Generation

From the White Wolf Wiki, the most complete White Wolf reference

generation: all of the offspring that are at the same stage of descent from a common ancestor: Mother and daughters represent two generations.

Generation measures a Cainite's innate power and descent from the biblical Caine. Vampires of low generation (7 or lower) are closer to the First Vampire and more powerful; they are usually Methuselah or elders. High generation vampires (8 or higher) are far removed from Caine and significantly weaker. The last generations are known as thin-blooded vampires and are heavily crippled, almost to the point of being mortal. During the dark ages the Thirteenth Generation was believed to be the last, but in the modern nights this is comprised of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Generation.

The weakening of power from earlier to later generations is typically considered to be a natural dilution of the Curse of Caine. However, the Erciyes Fragments suggests that it is a result of a curse Caine placed on the Antediluvians after the Second Generation was killed, in the hopes that by ensuring childer were less powerful than their sires, they would be less likely to rebel and upset the patriarchal rule.

[edit] Basic Mechanics

Generation is the crudest measure of vampiric power, or more accurately, vampiric potential. All Kindred have a Generation Trait, which is ranked between 0 and 5 for standard characters. Each rank represents a step below the default generation, which is 13th in modern times, and 12th in the dark ages. Thus, standard VtM characters range from 13th to 8th generation, and DAV characters from 12th to 7th. Members of the 14th and 15th generation are special, and detailed rules for them are provided in the Time of Thin Blood supplement.

Low generation provides several benefits. Dominate cannot be used on vampires of a lower generation than the character, and some other Disciplines are weaker as well. The number of blood points a Cainite can spend a turn and the maximum size of their blood pool also increases as generation is lowered, though this represents a concentration of power within the blood, not a larger physical capacity to store it. Vampires of below the 8th generation can raise their traits to truly superhuman levels: instead of the human maximum of five, they may raise their traits as high as (13 - their generation); this includes learning Advanced Discipline powers.

When a Kindred Embraces, the childe's generation is one step higher. For instance, an 8th Gen sire will have 9th Gen childer, and a 12th Gen vampire has a 11th Gen sire barring extremely unusual circumstances. Generally, the only way a vampire changes generation is through diablerie. When a Cainite diablerizes a vampire of lower generation their generation decreases by half the difference of their generations (minimum of 1). There are other, much rarer, methods of changing generation, but they usually involve powerful sorcery and are closely guarded secrets.