Cierre las válvulas de control de los quemadores de

The Lexicon in V20, which is found on page 35, defines The Damned as “The race of Cainites; all vampires.” This definition holds true throughout Ghouls & Revenants as well. While it is the vampires who refer to themselves as The Damned, their servants and slaves share, to a lesser extent, some commonalities with their masters. Typically, ghouls and revenants do not fear sunlight, but they do Hunger and suffer, too, from a lesser version of Caine’s curse omnipresent in the Blood of the vampire. Any living creature, human, animal, or insect, who drinks too long from the dead will eventually pay a terrible price. The dark powers they’ve been granted, carried in the Blood, do not come for free — and both ghouls and revenants know this all too well.

families of their own in total secrecy. For more information about revenants and revenant families, turn to page 85.

The Promise

of Embrace

Both ghouls and revenants may be lured into service with the promise of the Embrace. However, vassals may never receive the Dark Kiss, even after years of loyal service. Sometimes, a domitor’s reasons to create progeny might vary, or their reasoning may be at odds with their ghoul’s due to the effects of the blood bond.

A vampire might want to Embrace a ghoul as a way to: • Add a new member to the local Clan to fill out their

ranks

• Replace a dead childe

• Fill the gap a childe has left behind after a disagreement or a move to a different city

• Provide more power to the Clan that a mere ghoul cannot provide

• Beef up the Clan’s local status or position, since ghouls cannot hold status

• Reward a ghoul for service after they’ve earned it The reasons a ghoul might want to be Embraced are often simpler than that of his domitor’s and a lot more straightforward. Since a ghoul does not hold status within vampire society, his needs and wishes tend to be less complex, because he believes becoming a vampire will save him from his master.

A ghoul may long for the Embrace because he: • Hates being nothing more than a glorified servant • Has done everything his domitor wanted in order

to earn it

• Desires access to occult secrets or Disciplines • Thinks he’s in love with a vampire

• Seeks a cure to a fatal illness he’s suffering from • Hopes for a second chance at life, without fully

realizing a vampire is damned for all eternity

Once a ghoul is Embraced, the relationship between vassal and domitor shifts to that of a sire and her childe, and the servant is no more. If the neonate wishes, he might begin recruiting a new candidate to become a ghoul, either to replace the hole he left behind or to fulfill the role of his personal vassal once he has the autonomy to make his own decisions. Thus, the cycle of finding a potential candidate, creating a ghoul, maintaining a ghoul, and creating a childe continues.

Few vampires argue about the power of the Blood, but what they often take for granted is that the existence of ghouls is both mysterious and disquieting. While ghouls are still technically human, they are also part vampire, and walk between both worlds in the day and night. As long as they continue to be fed blood, ghouls do not age, may develop the limited use of Disciplines, and can heal themselves as well. Despite the benefits that vitae provides, ghouls also inherit many weaknesses unique to the vampiric condition. These typically include being Damned, having the ability to frenzy, suffering curses related to Clan-specific weaknesses, and acquiring a Beast that never ceases to hunger.

A ghoul, however, is more than the sum of her body and the effects of the Blood. Ghouls and vampires also differ because a ghoul has a soul and a conscience, whereas a vampire does not. This can translate to a ghoul’s inability to cope with the truth — that she is never truly alone, and that vampires exist to feed. A domitor, on the other hand, might callously tell his ghoul to dispose of a body, not realizing that his servant has never seen a blood- drained corpse before. Thus, while the effects of vitae are powerful, they are not a guarantee that every ghoul will respond to the Blood or her master in the same way.

Most ghouls are aware that what they’re dealing with night to night is not, for lack of a better word, “normal”. Depending upon the degree and frequency of the terrors they encounter, some ghouls might even develop a mental illness as a result. One ghoul might obsessively wash his hands, while another might never sleep again. A few ghouls, however, could gain a Derangement such as Fugue, Obsessive-Compulsive, or Paranoia as time passes in addition to behaviorial quirks.

Despite their ordeal, living life as a ghoul is both a dangerous and thrilling proposition for many mortals. This is especially true if the vampire takes the time to entice a potential ghoul, to show them the terrible beauty lying in the darkness, and to reveal the alluring and addictive nature of the Blood.