Category:Archived-Galloi

Template:Bloodline

“With Blood I bring you Beauty.”

This Bloodline of monsters turned beauties is strongly associated with the Circle of the Crone, which is no surprise given their practice of bathing in tubs filled with their own blood. Their origin story differs from group to group, but generally involves worshippers of the beauty goddess Cybele who were granted the gift of covering themselves with their own blood in order to enjoy a strange and terrible beauty. Their features become androgynous, their skin like white porcelain, and those who gaze upon them know that something is wrong. Instead of overcoming the Nosferatu curse, it’s simply changed into a disturbing sort of beauty. Additionally, (Weakness) if this Bloodline does not regularly bathe in their own blood they become even more horrific than a standard Nosferatu.

ALTERNATIVE STRUCTURE, TAKEN FROM [1]

Vitae contains undeniable power. Each drop offers new potential. The Kindred understand some of this potential — it feeds them, stirs their spiritless limbs and gives life to dead magic. That’s only a fraction of the possibility, though — the Vitae channeled through a Damned vessel offers a world of secret, untapped strength for those desperate enough. The Galloi know this. These vampires believe themselves to be prime examples of what the Blood can truly do. The Kindred of this bloodline come from the Nosferatu, those monstrous creatures fearsome in flesh and spirit. The Galloi believe that the Blood has reversed this curse. They claim that Vitae not only feeds them and empowers them but has also literally made the fiendish beautiful once again, if only for a time. To re-form his gruesome carcass, the Galloi bathes in blood, immersing himself completely within it. Once he withdraws from his bath, his monstrous flesh is replaced with an eerily perfect figure. Others call this bloodline the “Pretties,” a bitter sobriquet illustrating the alarmingly unnatural beauty of these monsters. The Galloi do not discourage the epithet. The bloodline has carried the knowledge of the ritual bloodbath since the primeval nights before Rome’s birth. The Pretties do not question from whence the power or wisdom comes. Revering the goddess Cybele, these blood-smeared cultists act as her voice among the Acolytes of the Circle of the Crone. The goddess’ worshippers long ago bathed in blood and gore to gain her favor, and her children (both Kindred and kine) do the same tonight. Those who do not know her wisdom — even those within the Circle itself — can be made to understand. It’s easy to show them the way, to reveal her veiled power through the offers of blood. The Pretties can grant Cybele’s favor to others, for a time. Of course, there is always a price.

Covenant

With few exceptions, the Galloi belong to the Circle of the Crone. Moreover, many Galloi make particularly zealous Acolytes. A small minority of this bloodline makes their homes among the Invictus or the Carthians, eschewing any kind of spirituality and enjoying cosmopolitan Requiems of politics and power. Only the most marginal Galloi ever end up in the ranks of the Ordo Dracul or the Lancea Sanctum, however. Those Galloi who end up in the Order do so to understand (or exploit) their own mystic proclivities. The rare Galloi who becomes Sanctified generally does so to rebuke his own “heathen sins” and to find a new Requiem as one of God’s cursed children.

Appearance

A Pretty’s appearance is dictated in part by his weakness (see below). When freshly bathed in blood, the vampire appears eerily beautiful, his form almost unearthly: skin like virgin porcelain, lips the color of fresh blood, long, delicate limbs and wide, bright eyes. Perhaps more importantly, the vampire appears androgynous. The creature appears not so much without gender as possessing both male and female aspects — roundness of breasts, a subtle musculature, an Adam’s apple upon a wine-stem neck. Many Galloi accentuate this gender ambiguity through fashion, wearing severe suits or overt configurations of haute couture. Some wear clothing that shows a surprising amount of skin, thus confusing the issue more. Others sport hairless bodies, shaving themselves bald or wearing wigs and penciling in their eyebrows. When the vampire has suffered time away from his bloodbaths, however, he looks truly monstrous, like a skeleton swathed in rotten cloth. His skin becomes etched in deep wrinkles, and, sometimes, bones poke through frail flesh. At this point, the gender-ambiguous appearance also fades – the vampire’s original masculinity or femininity becomes more obvious beneath the monstrosity.

