Sure the big red guy gets all the fame, but . . . (Mutants and Masterminds)

This is a season of thanking people for the gifts they give you , and I can think of few gifts greater than the patronage of all those dear souls who use my Patreon to help me get a writing career started.  I'd especially like to thank Dave, Diana, Ferny, and Keeper.  In the spirit of the season, I am asking Santa to give me more patrons for Christmas; will you help him fulfill my Yule wish?

Two million years ago,  angels visited Mars, negotiating with the red-dirt elementals of that planet for some of their number willing to be changed and transmuted.  Bringing these sacrifices across the airless void to Earth, as ordered by the Causa Causans, they used heavenly magics to graft these elementals into three Australopithecus africanus.  This, and other modifications they made to these pre-humans, changed them, creating the first examples of the Homo genus.  This was the creation of humanity, in the persons who would come to be called אָדָם‎‎, חַוָּה‎‎, and לִילִית.

This happened shortly after the Τιτανομαχία, and Ζεύς was just then settling himself upon his father's throne in high Ὄλυμπος, assigning to the θεοί their several privileged dominions and apportioning to them their proper tasks.  He eyed יהוה, though, jealous of his power, and so of this new genus of wretched mortals he took no notice, desiring to bring the whole race to an end and create a new one in its place under his control.  There was a Τιτάν among his court, one who had fought on his side in the Τιτανομαχία, who went by the name of Προμηθεύς or Foresight who desired that humanity not descend, blasted utterly, to the house of newly crowned ᾍδης.

Προμηθεύς snuck through the halls of Ὄλυμπος, stealing wisdom from the desk of Ἀθηνᾶ and fire from Ἥφαιστος's forge and the best share of the sacrificial meat from Ζεύς himself.  Hiding the fire within a hollow fennel-stalk so that Ζεύς who delights in thunder could not see it, Προμηθεύς brought these gifts to אֶרֶץ־נוֹד whence the first humans had been banished after קין murdered his brother הֶבֶל‎ and gave them to these desperate people.  Pausing there with them for a little while, Προμηθεύς taught them many ways by which they might read the future and discern which among dreams are destined to come true, and signs from chance meetings as well.  The flight of crook-taloned birds he distinguished clearly for these first humans: which by nature are auspicious, which sinister, and their various modes of life, their mutual feuds and loves, and their consortings.  He initiated them into the occult art of interpreting the smoothness of birdly entrails and  also the speckled symmetry of the liver-lobe; he instructed them as to what color the gall must have to please the θεοί, and how to wrap the thigh-bones in fat, and how to burn the long chine.  Also he cleared their vision to discern signs from the flames he had now gifted to them.   And then, seeing the morbid addiction the mortals cultivated to foreseeing their own doom, he caused blind hopes to dwell within their breasts.  

There were traitors among the early humans, however, who used the very skills they learned from Προμηθεύς to report his theft to Ζεύς, who in a rage rewarded them with a drug to ward off old age.   So they ingested it, and placed the remainder upon an ass.  The ass proceeded with the load on its back; and it was summer time, and the ass came thirsting to a spring in its need for a drink.  Now the snake which was guarding the spring tried to prevent it and force it back, and the ass in torment gave it as the price of the loving-cup the drug it happened to be carrying.  And so there was an exchange of gifts: the ass got his drink and the snake sloughed his old age, receiving in addition, so the story goes, the ass's thirst.  Father Time has been known to opine when in his cups that Προμηθεύς himself is the cause of man's misery, for instead of fire which is the beginning of all evil he ought rather to have stolen sweet νέκταρ, which rejoices the heart of the θεοί, and given that to humans.

It was the traitorous early humans who were the ancestors of the elfs, known as Homo nobilis, with all of its many subspecies.  Homo nobilis migrated north, settling ultimately in the lands now called Germany, Scandinavia, the British Isles, and Iceland.  In the process, they interbred with fairies they met along the way, and dealt with angels and demons alike.  Their greatest allies, however, were the ᛅᛋᛁᛦ and ᚠᛅᚾᛁᚱ, who lived as well in the regions the elfs came to inhabit and who also warred with the giants of that land.  The elfs formed their hidden communities in the woods and valleys of those regions.  The ᚠᛅᚾᛦ-turned-ᚬᛋᛋ named ᚠᚱᛅᚢᛦ proved himself their especial patron.

When Anhedonia's agent in the solar system (the Sun's Charcoalled Eye) sent its servant the Lord of Gifts out among the planets twenty millennia ago (about the same time that Afro-Asiatic was first spoken as a single language), the Lord of Gifts came first to Earth , and to the elfs.  It convinced the greatest craftsman among them, one Celebrinðull by name, to travel with it to Mars, where he worked with a marmar by the name of Ngarvimar to create a series of powerfully enchanted crowns.  Five such crowns went to several Earthly civilizations and seven to those of Mars, while the inhabitants of the asteroid belt gained nine, the Jovian moons eleven, and the strange gaseous beings of Saturn a witchly thirteen crowns.  A Venusian spy stole the procedure and forged three crowns for that shrouded world to hold, before the Lord of Gifts absconded to Mercury, cannibalizing an entire city of its robotic citizens to build a single technomagical crown that could control the others.

As various elfin nations came to accept the virtuous ways of chivalry in the centuries after King Arthur ap Uther ap Constantin ap Maximianus, they began to form themselves under the reign of various female monarchs.  Two of Earth's crowns had been lost by that time ~ the Crown of Brambles and the Fish-Heart Crown ~ and two had passed into the hands of the humans (the Ouroboros Crown and the Feathered Crown), leaving only a single crown left to the elfs.  Whosoever wears this Lichen Crown is recognized by all their many civilizations as the Fairy Queen who would rule over all the elfin lands.  Since 1597, the Lichen Crown has been worn by Fairy Queen Mab, ncknamed "the fairies' midwife".  She has yet to take an Erlking, the traditional consort of a Fairy Queen, but rumors fly that she might finally be turning her mind to conjugal matters.

