Category:Sirens
Quotes
Overview
- The Sirens (also known as the Cursed [of Demeter]) are a line of Daeva that understand that the voice, body and person are enough to drag a man to their desired doom through temptation.
- Stories of beautiful beings who mislead the unwary and easily swayed are common through all cultures; many tell stories of the graves of those who hear the Sirens call.
Background
Background
Myths all around the world from thousands of years ago have stories of tempters that brought ruination upon those that listened to their beautiful songs, but one of the most iconic (if not the most) are the stories of the Sirens. The Sirens are depicted as beautiful and monstrous, no one truly knows about their progenitor.
The stories of beautiful men and women of the sea, sporting webbed fingers and the fins of fish have persisted through the ages, giving birth to the myths of the merpeople. Some will say that they still bear the flowing waters in their blood of the ancient Greek sea god Posiedon as well as that of their maternal ancestor, which could be Terpsichore, Melpomene, Sterope, Gaia or Phorcys. It was thought that other Muses birthed Sirens, but it was never found to be provable due to the ravages and loss of knowledge through time, no matter how insistent those of the seemingly ancient line were of their heritage.
Notes: Poseidon was the Olympian god of the ocean, earthquakes, floods; his Roman counterpart Neptune was often entreated for good weather at sea. Terpsichore was one of the nine Muses, goddess of dance and chorus along with Melpomene, Muse of tragedy. Sterope was one of the Pleiades – one of the seven daughters of the Titan Atlas and the Oceanid Pleione, Maia and eventually became part of the night sky constellations with her sisters.
The oldest recorded member of the line is Ambrosine, last seen in Greece and thought to have resided there for over a millennium. Among the Sirens themselves though, are stories of horrors far older, trapped at the bottom of the deepest oceans, too old to wake and wreak havoc again or lost to their inhuman, animalistic curse, no longer recognisable as human, animal or kindred to any but their blood.
It was not until the Age of Exploration and the rise of piracy in the Spanish Main that the Sirens became more widely known among modern Kindred. A seafaring Ventrue of the Rotgrafen line set out to discover the origins of the stories brought back by shipwrecked sailors, of being drawn towards treacherous rocks by the sound of singing, of seeing wild haired women with the tails of fish sporting among the waves, or of sailors being dragged from boats by webbed hands from below. Wilburforce Cornelius Roe was an up and coming Invictus and had been tasked to investigate the fate of a ship that had disappeared off the strait of Gibraltar. It was here that he met the youngest childe of Ambrosine, Despoina, capturing and bonding her to ensure the protection of his ships from the Sirens. Despoina followed Wilburforce back to Europe, later forming House Black, a prominent line of Daeva from which a significant number adopted the bloodline. House Black never forgot the affront of House Roe’s enslavement of Despoina, the rivalry between the Houses stretching for centuries – perhaps representative of the rivalry between those who live beneath the waves and those who sail upon them.
The Becoming:
Like many Daeva, the Sirens Embrace for beauty, grace and charm. Yet the mark of a true Siren is the ability to draw the unwary through art or performance. Singers and dancers are common among the Sirens and almost all have a talent for expression in some form.
Stereotypes:
- Singers
- Dancers
- Performing Artists
In the Danse Macabre:
The Sirens maintain their reputation for performance and entertainment, drawing Kindred and Kine alike. Found across all Covenants, Sirens more frequently rise to prominence through social sway and physical prowess than academic or political pursuit. They have something of an ideological affinity for the Circle of the Crone, and are often Choristers if not full Acolytes. A Siren is often easily swayed by gifts or flattery, and will often surround themselves with admirers who devote themselves to pleasure.
Clan:
This is a Daeva bloodline.
Bloodline Disciplines:
Daeva: Celerity, Majesty, Protean, Vigor
Nicknames:
- Mermaids
- Mer-men
- Sea witches (derogatory).
Bloodline Gift and Bane:
Bloodline Gift: The Chains that Bind
The Siren’s Song
Rumoured to have drawn ships to dash themselves upon the rocks with the beauty of their songs and form, the body and voice of a Siren take on a strangely graceful, inhuman quality when performing before a crowd (at least 5 besides the Siren). The Siren uses the Expression skill to activate this ability, if successful onlookers are captivated and must make a successful concentration check with resolve + composure to take any action aside from observing the performance..
Bloodline Bane
Poseidon’s Call:
A Siren’s emotional stability is directly tied to the weather. They calm as skies clear and grow progressively more bloodthirsty as a storm mounts. If a Siren does not sleep on or under naturally occurring water (in a boat on a lake, river, or ocean; or beneath the waters of a stream) at least every (Humanity) in nights, they gain the Lethargic condition until they fulfil the Ban. For the purposes of this Ban, sleeping in an Unmarked Grave underneath the water satisfies the Ban
Approval Number: NST-VTR-20180106b
Lineages
Please note these are Lineages whom carry the bloodline, not all individuals are necessarily members of the bloodline.
- Ambrosine
- (Other Childer Available)
- Despoina
- (Other Childer Available)
- Elizabeth Black