Alright, so what I'm reading here is that you don't have to possess all the powers of the particular coven. That much was made clear.

My question is where is the line?

Obviously, making your character part of the Amman clan, but without the weakness to fire and sunlight (diffuse into mist, like with the Ishak). Basically, I'm pretty sure you can't make a vampire without any weaknesses, besides the ones that are inherent to all.

I wanted to make a character that was affiliated with the Enashe clan, but the whole having to feed on a nightly basis is kind of annoying, so going for two, maybe three days (it's a stretch) would be a little better in my mind. I know they can drink dead blood and all, but for the sake of argument, can I tweak the restrictions on things like feeding and being vulnerable to fire?

I basically want a character that doesn't hate mortals, but doesn't really like them either. He's a loner of sorts, but doesn't have problems with large groups, and will sometimes go to raves if he's really in the mood. Feeding on a nightly basis isn't as much a problem as it's just annoying... stretching that out to two days would be cool. Telekinesis would be cool to have, but the vulnerability to fire and stake to the heart isn't exactly desirable... He's the kind of guy that wants to go where he wants when he wants, except when the coven leader asks something else of him, obviously.

So, two-fold question I guess. Would the Enashe be the best clan for me to get into and how far can I tweak the features of the clans to suit my character?

Thanks very much in advance for any advice/guidance you can offer me.

I'm not an Admin or a Mod, but you can tweak your character as much as you want. It is your character. If you want your character to feed every tywo to three days you can make him do that. You don't have to belong to a coven though. Two of my characters don't belong to Covens and they are quite happy that way.

Your character can do pretty much anything, within reason. There isn't really much to it. The covens abilities are simply an outline of what an average one may look like and what abilities he or she may have. The abilities rthat your character has is all up to you...

For my part, I'm just going to elaborate more on what Pandora said. <3

Part A:

As she said, you can basically tweak your character as much as you like, within reason. If your character is new to being a vampire, then they will most probably not have some of the wicked awesome, extremely unique talents mastered to the full. They might, but even if they do, they won't have full mastery over them. Power - lineage aside - comes with age.

That being said, if vampires under a thousand weren't allowed the Amman's abilities, there would be no future Amman members with the coven's "normal" abilities, would there?

So yes. Within reason, you are allowed to tweak your character. But if you give them all the pros and none of the cons, it isn't going to fly. Things have to balance out, and if they don't, we'll ask you to change something.

I'll take this opportunity to state a point that will lead into the next part: Coven members don't join their covens solely because of the powers they have. Other things, such as beliefs, personality, habits, etc. factor into it as well.

Part B:

The Enashe are the most "human" of the covens. That means that, generally speaking, they like humans. They like hanging out with them, they like being surrounded by them, they identify with them and or don't want them to be hurt, etc. etc.

If your boy can take mortals or leave them, Enashe may not be the best place for him. I emphasize that may because I don't know his personality beyond what you've hinted at. If, for no reason at all, he decides to kill mortals on a semi-regular basis, then no, Enashe is probably not for him. If he doesn't, it's up to your discretion.

There is no prototype for each Coven, not really. Most members are variations on a theme. Some are closer to one end of the spectrum than the other, but almost all cling to the underlying belief. In the case of the Enashe, it is, more or less, that humanity is sacred. For the Ishak, it's that vampires are better than mortals. For the Amman, that vampires should be kept secret. And so on, and so forth.

Any other questions? Feel free to ask.

Alright, this helps me out a little bit...

I've set his age at 1640, born in 367 AD Egypt. He was turned in 392 AD, right after the Byzantine Empire forced all Egyptian temples to close. So he's not at all new to being a Vampire. I imagine that at one point, he would have sampled quite a few of the covens. The Ishak and Tarepha are far too brutal. The Nephim are kinda meh to me as well. Leaving the Enashe, Amman and Independent. My character would much prefer to be under the covering of some kind of coven.

He is old fashioned. He carries a sword, mostly as decoration, but will occasionally use it if he feels threatened. Don't worry, he doesn't carry it with him everywhere. Usually only if he's going to some meeting or every once in a while to feed.