Haven

Most Galloi favor modern (even minimalist) havens located in places of desperation. The Galloi realize that they have much to offer the hopeless. The Galloi can bring youth, beauty and other advantages to those who need them most, and that puts the Galloi in a position of power. Therefore, many Galloi establish havens near artist communities, within seedy neighborhoods, even among the struggling middle class. The Galloi obviously prefer to dwell within the cities, with the rest of the Kindred, though some Galloi enjoy the comforts and opportunity of more remote existence. Some Pretties choose to dedicate their havens as shrines to the goddess Cybele. Cybele’s temples used to be underground; such subterranean sanctuaries represented the dark and earthy womb. In homage, particularly ardent Galloi choose havens beneath the ground, such as abandoned chambers off abandoned subway tunnels, the cellars of old houses or neglected bomb shelters. Even these subterranean dwellings tend to show off the vampires’ bizarre tastes in fashion, art and décor.

Background

Potential Galloi often hail from desperate situations. The desperate seek answers and control, whether they realize it or not. The Pretties offer answers and control. Sires drag their childer into new misery and give them new perspectives on suffering from within the bloodline. Simultaneously, though, Galloi give hope where none existed before. They grant beauty where only ugliness thrived. They present a different reality in which fleeting solace lies in the shadows, proffered by secret gods, and where Blood is the key to all doors. The Circle of the Crone, and Cybele in particular, has the answers to life, death and everything in between. When the Galloi find a wretched-enough soul deserving of truth, they may groom him for the bloodline and eventually Embrace him or act as his Avus to allow him entry into this primeval lineage.

Character Creation

Some Pretties value sharpness of mind, whereas others rely upon keen social wiles. Thus, individual Galloi tend to be particularly dominant in either the Social or Mental categories (both Attributes and Skills). Few Galloi devote any attention at all to the Physical, and, as a result, many vampires of this bloodline appear winnowed or gaunt. Favored Skills include Intimidation, Investigation, Occult, Persuasion and Socialize, the better with which to ply the Pretties’ cultic trades. Galloi often favor Social Merits, as well, and often have high Allies and Contacts, with Herd coming in a close third.

Weakness

The Galloi are called the “Pretties” for a reason. Some Nosferatu might be monstrous, eerie or freakish in subtle ways, but few of them would be called beautiful. This bloodline, on the other hand, is beautiful, in a manner of speaking — if the vampire bathes in her own blood. A Galloi must spend a number of Vitae equal to her Blood Potency and mix it with water, perfumes, oils and other arcane emollients. She must then immerse herself beneath the surface for a full hour. If she does this, she emerges from the bath changed. No longer hideous, she is a creature of alien beauty, a figure featuring the bizarre auspices of both genders. This beauty lasts for a number of nights equal to 10 minus the vampire’s Blood Potency. If she does not immerse herself in another appropriate bloodbath before that time runs out, she wakes up the following night with a mien more unsettling than that of other Nosferatu. Her appearance becomes skeletal, her body a set of bones draped with a shriveled veneer of chalk-white skin. She also emits an odor of moldering earth and putrescence. Mortals within five yards of her are subject to a Stamina + Composure roll to avoid nausea. Worse, when in this state, the vampire suffers from the Inferiority Complex derangement (mild), or Anxiety (severe) if she already has the mild version (see p. 98 of the World of Darkness Rulebook). The derangement and desiccated corpse-form transform into beauty once she again bathes in blood. The paradox is that, even when beautiful, the vampire still suffers from the normal Nosferatu weakness. The creature’s looks are now too perfect, and such perfection is disturbing. As such, the vampire’s dice pools in social situations (specifically those based on Presence or Manipulation Attributes) remain hampered. The 10 again rule doesn’t apply, and 1’s subtract from successes. Note that the latter part doesn’t affect dramatic failure rules. Also, the weakness doesn’t apply to pools involving the Intimidation Skill, the Composure Attribute or the Nightmare and Taurobolium Disciplines.

Organization

The Galloi bloodline doesn’t have much in the way of formal organization. This bloodline’s hierarchy is that of the Circle as a whole, and many among the Pretties aspire to leadership roles among the Acolytes. The Galloi tend to feel that they are more dearly committed to the precepts of the covenant than the hoi polloi, and, therefore, consider themselves deserving of authority. (Those who don’t respect the hard-earned accolades of Galloi among the hierarchy will, at the very least, intimately learn the tenet that “tribulation brings enlightenment.”) Ambitious individual Pretties often seek to become Hierophants of the local covenant. The key advantage of this is that the Hierophant essentially sets the local focus of the Circle’s worship. In this way, the Pretties can establish Cybele as the core divinity of the Circle’s veneration. The Galloi grant Cybele favor (and in return, purportedly gain advantage themselves) by “enlightening” others with regard to her celestial power and dominance. Individual Galloi broods occasionally follow minor rules of organization, some spoken, some not. Unspoken is the fact that Galloi do not operate alone. They almost universally support one another in discrete domains (braving a temporary itinerancy when necessary), for such a collective helps them establish ascendancy within the local Circle. The bloodline also celebrates holidays specific to Cybele. The Galloi tend to celebrate in these festivals and revelries only with each other. Other Acolytes participate in these venerations only by invitation, which can be either easy to obtain or hard to come by depending upon the Pretties’ political or religious agenda. The vampire who orchestrates these ritual celebrations is generally the eldest Galloi in the region, though not always and is called the archigallus. Occasionally the archigallus is simply the Kindred who has carried that responsibility for the longest time, whether new elders have graced the domain or otherwise.

