| Vampire series |
|---|
| Vampire Settings |
| Old World of Darkness |
| Vampire: The Masquerade Clans & Bloodlines |
| New World of Darkness |
| Vampire: The Requiem |
| Other |
| Vampire: The Eternal Struggle |
The Blood Brothers are a fictional bloodline of vampires from White Wolf Game Studios Vampire: The Masquerade books and role-playing games.
Conceived and created in crumbling Old World castles and chantries by the newly vanished Tremere antitribu and a few twisted Tzimisce sorcerers, the Blood Brothers are an artificially engineered bloodline of shock troops and servitors. The Blood Brothers are the dubiously successful result of extensive experiments in blood bonding, intended to create a cell of servants that thought and acted as one.
To some degree, the Blood Brothers are a hive mind, sharing the same conscious thoughts and experiencing their surroundings vicariously through other members of their individual "chapters," known as circles. This link allows them to work effectively apart from each other. The bloodline excels at coordinated combat missions and espionage, provided no one realizes what they are (which, due to their rarity and the difficulty of their creation, is unlikely).
They practice an unusual, disturbing Discipline that allows them to "loan" their limbs to one another, heal their compatriots and even capitalize on their shared minds.
Blood Brothers commonly form exclusive packs, in which they undergo Tzimisce fleshcrafting to make themselves look exactly alike, the better to unsettle their foes. The bloodline is notorious for its lack of personal drive, which makes its members ideal servants; no master needs to fear the Blood Brothers’ fangs at his throat. Unfortunately, the bloodline has very little creativity, and it usually lacks the ability to outmaneuver opponents or outthink them, which is a flaw common to any enforced conformity. This is not to say the Brothers are dull-witted or slow; rather, they do not possess much self-awareness.
Few outside the Sabbat have come in contact with the Blood Brothers, and fewer still have escaped to tell about it. Indeed, not many Sabbat have dealt with the Frankensteins, or even know about them. Blood Brothers have become increasingly uncommon in the modern nights, mostly because the Tremere antitribu no longer exist to create new ones, while the existing Blood Brothers have typical Sabbat rates of Final Death. Blood Brothers cannot Embrace (a fail-safe put in place by clever experimenters who had no desire to repeat the Gargoyle fiasco), yet they are vampires in every other respect, including the ability to create ghouls.[1]
| Bloodline | Founder | Parent Clan | Faction | Disciplines | Nicknames | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blood Brothers | None, (Artificially created via Thaumaturgy and Vicissitude) | Created by Tremere antritribu and Tzimisce | Sabbat, (Indentured to Tzimisce) | Foritude, Potence, Sanguinus | Frankensteins | May not embrace; all Blood Brothers of the same circle feel each other's pain. |
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Barring a few scars here and there, Blood Brothers look exactly like other members of their circle. Most shave their bodies completely before the Embrace, ensuring an eternity of hairlessness, though this is not always the case. Additionally, many Blood Brothers tattoo numbers or other symbols on their bodies before their Embrace (often on the base of the neck, but sometimes on their stomachs or ankles), which identify which circle they belong to and in what capacity. Blood Brothers most often dress in styles similar to that of the skinhead culture, wearing T-shirts, jeans, military-surplus boots and braces or suspenders. They cultivate their image for an air of obvious, but not ostentatious, menace.
The Blood Brother’s background ceases to have relevance after his Embrace. Vampires of this bloodline become devoted entirely to their circle and sect, and all other concerns vanish. Tzimisce (and Tremere antitribu, in the past) usually select mortal families, gangs or other extant groups from which to create Blood Brothers, capitalizing on the conformity and camaraderie therein. Female members are exceedingly rare, but at least one has been reputably reported.
For most Blood Brothers, unlife begins and ends with the circle, which consists of three to seven members. They may attend other Sabbat functions, but their master or patron dictates most of their purpose. Blood Brothers feel no inherent allegiance to other circles, above and beyond that of duty to the Sabbat. The bloodline treats others with cold deference, and its members seem somewhat reluctant to let outsiders know much about it. Perhaps their ends are best served in secrecy.
Similar to the Harbingers of Skulls bloodline, the Blood Brothers are not necessarily meant to be controlled by players, and best work as unique NPCs.[2]
The Blood Brothers also appear as a bloodline in the card game Vampire: The Eternal Struggle.[3]
Of all the clans found in the Bloodlines set, the Blood Brothers are the most suited for single-clan play and are strongest when played single-clan. They are very good at combat but not very strong at much else. They can be mixed effectively into potence-based combat decks featuring other clans.
All Blood Brothers are marked sterile (similar to the Ahrimanes), which means that the question of "What circle is my progeny?" (see new rule at right) won't come up unless someone Clan Impersonates a Blood Brother.[4]
Circle
Each Blood Brother is identified with a particular circle. This has no other effect on game play except as card text indicates (as in most minion cards that require Sanguinus). A Blood Brother without a circle designation is his own circle - a circle of one.[5]
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