Sins of the Blood

Sins of the Blood is a sourcebook for Vampire: The Masquerade. The book details Kindred "heresies", some of the ways in which vampires can appall, offend, and sicken even their own.

Summary[]

From the White Wolf catalog:

Even the Damned Have Taboos

The rules of the Kindred are many, varied and Byzantine. No two princes interpret the Traditions alike; one bishop's treason may be another's valor. Still, even in such precarious societies, heresies arise and sometimes flourish. From foul diablerie to inhuman codes of morality, some Kindred shock the sensibilities of their fellows.

Sins of the Blood includes:

Guidelines for diablerie, Golconda and other uniquely Cainite conditions
New Paths of Enlightenment and mystical Kindred powers
Includes information on playing such heretics and hunting them

Chapters[]

Introduction: Something Wicked This Way Comes[]

A discussion of what it means to be a heretic among the Kindred, as well as tips for employing them as Storyteller characters, and a lexicon of heretical terms.

A Brief Lexicon

Chapter One: Sins of Morality[]

An essay by the sixth generation Brujah, Nehemiah, on Kindred morality, including his thoughts on the Paths of Enlightenment, the nature of Wights (vampires whose Beasts assume control) and his own quest for Golconda. Details of three new Paths of Enlightenment follow his essay: the Path of the Scorched Heart, the Path of Self-Focus, and the Path of Harmony.

Chapter Two: Sins of Society[]

A discussion of vampires who stray from the norms of vampire society: the Autarkis, Anarchs and defectors who attempt to leave their Sect for another. Also includes background on the social context of diablerie.

Chapter Three: Sins of Discretion[]

A treatise on the nature and establishment of cults, written by a mystery author and delivered to a young vampire by Smiling Jack. It reveals "the Destroyer", the author's personification of the hubris that will destroy a vampire if he sets himself above mortals. The author considers it most likely by creating a blood cult and breaking the Masquerade, though after discusses various famous cults the author goes on to provide instructions on starting your own, before finally (perhaps ironically) inviting the reader to join him.

Chapter Four: Sins of Power[]

The dark paths to power taken by the Kindred, including new Dark Thaumaturgy paths (introducing a system of prices paid to demons for the knowledge), forbidden blood magic rituals which are not infernal in origin, and some Merits and Flaws relevant to the topics discussed in Sins of the Blood.

New Dark Thaumaturgy Paths
- The Path of Pain
  - The Numbing
  - Anguish
  - Shattering
  - Agony Within
  - Hundred Deaths
- The Path of Pleasure
  - Ecstasy
  - Intrusion
  - Daisy Chain
  - Deadening
  - The Garden of Earthly Delights
- Path of the Defiler
  - Call the Weakness
  - Tainted
  - Degradation
  - Poisoned Soul
  - Chancrous Blossom
- Path of the Unspoken
  - Whispers of the Unborn
  - Scribing the Unknown
  - Shadow Thoughts
  - Fragments of the Forgotten
  - Forsaken
- Path of Pestilence
  - Illness
  - Infection
  - Miasma
  - Parasitic Possession
  - Vector

Other Forbidden Ways
- Thaumaturgical Rituals
  - Spite of the Harridan (Level Two Ritual)
  - Ritual of the Bitter Rose (Level Three Ritual)
  - Quenching the Lambent Flame (Level Six Ritual)
- Koldunic Sorcery Rituals
  - Enlightenment (Level One Ritual)
  - Mephistophelean Minx (Level One Ritual)
  - Withering Agony (Level Two Ritual)
  - Raze the Lélek (Level Three Ritual)
  - Beyond the Wall of Death (Level Four Ritual)
  - Incubus Visage (Level Four Ritual)
  - Merging of the Souls (Level Four Ritual)
  - Elemental Savior (Level Five Ritual)
  - Koldunic Elemental Traits - Spirit, Stats
  - Embracing the Demon (Level Six Ritual)
- Assamite Sorcery
  - Kafir's Bane (Level Three Ritual)
  - The Sire Impotent (Level Four Ritual)
  - From Marduk's Throat (Level Six Ritual)

Merits and Flaws
- Blessed (7-pt. Supernatural Merit)
- Indomitable Soul (7-pt. Supernatural Merit)
- Devil's Mark (1- or 7-pt. Physical Flaw)
- Spoiled Beast (3-pt. Mental Flaw)
- Unrepentant Beast (4-pt. Mental Flaw)

Appendix: A Conspiracy of Sinners[]

Descriptions of several groups who fit the description of heretics, from the Red Rose Sabbat pack, infernalist organized criminals, to the Thrill Kill Club, a loose confederation of autarkis who live unlife to the bloody fullest – the Masquerade be damned.

