Childe (World of Darkness)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
World of Darkness |
|
Settings |
|
Vampirism |
|
Masquerade society |
|
Masquerade lore |
|
Masquerade history |
|
Requiem |
In White Wolf Game Studio's Vampire: The Masquerade books and role-playing games, a childe (pl. childer) is the vampiric offspring of another vampire, referred to as the sire.
A mortal human being is turned into a vampire childe by the Embrace, during which the sire drains all of his/her blood and then gives him/her some of the sire's own blood. Unlike what happens in much popular fiction about vampires, a vampire bite is not enough to turn a human into a vampire; otherwise, the Earth would have been filled with them long ago. A sire can turn someone who died of other causes as well, as long as the body is still warm.
The first vampire, Caine, had three childer, who in turn had thirteen childer of their own (then known as the Antediluvians, founders of the main vampire Clans. There is also speculation that the actual translation should have been "three times ten" rather than "three and ten" making the number of Antediluvians thirty).
According to tradition, childer are the responsibility of their sires. In the Camarilla, among other things, sires must tell their childer about the Masquerade and ensure that they respect it. If a childe violates this, the law demands that he be destroyed, and his sire may be punished too. The tradition also demands that no vampire produce childer without permission of their prince. Many vampires do not want childer at all.
Childer, in turn, have different attitudes toward their sires (just as human children with relation to their parents). Some hate them because of the curse they inflicted upon them. Some love them (for the same reason seen from another point of view). In most cases the relationship is more complex.
Some vampires scout for prospective childer, finding promising candidates in certain fields of art, in certain strata of human society, or among humans with given personality traits. Others Embrace with little planning beforehand, perhaps even frivolously.
While some sires are careless and leave their childer alone after summary instructions (if any), others take great care and devote time and effort to their offspring. In some clans the new childer find a strict organization with a place (usually at the bottom of a hierarchy) for them. The Tremere, for example, emphasize education of the childer and strict adherence to their hierarchical scheme (the Pyramid), much like the Ventrue in Vampire: The Requiem, who often require new childer to memorize their bloodline several generations back. In order to ensure a measure of obedience, the Tremere childe is forced to drink one sip of blood from each of the seven clan elders, thus coming one step closer to a full blood bond.
Childer are just about the only legitimate targets of diablerie; when a blood hunt is decreed, the sire is authorized to kill his childe in this manner.
