an immediate frenzy roll. |
| Lamia | Lamia | Fortitude, (Mortis), Potence | Gorgons | As worshippers of death in the form of the Dark Mother, the Lamia carry a curse they call "The Seed of Lilith". This is a virulent disease that can infect those from whom they feed, especially men, and is invariably fatal; other Kindred who feed from Lamia are also infected, but they become carriers only. |
| Lhiannan | The Crone | Animalism, Ogham, Presence | Druids, Barbarians | Bound to their sacred groves, growing progressively weaker the farther away they travel. Obvious inhuman aura discernable by humans. Siring a childe weakens them. |
| Nagaraja | None (created via magical ritual) | Auspex, Dominate, Necromancy | Flesh Eaters | Must eat raw flesh in addition to drinking blood to survive. |
| Nictuku | Absimiliard | Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence | All Nosferatu have Appearance ratings of zero - CroSS the automatic dot right off the character sheet. Nor may they improve Appearance with experience points. Most Social actions based on first impressions, except intimidation and the like, fail automatically. | |
| Old Clan Tzimisce | Tzimisce Antediluvian | Animalism, Auspex, Dominate | The Old Clan | Like all other Tzimisce, something deep inside of them craves stability and permanence. They share a special connection to the land they claimed as their own in life. They must surround themselves with at least two hand- fuls of dirt from a land important to them in life. If they fail to do this, they cannot rest in peace and lose half their dice pools from all ~actions every 24 hours until down to one die; this weakened state continues until they rest amid their special soil once again. While many believe this weakness is tied to Vicissitude, Kindred who are infected with Vicissi- tude and belong to other clans do not suffer from this weakness. Indeed, this weakness is as ancient as the clan. |
| Salubri | Saulot | Auspex, Fortitude, Obeah | Unicorns, Soulsuckers | Loses one health level for each Blood Point drunk from an unwilling victim. |
| Samedi | Baron Samedi | Fortitude, Obfuscate, Thanatosis | Stiffs, Zombies | Samedi are corpse-like and decayed, and have an Appearance Trait of 0. |
| Tlacique | Sutekh (alleged) | Obfuscate, Presence, Protean | Jaguars | Even when compared to other vampires, the Tlacique are especially pained by sunlight having it deal more damage to them faster than for any other kind of vampire. Nahuallotl is based on religious doctrines, any attempts to use Nahuallotl by a Cainite that does not believe in the Aztec religion results in increased difficulty and a greater chance of botching. |
| True Brujah | Ilyes | Potence, Presence, Temporis | Elois, Sages | Regaining Humanity is always twice as difficult for them once it is lost - double the experience points necessary to regain Humanity or Path of Enlightenment ratings. |