Having an aversion to the cross doesn't really fit his character too well. He was training to become a priest. Thus, doesn't make sense. Weakness to fire, ya, I can understand that, and keep it in there. I'd like for him to go a few days between feedings, and be able to feed on dead blood without dying, but he prefers live blood. Diffusing in sunlight would be cool, but not necessary.

As far as killing mortals, no, he doesn't have to. If he does, at least he's discreet about it. He doesn't really want the Amman breathing down his neck. Besides, he's not brutal, he's learned to appreciate the simple pleasures in life.

So, I'm still not sure which coven I want to belong to... anyone have ideas?

You could try the Amman, but if he doesn't have an aversion to the cross, the Nephim might work. They live in the catacombs of a church. It's really up to you, it's your character...

Unfortunately, everything you've mentioned helps, but it gives me only what you've already picked out for yourself. ._.;

If he were to go with the Amman, he would have to (sometimes) get involved in conflicts, erase memories, blahdiblah, make sure vampires remained a secret. If he were in Enashe, he could still do these things (if he so chose), but he wouldn't have to. (If you want to get super technical, I suppose Amman wouldn't have to either, but they're generally expected to.)

Which brings us to the question - is your fellow a righteous sort of person or not? Would he prefer to have some sort of duty in his un-death, or would he rather just go about doing whatever he pleased?

Nafretiri: Honestly, it's a bit of both. If he sees something that he doesn't believe is good, he'll act. He follows orders well enough, but most of the time he just does whatever. There are certain times that he'll act, other times he won't.

Hmmm... Amman actually does sound pretty good. Has to feed every two days (three if he really pushes it), has a reflection, toasted by fire, aversion to sunlight but can diffuse into mist (I can take that out if it makes him too powerful), can change his outward appearance enough to justify going out into the mortal world if he so chooses, telekinesis (along with whatever ability to erase minds, like you were saying if he is called upon to settle a dispute), and can drink dead blood if he absolutely has to.

Anything I'm leaving out? Would these powers make sense with a vampire that's over 1600 years old? Is he too powerful?

Again, thank you for the help.

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I don't see anything that you're missing.

You're more than welcome. ^^

Quick question... if he retains his weakness to fire, could he, say, sit around a normal campfire without being burnt to a crisp? The rules and such don't really make that clear...

They're vulnerable to it in the way of if you light them on fire, they die, and rather quickly, at that; generally more quickly than your typical human. They aren't quite so flammable as to burst into flame if in the proximity of one. ;)

Alright, well I'm just full of questions today! Hope you guys don't mind... :unsure:

Anyway, so my next question: If my character is vulnerable to a stake through the heart, what about a sword or some other such object? Does it have to be a wooden stake, or can it just be anything sharp and pointy in particular?

If this is true, that a vampire can be killed by anything through the heart, what about a sword through the chest? Not his heart or anything, just a straight shot through the chest. How would he heal from trauma like that?

Thanks for the help.

Oh, one more thing. I'm thinking about joining the Amman coven for my first RP thread. How do I go about setting up a meeting with Marcus to ask him directly? Is that even possible to meet with the leader of the coven to ask admittance? If you don't have to meet with the leader to gain admittance, I'd like to anyway. It's how my character works. If it's not possible, I'll rework him, but at this point, he wants to know who he's working for kinda thing.

Again, thanks for the help.

Alright, first I'd like to say that almost everything is vulnerable to a stake through the heart...

Ok, yeah that was a bit of a joke, but it’s also true. Even if it doesn’t kill instantly, well that’s a lot of trauma to recover from for any immortal and that’s coming from the guy who has a character that’s specialty is regeneration.

Still surprisingly enough this just doesn’t come up that much, I mean we don’t exactly have Van Hellsing prowling around site and if you get into a fight between vampires, well I’d be worried more about decapitation, evisceration, dismemberment, and good old fashion pyrokinesis (in a couple of cases) still for the sake of argument I think that the injury would rest on the damage done and not so much on what does the damage.

If I’m wrong anyone, feel free to correct me, Naff and or Marcus.

