The Embrace is the act of transforming a mortal into a vampire. It is the only act of reproduction of which the Cainites are capable. A vampire drains and replaces a victim's blood with a bit of their own to pass the curse of vampirism to a mortal.[1]
Overview
When a vampire desires a childe, due to loneliness, regret at an accidental feeding, a need for a pawn, or any other reason, the first step is to drain the candidate dry. Any technique that results in a bloodless corpse will do, although most sires drain their soon-to-be childer by feeding on them, making the Embrace an intimate experience akin to sex and childbirth. Once the candidate is drained of blood, the sire gives the candidate a small amount of his own blood, and this instantly transforms the candidate into a new childe. The moment of rebirth is perhaps the greatest pleasure the child will ever feel, perhaps the only true ecstasy he or she will feel other than the Kiss. As the mystical process changes the body, it evens out imperfections and makes the body beautiful and gives them a newfound allure in death, albeit in a surreal way. Such beauty is frightening to behold, a predatory grace like that of a shark or a venomous snake.[2] Their skin whitens to an unnatural pallor that gives the childe a stark beauty. Their hair falls like whips of fine gossamer and their nails harden, becoming crystalline and sharp. This bodily perfection applies to the Nosferatu as well, but whatever beauty they gain is overshadowed by their deformities.
The first reaction most childer have after an embrace is raw hunger. With less than a blood point available and no experience dealing with a fully raging Beast, the childe will most likely enter a hunger Frenzy at the first sight of blood. For most vampires, this means that the Embrace is followed immediately by a moment of degradation. After this point, the childe will experience hours of painful burning sensations as his or her body undergoes the process of death and disposes of needless waste.
After the Embrace, the fledgling may take several days before the full impact of the curse is apparent. Ventrue preferences take several weeks to define, and the Nosferatu change can take up to a month as the body re-forms to accept the curse.
Origins
The Embrace is modeled after the process in Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire. Traditional vampire mythology lists a variety of processes by which someone can become a vampire.
Restrictions
Given a history of creative players, the rules of embracing (or more specifically, not embracing) have been fairly well defined in VTM; all of these rules may apply to VTR as well.
- Animals cannot be Embraced.
- Vitae must flow directly from the sire to the childe. It cannot be placed in an intermediary vessel or otherwise delayed, because it's supernatural properties quickly decay after leaving the vampire's body. (One known exception is Cappadocius, although he may have used some form of ritual magic to prepare the vitae.)
- The Embrace is instantaneous, except in the case of thin-blooded vampires, where it can take many hours.
- Any activity which completely drains the corpse is acceptable; draining doesn't cause the Embrace, Vitae does.
- Pregnant women almost always miscarry when embraced, although a Vampire fetus is a possible (and disgusting) scenario.
- While two Vampires can theoretically feed their Vitae to a candidate for an embrace, the resulting Vampire will generally have both the clan and generation as if the lower generation parent had performed the Embrace.
Differences Between VtM and VtR
A newly embraced childe in Vampire: The Masquerade is one Generation higher than his sire, and is of either the same clan or Caitiff. Embracing is cheap in VTM, and Mass Embraces are used by the Sabbat and occasionally by other clans (most infamously the Ravnos) for strategic reasons.
In Vampire: The Requiem a newly embraced childe starts with a Blood Potency of one and belongs to his sire's Clan, but cannot join a bloodline immediately. VTR embraces cost a permanent willpower point, making mass embraces all but impossible.