Nickname: Furies
Graduation Requirements: One. Sabbat only.
A relatively recent addition to the Sabbat, the Salubri antitribu have emerged seemingly from nowhere with a burning fervor to bring warfare to the Camarilla. Although they care little for the propoganda espoused the Sword of Caine, practical military necessitity has banded them together with the vampires of the Sabbat. The Salubri antitribu have given up the strange and often hated ways of their parent bloodline, dedicating themselves wholey to the cause of warfare against the Camarilla. Although most of the bloodline hates the Tremere first and the Camarilla second, the two names are all but synonymous to the Salubri antitribu. They proudly claim credit for the Final Death of those responsible for their ancient fall from grace in the destruction of many of the Sabbat’s own Tremere. Although the validity of this is questionable, what is clearly true is that no Salubri antitribu permits the continuing existence of the Tremere regardless of sect. Most of this attitude extends towards potential defectors from the Camarilla from other Clans as well. The founder of their bloodline is a vampire named Adonai, a Salubri antitribu of the seventh generation. He has organized the Salubri antitribu into a loose military heirarchy where status is earned strictly through battles won and foes slain in the war against the Camarilla. Although they often travel with and join Sabbat packs, it is common for a Salubri antitribu to become distracted from the goals of the pack and seek to persue their own agenda. Salubri antitribu abstain from participation in much of the Sabbat ritae, with the clear and necessitated exception of the vaulderie. This includes the mass embrace, as the Salubri antitribu believe that only those truly worthy should be granted the gift of their blood. While this results in some distrust among the sect, in general the Sabbat is quite accepting of the Salubri antitribu due to their military prowess and unrelenting desire to assault the vampires of the Camarilla.
Brief Disclaimer: Character individuality is important when portaying PCs, as if only Clan stereotypes were played the game would get real boring, real fast. There are definite limitations to this, however, especially when concerning a bloodline so rigidly structured as the Salubri antitribu. Should you have your Salubri antitribu defect to the Camarilla because “the Sabbat is too inhuman”, enter into a torrid love affair with a Tremere or do something equally asinine and implausible then don’t expect the Narrator Team to maintain much respect for you as a roleplayer.
Disciplines: Auspex, Fortitude, Valeren
Advantage: Most Salubri antitribu are hand picked because they are exceptional fighters, and all of them have an impressive degree of skill with close range combat by the end of their sire’s training. Salubri antitribu begin play with a free additional level of both ‘Brawl’ and ‘Melee’.
Disadvantage: Salubri antitribu cannot be given blood, they must take it. Any blood given freely to a Salubti antitribu offers no sustenance at all. The only methods available for a Salubri antitribu to regain blood is by force when a target is unwilling, in the midst of hunger frenzy or when drinking the blood from someone they have slain. Salubri antitribu do not gain blood from the ‘Herd’ background unless they are killing their ‘Herd’.
Additionally, Salubri antitribu may not start the game lower than Ninth Generation or higher than Twelfth Generation. The bloodline is still highly concentrated and has yet to spread any farther in blood potency.
Salubri antitribu may only be played as Sabbat characters. The bloodline does not participate in mass embraces, and childer are chosen and trained with particular care. None among them slips through the cracks into other sects.. all are Sabbat.
Preferred Paths: Caine, Honorable Accord, Power and the Inner Voice
Upon dedicating themselves to the cause of warfare against the Camarilla, the Salubri antitribu discovered lore of a discipline long forgotten. Unearthed when researching the history of their Clan founder, Valeren is a discipline renewed for modern use that was practiced hundreds of years ago by the warriors of the Salubri Clan. While it has some similarities to Obeah, Valeren diverges quickly from the other discipline to own purpose. The antitribu practicioners of Valeren serve in the capacity of righteous killers rather than the soul-stealing sheep that make up their parent bloodline.
Regardless of their blood origin, anyone who learns Valeren to the second level or higher develops a third eye in the middle of their forehead. This eye may not be removed or altered with Vicissitude, although it may be concealed with ‘Mask of 1000 Faces’ or hidden behind clothing as normal.
Basic
Sense Vitality: This discipline is used to directly read the life force of another, and glean information thereby. It is often used when sizing up possible opponents, as unlike other powers of Valeran the use of Sense Vitality is quite subtle. Many Salubri antitribu also use this discipline before feeding to assure that their victims carry no potentially contagious diseases.
