Characters: White Court Vampire
White Court vampires walk the line between humanity and monstrousness. Many of them cross it, towards the latter. Those who don’t can work as PCs… at least for a time.
White Court Vampire
Of all the known vampire courts, the White Court vampires perhaps appear to be the weakest, but they are no less deadly. They are also the closest to mortals in behaviors and predilections-but they might best be seen as a separate race, able to interbreed with humans (White Court vampires are born, not made — it’s hereditary). They feed on the strong emotions of their victims, though not always to the point of death, and they can excite these emotions in them as well. Adept at manipulation, White Court vampires rarely take action directly, preferring to act through catspaws and patsies.
The truism “you are what you eat” is rarely more accurate than with the White Court. It’s easy to see the White Court as sex vampires, but that’s only because the majority of those encountered — at least within the clan of House Raith — choose the dark intensity of lust as their primary food-source. As such, the Raiths are masters of seduction, and it’s no mistake that a few of their number have established a presence in adult films. But other dark, intense emotions are viable as well for the White Court: fear, despair, and wrath would all likely work for such creatures, and may well be at the root of the practices of other houses, such as Malvora and Skavis. In the Dresden casefiles, encounters with White Court vampires with other feeding habits are rare, but it’s not much of a stretch to suggest that their approach to life is just a bit different from that of the lust-seeking Raiths.
Regardless, some few of their kind are able to master — or at least, for the time being, resist — the demonic hunger that lives within them. To do so is to live a life of near-starvation. A few manage to find ways around this, feeding off a much larger “herd” in dribs and drabs rather than a single victim in quantity. These are those most likely to be viable as player-characters, as they grip onto the last vestiges of their free will, making the important choice not to kill, every day.
Musts: White Court vampires must take a high concept aspect indicating their heritage (e.g., BLACK SHEEP OF HOUSE RAITH or WHITE COURT DANCER). This aspect may be compelled to represent some of the White Court’s classic weaknesses — true love can burn them (leaving scars that don’t fade), and holy objects and displays of faith at least make them uncomfortable.
Unless it’s not known for some reason, the player should determine and at least sketchily detail the character’s house-family is terribly important to the White Court, if only in a “know thy enemy” sort of way.
In addition, a White Court vampire must take the following abilities:
- Emotional Vampire
- Human Guise
- Incite Emotion (Touch Only)
- Feeding Dependency, which affects the rest of the abilities listed.
- Inhuman Recovery
- Inhuman Speed
- Inhuman Strength
Options: White Court vampires may upgrade some of their listed abilities. They may take the more expensive versions of Incite Emotion, and can upgrade their Inhuman Recovery to Supernatural Recovery.
In two weeks we’ll continue our journey through the White Court, as we pause to look at its virgins — those who are not yet fully cursed by the court’s power. See you there.
So, is apathy a dark enough emotion? Because an evil apathy-inducing vampire could do a lot as a villain…
That looks neat. How does feeding mechanically relate to boosting the Inhuman Speed and Strength elements?
ie, is a starving White Court vampire less strong than a well-fed one because of Aspects, or is there something more detail involved? Either would work, I’m just curious.
I can just imagine them lurking around Hot Topic.
*listens as he hears twilight fans running for this one* well one question what is the line exactly between white court vamp who’s holding his own to one thats just a vamp… in other words when does npc become pc.. and when you said pc for a time does that mean you can come out of it and play as an npc again?
I was wondering if White Court vamps were going to be playable or not. A very good writeup indeed.
I’ve got a question though: With all this color artwork we’re seeing, will the final Dresden book be in color or B&W?
@Slife, I don’t see apathy as a deep, primal negative emotion like Despair or Wrath or Lust or whatever. Think deadly sins territory. Apathy leaves me cold when placed in that company (my take is that it’s the absence of emotion, not the presence of an intense one). But really it’s up to your GM.
@Anthony, by “for a time”, I mean there comes a point at which you give in to the beast and become an NPC (i.e., nothing but a monster), and that that point is not in the distant future, but is a real and present threat.
@Hollis, we’re planning on a color book at this point. In the past we thought we’d have to go black and white, which is why some of our earlier artwork was commissioned in that style. We have a plan for making that all work, though.
@The Unshaven, a well-fed vampire has access to his full boat of abilities. The abilities of a less well-fed vampire tend to erode over time; the hunger grows strong and eventually starts consuming the powers themselves. (The solution of course is to feed, and feed deeply — but that’s a monstrous act.)