Background Information[]

Ads at the back of the book include: New York by Night, Vampire: The Masquerade Backlist and Exalted.
The Thrill Kill Club is noted for being behind "a werewolf pelt hunt on the Pacific,' this could be a reference to Roger Daly.

Memorable Quotes[]

"These secrets are open renunciations of the culture that surrounds the undead. Welcome to the lonely path."
— From the frontispiece

"And there is the old riddle of our existence, 'A beast I am lest a beast I become.' The seeker of Golconda responds to this riddle with a resounding 'No.'"
— Nehemiah, as he begins the tale of his own quest for redemption

Characters[]

Nehemiah - Brujah seeker of Golconda
Smiling Jack - Brujah legend and troublemaker
Palmer Ward - head of a coterie of Malkavian double agents, The Darwin Society (Organization)
Dr. Douglas Netchurch
Zagreb
Gabriel
Ezra - Nehemiah's Sire
Joshua - Erza's Sire
Brujah - Joshua's Sire
Adam - Vampire
Nostoket - Gangrel of the Black Hand
Rathmonicus - True Brujah
Juleidah - Autarkis
Will Baker - Brujah reformer
Calebros
Cock Robin
Federico DiPadua
Dracula
Benjamin Crayshaw - Toreador pariah
Emmet - Nosferatu
Rose - Vampire
Jarbeaux
Santauri X - Toreador, Leader of the Karmic Wheel Cult
Vaughan - Vampire
Arnold Fleschner - Lasombra, infernalist, Red Roses Sabbat Pack, founded the Associates
Marylenna - Tremere antitribu, infernalist, Red Roses Sabbat Pack, vanished
Cyrus Benjamin - Ventrue aurarkis, founded Serapis Ex Machina
Sedirah Milhim - Mushakis (Brujah), saiti coterie
Ethan Fouri - Nosferatu, saiti coterie
William Loddard, "the Cold Man" - autarkis, founded The Cold Man's Children
Jenna Benjamin - Ventrue, founded The Questing Beast
Miguel - Ravnos, founded The Questing Beast
Big Daddy Lopez - Vampire, The Skirmish School, destroyed by the Camarilla
Widow Annie - Vampire, changed the Skirmish School's name to The Thrill Kill Club
Prince Marcel
Petrodon
MacNeil

Terminology[]

A Brief Lexicon: Harmonist, Internalist, Suspire, Tainted, Unforgiving, Wassail, Wight; Amaranth (VTM), Anarchs, Anarch Free State, Assamite Sorcery, The Associates (Prescott & Childers Legal Services, Habbib & Habbib Financial Advisors, Atlantic Union & Partners and Madam Moon's Tarot Readings), Autarkis, Barcelona, Beirut, Blood Cult, Book of the Empty Heart, Bosnia, Camarilla (VTM), Chicago, The Cold Man's Children, Cult, Dark Thaumaturgy, The Darwin Society, Detroit (WOD), Dhampyr, Diablerie (VTM), Golconda (VTM), Humanity (VTM), Inconnu, Infernalism (WOD), Inner Circle, Iowa, Koldunic Sorcery, Lebanon, London Hunt Club, Los Angeles, Mercy Killers (Sabbat Pack), Mithras (VTM), New Orleans, Path of Enlightenment: Path of Caine, Path of Cathari, Path of Death and the Soul, Path of Evil Revelations, Path of the Feral Heart, Path of Honorable Accord, Path of Lilith, Path of Power and the Inner Voice, Path of Night, Path of Paradox, Path of Blood, Path of Bones, Path of Metamorphosis, Path of Typhon, Path of the Scorched Heart, Path of Self-Focus, Path of Harmony; The Questing Beast, Redline, Red Roses (Sabbat Pack), Ritual (VTM), Rötschreck, Sabbat, San Francisco, San Jose, Sect, Serapis Ex Machina, Sierra Leone, Succubus Club, The Tapestry (saiti coterie), Thaumaturgy (VTM), The Thrill Kill Club (TKC, Salles d'Escrime or School of Fencing, Skirmish School), Tradition (VTM), Vrykolakes, Wight Packs,

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