System: Use of this discipline requires direct skin to skin contact. If the target is unwilling, the character must win in a Direct Physical Challenge to make contact with any exposed skin prior to this discipline’s use. The character must then win a Static Mental Challenge, difficulty the target’s Permanent Mental Traits. Upon success, the character may then elect to expend a Temporary Mental Trait for every piece of information they wish to learn with Sense Vitality. The character may learn how many health levels of damage the target has, how many total health levels the target has, what type of damage the target has, if they and suffering from a disease(and what disease), what the exact cause of any damage was and whether or not the character is a Vampire. This discipline may also be used to discern if the target is a Werewolf or Wraith, providing the character has at least one level in the appropriate Lore.
Should the character fail in the Static Mental Challenge to use Sense Vitality, they may may not attempt to use Sense Vitality on the same target for a period of fifteen minutes. This discipline may not be used on corpses. The target must have a life force of some kind.
Soul Mask does not protect against Sense Vitality, although Cloak the Aura does.
Anesthetic Touch: The only true healing-related power in Valeren, the Salubri antitribu practice this discipline mainly due to the use it has in assisting their allies and ghouls to fight harder and longer in battle. This discipline removes any all pain being experienced by it’s beneficiary.
System: This discipline has no effect on Vampires or Wraiths. Should the character be a ghoul, it may not use the discipline on itself.
Use of this discipline requires direct skin to skin contact. If the target is unwilling, the character must win in a Direct Physical Challenge to make contact with any exposed skin prior to this discipline’s use. The character may then expend a Blood Trait to cause the target to feel no pain and be unaffected by wound penalties(with the exception of “Mortally Wounded”) for the current and following four rounds. The effects of this discipline may be renewed at any time during those rounds.
The character may also expend a Blood Trait with this discipline in the same manner to cause a mortal(or “partial supernatural”) to fall sound asleep for eight hours instead. The mortal can be awakened from this sleep as normal, and may respond immediatley to any violent attack without penalty.
Regardless of whether or not the target is willing, use of this discipline requires an action. This discipline may not be used to counter the effects of Burning Touch.
Intermediate
Burning Touch: Where the previous level desensitizes one to pain, this discipline inflames it. Burning Touch causes the victim to be flooded with intense and searing pain. While causing no real damage, it is not uncommon for prolonged exposure to Burning Touch to result in emotional or mental trauma. This discipline is often used to extract information during torture sessions, as well as to torment fallen opponents before finishing them off.
System: Use of this discipline requires direct skin to skin contact. If the target is unwilling, the character must win in a Direct Physical Challenge to make contact with any exposed skin prior to this discipline’s use. The character then expends a number of Blood Traits to inflict intense pain upon their target, limited as normal by their Generation. For each Blood Trait expended in this manner, the target must bid an additional two traits in all challenges.
The effects of this discipline last for as long as the character maintains skin contact and takes no further aggressive action toward the target. Once the character loses skin contact or takes any offensive action against the target the effects last for one round. The penalty is reduced by two traits each following round until the effects are gone. Use of this discipline is not cumulative, although more potent uses(higher Blood Trait expenditures) will increase or renew the effects accordingly.
When used in conjunction with the ‘Torture’ ability, this discipline also serves to lower to the value of any existing “Pain Resistance” or “Torture resistance” merits by one for every Blood Trait expended, with the effects lasting and diminishing in the same manner. Should the merit in question be reduced to zero, it is considered nonexistant for the duration of the discipline’s use.
Advanced
Vengeance of Samiel: This consummation of teaching in the discipline of Valeren enables the Salubri antitribu to unleash a direct and unstoppable assault upon their opponent at close range. As the character attacks they intone the names of ancient Salubri warriors and their third eye opens, glowing a deep crimson red. Many Salubri antitribu close their normal eyes fully when performing this attack for purpose of intimidation, but doing so is not necessary.
System: Use of this discipline requires the expenditure of three Blood Traits. The character is not limited by their Generational maximum in the use of this discipline, although the Blood Trait expenditure counts as far as additional expenditures are concerned.
Regardless of the effects of the Direct Challenge in which they are involved, any close combat(short range ‘Brawl’ or ‘Melee’ related) attack the character makes when this discipline is used is considered successful. Should the character lose their Direct Challenge in combat, they are still subject to the effects of their opponent(s)’s attack as well.
A character using this discipline may take no other actions in the same round, regardless of how many they have. They may take any additional steps as normal, however, and the use of this discipline may come at any point during the round.
This discipline may not be used in conjunction with other discipline-related attacks such as ‘Cauldron of Blood’ or ‘Withering’, but disciplines used to enhance an attack such as ‘Wolf Claws’ or ‘Poison Blade’ have their standard effects.