Concepts

Art dealer, burn victim, club owner, dominatrix, Harpy, makeup artist, pawn broker or fence, pimp or madam, public eccentric, record producer, transsexual.

History

The Galloi claim an extensive history, and believe that their lineage goes back nearly 8,000 years, to the Neolithic city of Çatal Hüyük, considered by some to be the first city in the world. In this city, archeologists have found a number of voluptuous fertility statues that some believe represent early worship of the goddess Cybele. Being adherents of this goddess and accepting that vampires are far older than some Kindred claim, the Pretties accept on blind faith that they must’ve been present in that prehistoric city, acting as corporeal liaisons between Cybele and her human consorts. The Galloi insist that they have played some role in the spread of Cybele’s worship since that prehistoric time. The Greeks (and later, the Romans) colonizing Asia Minor found that worship of this goddess was prevalent. Legends suggest that when the Greeks first denied Cybele the veneration she demanded, a great plague swept across the city-states. To relieve themselves of the pain, humans cut at themselves in attempts at evacuating the poison from their constricting bodies. The Galloi claim that the blood the humans spilled went somewhere — into the Galloi’s thirsty mouths! — and, potentially, that they took the blood as champions of Cybele rather than passively waiting for the Greeks to cut themselves. Once the Greeks allowed the Cult of Cybele to worship, however, the plague disappeared as if it had never existed. The Galloi claim that their attentions turned from the Greeks to the populace at large, thereby abating the “plague.” From Çatal Hüyük to Phrygia, from Greece to Rome, the Galloi claim that they were among the priests and pious who cultivated reverence of this bloody Magna Mater, Cybele. This interpretation may well have some grain of truth. Among the ancient cultists were a number of Kindred, and these vampires certainly helped foster the religion’s growth. Cybele was a natural fit for many of the Damned. Her bloody baptismal rites not only gave vampires an ecstatic, religious experience but also fed them. According to the Galloi, Cybele handpicked a number of devout Nosferatu to be her chosen disciples, and, as a reward, she gave them a chance at suborning their curse, at least on a surface level.

Bloodline Disciplines

Taurobolium does not have discrete powers like most Disciplines. Instead, its effects grow more potent. The vampire bleeds onto the target, who then seems younger, healthier and more beautiful. The target's skin is without blemishes, and they take on an androgynous attractiveness similar to that possessed by the Galloi themselves, allowing them to more easily influence and manipulate others. As the Galloi's power in Taurobolium increases, the effect becomes stronger and the Galloi must use more Vitae to begin the effect.

Taurobolium is the unique Discipline of the Galloi, a bloodline of the Nosferatu clan of Kindred.

The Galloi claim to have originated in the Cult of the goddess Cybele, whose mortal members bathed in the fresh hot blood of a multilated bull during an initiation rite known as the Taurobolium. The vampiric worshippers of Cybele used the blood of mortal humans, and developed the rite into a Discipline allowing them to bathe another in their Vitae, granting the bather blessings from Cybele.

Bloodline Devotions

Consent of the Magna Mater (Majesty •, Taurobolium ••) - allows a ghoul to be created from the normally inert Vitae left after using the Taurobolium Discipline. The ghoul is oddly beautiful, somewhat like a Galloi, and sexually potent.

Blessing of the Captive Eye (Obfuscate •••, Taurobolium ••) - temporarily confers the blurred visage effect of the Requiem to a mortal, or removes it from a vampire.

Enliven the Flesh (Majesty ••, Obfuscate ••, Taurobolium ••) - bestows a more youthful appearance on the target, making them seem years or even decades younger.

Transgression of Attis (Majesty ••, Obfuscate ••••, Taurobolium •••••) - changes the target's gender, permanently if the subject wills it strongly enough.