An interesting take would be a White Court vampire that uses comedy to feed. The money made feeding into Greed and the sitting around into Sloth.
@WillS, yeah, I don’t see that one happening. White Court vamps ought to be genuinely scary.
A character could use comedy and still be scary. The Joker is a perfect example of that.
Will feeding count towards a WC refresh?
Well, I’ve got another theoretical question. Would it be possible to build a White Court vamp that instead of fighting with its Hunger, is allied with it? For example, my WC character was infected with uncurable tuberculosis, so would it be reasonable for me to say that the “undeveloped” (not yet fed) Hunger could awaken and use its strength to keep them both from dying? Perhaps he wouldn’t be as strong/fast as other vamps, but would have more minor powers that don’t require significant feeding?
@Cyberchihuahua, the ‘Feeding Dependency’ thing refunds a point or two of refresh to the character in question — it’s a cost-reducer.
Honestly, for my money? That describes 99% of the White Court Vampires out there.
would it be possible to build a PC WC vampire allied to it’s hunger though? Personally speaking, I wouldn’t think so
@Dan from Chicago, I think it’s unlikely, but I’m not every GM, I’m just the GM I am. Some might be okay with the idea. Certainly the “keeping it under control” aspect of a hero/PC WC vampire could be of a different flavor than Thomas. It might be a mostly-civil detente, where the PC occasionally sits down (in his or her mind) to exchange barbs with its Hunger over a cup of tea. But that’s not precisely “allied”.
@fred, you write of the idea, that the char “sits down with its hunger” which reminds me of harry’s talks to lasciel. will there be a mechanic or system for similar situations? i mean people allied/working with a demon/angel/ghost/your_favourite_weirdness and still having a free will? will there be suggestions for something like this?
@Wyrdrune, for me that’s more a technique of play than something that needs to be systemized as a mechanic. But you’re right; we should at least make sure we get a sidebar or whatever in there at some point that talks about turning something normally inanimate (your superpower, your hunger) and making it into a character (at least inside of the PC’s head) that conversations can be had with.
I was wondering could you feed on anger wrath and negative emotions like that during a fight since that would be when they rise up fast and your wanting to take the enemy down. Or maybe you could drain their fear before you finally kill them or knock them out. I don’t know just some ideas.
Excellent, and thanks for the response. How does the erosion of abilities erode over time? Is it that the longer you resist feeding, the top tier of your skills gradually reduces and forces everything else down with it, or is it more that you wind up with a Starving Vampire aspect that can be compelled to make you less effective?
Or both?
- The Unshaven
@The Unshaven — Basically, once you run out of “hunger stress” (the way you might run out of health or what-have-you), you start taking hits to your abilities — losing points of them each time your hunger demands to be sated and you fail to fight the hunger off. It’s a struggle.
Hm, I didn’t phrase that well. I meant a character who is ACTIVELY allied with their Hunger, as opposed to just giving it free reign to seduce and feed and all that jazz. As in a weakened hunger that willingly shares its remaining power for their combined survival, without trying to take control.
you mean something like this?
Thomas = fighting the hunger
Madaline = controlled by the hunger
Lord Wraith = true partnership (the whole kiss of death thing seems unuique to him in the books, at least as far as we know).
Could just be a a gaming style thing, or it could be a RP reason why x vampire is so much more powerful than y or z vampire.
@Jack Naw, I understood what you were saying. I think many WCVs are in active alliance with their hunger (though some, obviously, would be essentially enslaved to it). But I don’t think an alliance makes them particularly good people.
Out of curiosity, is the image on this post taken from a scene in one of the books?
@Ricahrd Willis. Yep. Grave Peril. That’s Harry getting strangled on the floor.
Hhmm how about this comparison?
Thomas (fighting the hunger) // Allied forces of WWII
Madaline (controlled by the hunger) // Any zealot under Hitler’s Command
Lord Wraith (true partnership) // Dr. Josef Megele willing partner.
Just a thought
@ James McCoy
I don’t think your comparison fits that well, but I would add that I would put Thomas into the category of an Axis fighter, rather than an Allied force.
Thomas still serves his Hunger, even though he may rail against it and ignore it as times, he still serves an evil master.
