The Embrace

The ultimate reward - or perhaps punishment - for any Ghoul, is to be offered the Embrace. This need not be from their Domitor - there is no mechanical restriction on who can embrace a Ghoul regardless of who created them or currently holds their bond. However, stealing a Ghoul from another vampire may incur a significant amount of ill will, so the cost and benefit should be considered carefully.

As there will be no players who are not either Ghouls (including revenants) or Cainites, these rules outline what happens when a Ghoul is embraced. The same process is used for Revenants in most cases; where it differs, specific notes will be made. 

Ashes to Ashes, Blood to Blood

It is worth repeating here that a Ghoul who is over 250 years old cannot be embraced. For Revenants, this limit is 500 years. See ‘The Embrace’ section under Ghoul Rule Adjustments for context. 

Assuming the PC to be embraced is within the relevant age limit, the following changes will occur:

  • Attributes: The attribute points that a ghoul character has will not be reduced. They may increase depending on their new generation; where this is the case, the player can assign the additional dots where they please, subject to the usual restriction on maximum dots. See the Attribute Table for more information, however bear in mind that regardless of how long they were Ghouled, their age is set back to Neonate once Embraced. 

  • Skills: Remain unchanged.

  • Backgrounds: Age will be removed, as the ghoul is now a Neonate. Generation is set based on the Generation of their new Sire. No other changes.

  • Tolls: The Ghoul retains all of their existing Tolls with the exception of their ghoulish ambition; this will change to reflect that they are no longer in service to their Domitor in quite the same way, if at all. This will be handled through discussion with the ST team. For Revenants the process is the same, however it is likely that the first Toll they acquire as a vampire will be similar in nature to the weakness they held as a Revenant. That original weakness is removed. 

  • Disciplines: An embraced Ghoul will gain access to each of their Sire’s clan Disciplines,  but do not get any automatic dots in those Disciplines. They will retain all points in any Disciplines they already hold. Revenants gain access to only two of the three Disciplines belonging to their Sire’s clan, and if they already have access to one or more of those, they must choose those first. However if they already have all three, they do not lose access.