Ps. Your character’s death would depend wholly on if you want them to die as well…

Alright. Well, there is in fact a reason I'm asking. Another one of my past things. My character is betrayed by the one who turned him and he tries to fight him. I've been debating on whether to have him get impaled on something and take a few years to fully recover from the damage or if the one that turned him just takes off.

Of course, my character eventually kills him.

Anyway, I was really just wondering how much damage a vampire can receive before they just can't come back from it.

Oh, and my other question to Marcus still stands.

Thanks, guys.

It depends on the strength of the vampire in question, really. Generally speaking, no vampire can recover from a beheading or being lit on fire (unless they manage to put it out before it consumes a vital area, such as the head or the chest, which is hard to do, if you're one that's particularly vulnerable to flame).

If the heart is completely destroyed, that takes the majority of vampires out as well (exceptions being if you're around, say, 3000+, or somehow have the power equivalent to one that age). If you wanted a wound that takes years to recover from, impaling is a good way to go, or dismemberment.

As per your other question, technically, yes, everyone meets Marcus before they join the Amman. It isn't necessary to RP this meeting, but as you'd like to, yes, I'll be happy to oblige. :) In the past, would-be members have wandered into Westminstral Park uttering telepathic calls for Marcus, and he's answered them, as he typically lives in the coven house which is located there. These days he's temporarily living in an apartment downtown, however, so...I'm open to suggestions as to how your character would be most likely to track him down. It's possible that your character did the above in terms of looking for him in Westminstral, and was found by another of the Amman, who in turn contacted Marcus and set up a meeting.

It's also possible that your character guessed at his location, since there are Amman bodyguards around Marcus's apartment building.

Your call, really. :heh:

We can always go with the sending telepathic calls bit. That sounds pretty neat.

The real reason that Zakri wants to meet with Marcus is really about honor. He spent a great deal of his life in Japan, training with Samurai, so he has honor instilled in him. And a really badass sword that he carries with him to important meetings. He basically wants to offer Marcus his sword, which comes with his soul and services. Does that sound weird at all? Kinda does to me...

But anyway, thanks for the info regarding impalement... it seems that's a good way to go for my character.

Awesome. Thanks for all the help you guys. I'm sure I'll have more questions as I continue to write my past.

Alright, figured out another question.

My character doesn't have any kind of uber-regeneration skills or anything, just the normal ones that all vampires have. I know in the movie Underworld: Evolution, Celene gets hit with some sunlight on her hands and they start peeling or whatever. Later on, she has regenerated them. Does that work here? If my character is hit with a bit of sunlight, can he regenerate that or is he stuck with it?

Aye, they can regenerate from sunlight damage, though it would take longer than the less-than-24-hours that it does in Underworld. The exception being for those vampires that aren't quite as vulnerable to sunlight, ie. those that can walk in diffuse daylight; they'd regenerate faster.

What does that mean exactly, diffuse sunlight? If a vampire walks out into the streets in pure daylight, they can just *poof* bust out into mist and not die? Or can they only do that for a certain amount of time? Or is it that they can only walk non-direct sunlight by turning into mist?

And is this a natural ability to those who have it? Meaning, can a vampire who isn't trained with using his/her powers use this?

Walking in diffuse sunlight means walking in sunlight that is being generously diffused by something-- eg. walking in daylight but only walking in the shadows, or walking in daylight shrouded completely in thick fabric. Those examples aren't particularly practical, and given the number of vampires who tend to at least get drowsy in the day, not exactly commonly done. However, there's also the bonus of, say, a vampire who can walk in diffuse sunlight being able to walk about indoors unharmed, so long as there are heavy curtains completely covering the windows.

Any vampire who walks outside in pure daylight, or by a window in the day that isn't being covered by something, will go poof, as in they'll combust almost instantly, mist or not. The ability means that the light is being diffused, not the vampire. ;)

Generally speaking, walking in diffuse sunlight is an ability tied to whether or not the vampire is capable of being conscious after the sun has risen. At least, that's how I intended it when I organized the generic coven info. I'm sure variations have been done by members since.