@Mesar
I see your point. However, I was putting Thomas into the Allied forces because I think of him as basically a good man. The allied soldiers were fighting ‘the good fight’ but still did quite a few acts that were moral ambiguous at best, and morally reppelent at worst, in order to keep going and win the war.
So, personally I do not see Thomas with an “evil master” as you put it.. but instead see him as a good man, making hard choices in order to survive on the battlefield, in his war against his demon.
What I want to know is: In the case of the Raith family, which uses Lust as their emotional hook, the counter is Love. i get that. But would the same emotional counter be held true for ALL White court vampires, regardless of the negative emotion they feed on? Would an item of true love be enough to damage/repel, say someone from house Malovra, or Skavis? Or would those houses need something with a diffrent emotional connection?
I think they’ve stated in earlier system previews that “the line” is zero refresh. They’re using refresh rate as a measure of free will, so when you run out from gaining powers/stunts, that’s it for you as a PC. And they’ve also said outright that it doesn’t have to be supernatural powers: Even purely mundane “power” can take over your life.
@chaotik: Butcher revealed love as the weakness of the Raith family before revealing the existence of the others. What’s the trio of virtues from the Bible verse Thomas quoted, faith, hope and love? (I’ve heard different versions.) Maybe hope is the bane of the Skavis, and faith is the bane of the Malvora.
I only sorta glossed over this one earlier… Is there any remote possibility we might get an early clue as to how “hunger stress” works? I’ve been trying to come up with a system for psychic powers to cause fatigue in the form of composure stress, and it occured to me the other day that your hunger rules might be the ticket.
(God I want this game, and Fate 3, so freakin’ hard…)
@CLAVDIVS, hunger stress is basically like any other stress track — only you’re defending against “attacks” from your own power-use, and when things would normally spill over into consequences, you might instead take a “hit” to your powers themselves, lowering their effectiveness.
@fred
I was able to infer that much, but what I was really wondering about is how the stress value of the “hit” is determined. If that’s too much of a peek into the system, I understand.
Actually a comedy feeding White Court vampire is excellent. Someone laughing to death is a great thought. Beter then what Butcher came up with. Thats the right idea. They can’t feed on sloth. they don’t feed of of sins. Just emotions. You are getting confused. Apathy is not an emotion. Neither is laziness.
Also, they all have to feed. Even if they don’t draw on their demon they have to feed juts to live. They can probably get by with partial fedings for ever, but thats unclear too. Also, they can feed of positive emotions, and those feedings are non lethat. In the shop Thomas fed on feelings of friendship and trust. It wasn’t like a big bite, but like a sip, but it was safe for the victims and added up over time.
the jade court of vampires in england are based in the south west
their company is called vamp (Vamp.org.uk)
Something I just thought about as far as White Court vampires vs love:
Is it specifically _mortal_ love, or love in general? ie, if two members of the White Court truly deeply love each other… do they burn each other?
@Psy-Kosh — Probably, given the whole Thomas/Justine thing.
@fred
Not sure I follow. I mean, Justine is a _mortal_. Mortal love is involved in that one. If instead Thomas’s true love was another member of the White Court rather than a mortal… Well, I could see it either way, but I’m not sure how we could take the situation with Justine as evidence one way or the other, hence my wondering.
Thanks for the reply, though.
@Psy-Kosh, True Love (at least my idea of it) has gotta be reciprocal, man. And a WCV (Thomas) is involved in that one.
That said, my expectations of given-over-to-the-demon WCVs being able to achieve that emotional state are about nil.
@fred
Yeah, it’s reciprocal, I was just wondering what happens if it’s just WCVs with no mortals involved.
As far as the latter… by given-over-to-the-demon, you mean those that don’t even try control their Hunger?
@Psy-Kosh, yes, the monsters, i.e., 99% of ‘em, the not-Thomases. It’s not in their monstrous nature to love, therefore, moot.
@fred
Whoops, hit submit too soon. I mean, I don’t recall anything about WCVs getting burned from touching Thomas. (After all, him and Justine love each other, but it seems other WCVs only get burned from Justine, with no mention of being unable to touch Thomas. Or do I misremember something from the books?)
@Psy-Kosh, yeah, hmmm. I’d walk away from that reading deciding that the text is inconclusive on the matter. It’s not mentioned one way or the other, really, and Jim has given furtive looks when asked about the complexities of the relationship with Justine.