A millennium after Arthur, a custom arose among the elfs of replacing the babies of Homo sapiens with their own infants in an attempt to exert influence upon their more numerous distant cousins or just to give their children a better life.

There are many types of elf, with wildly varying abilities, but scholars have noted certain commonalities (none of them universal).  A few can magically mat and tangle hair into what are called elf-locks; others display prophetic powers.  Most subspecies have demonstrated a great inborn ease with the workings of magic (particularly sīden, sīdsa, ᛋᛅᛁᚦᛦ, and alchemy); quite a few tend to also possess a seductive beauty, and many of those have a threatening sexual appetite to match their soothing appearance, often trying to lure or abduct humans to join their settlements.  Some scholars more invested in social justice are of the opinion that this aggression and the habit of abducting more mainstream types of human likely developed as a strategy to meet the needs of a marginalized people.  Others point out the long elfin association with the consent-challenged demons known as incubi and succubi or to the similarly rapacious maere.  Quite a few elfin populations have demonstrated the ability to turn themselves invisible, and the power to cause or manipulate nightmares is not unknown among them.

Lacking a culture of herding livestock, many elfin communities developed a strong desire for dairy products, and especially butter.  Soon the human world came to understand that their acquisitory nature could be appeased and abjured by offering treats of butter in the stones the elfs used to mill their grains.  The humans also developed the spell known as ellakors (elf-cross), consisting in its temporary usage of painting a pentagram onto surfaces or carving an ordinary cross onto an oblong or circular plate forged over three evenings from nine sources of inherited silver and then placed on a church altar for three consecutive Sundays.  This innovation also led humans to develop rune-charms by which elfs could be summoned and controlled.

One of the most troubling abilities frequently shown by the various subspecies of elf is the ability of many to cause illness, particularly sharp internal pains, mental disorders, and epilepsy; a few have been able to grant others the ability to cure both these diseases and other afflictions as well.  The most common, though also most harmless, are various irritating skin rashes, collectively called älvablåst (elven puff), which can be cured by a forceful counter-blow (such as by a pair of bellows).  Even those subspecies for whom these pathogenic abilities are not inherent have developed methods to recreate it.  This has proven to be a particular problem for the nisser, as other elfs began to hunt them for their teeth in the late tenth century; these teeth (and their venom-glands) proved useful in making arrowheads for elf-shot, magical arrows that cause illness and madness in people struck by them.

A favorite defense among many elfin settlements is to use dancing magics to enchant meadows such that anyone who urinates in the meadow will contract a venereal disease.  Such meadows can often be found by looking for rings of mushrooms that grow within them.  

Throughout their history,  elfs have preferred to show off their pointed ears by covering their heads with stocking caps of green or red.  Their noses extend about two or three times as far from their face as any (proportionally sized) human's would, and they have shrunk in stature since diverging from the mainstream line of human evolution, standing anywhere from 25% to 75% as tall as Homo sapiens, depending on subspecies.

Denmark once was ruled, quite briefly, by a half-elfin queen skilled in ᛋᛅᛁᚦᛦ, by the name of ᛋᚴᚢᛚᛏ.  Many years later, an elf devilled Martin Luther's mother.  As can be deciphered by his name, the famous dwarf superhero Alberich, was half-elfin.  There are many elfs, of many different types, in the super-city of Rosalind.  They even have a neighborhood to themselves, in which they are the predominant population, known as Neo-ᛅᛚᚠᚼᛅᛁᛘᛦ.

In recent years, a group of Icelandic elfs ~ branded terrorists and supervillains by the government and many companies ~ have banded together to disrupt house- and road-building efforts, sanctioning against development and urbanization and protecting to the point of enforcing pastoral values and traditional rural culture.  They are quite opposed to most technology developed after the 18th century (or earlier).

Elfin subspecies

ᛚᚢᚬᛋᛅᛚᚠᛅᚱ (Homo nobilis lucina):  Elfs who interbred with angels

ᛏᚬᚴᚴᛅᛚᚠᛅᚱ (Homo nobilis tartari) :  Elfs who interbred with demons

᚛ᚐᚔᚂᚔᚂᚂ᚜ (Homo nobilis fata):  Elfs who interbred with fairies

ælfscȳne (Homo nobilis  immanens):  Elfs who interbred with νύμφαι

alpe (Homo nobilis silvanus):  Elfs who interbred with fauni

hobgoblins (Homo nobilis malanima):  Prank-playing elfs of Britain

brownies (Homo nobilis lar):  Ancestor-worshipping Scottish elfs in touch with their Roman origins

hobs (Homo nobilis caeca):  Eyeless elfs who burn in the light and enjoy helping farmers and storeclerks

älvor (Homo nobilis gracilis):  Stunningly beautiful Amazonian elfs who live in Swedish forests, ruled by a king

ellyllon (Homo nobilis eponae):  Horse-riding elfs of Wales

donas de fuera (Homo nobilis cardeae) :  Sicilian elfs who seek apotheosis

ᚢᚢᛚᛅᛘᚬᚾᛏᛅᚾ

Homo nobilis nativitatis

Statted out at the end of this post is the ᚢᚢᛚᛅᛘᚬᚾᛏᛅᚾ, a variation of the ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ.   ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ are short, four-fingered, pointy-eared, and white-haired. often growing out a beard.  They enjoy wearing a conical or knit cap in gray, red or some other bright colour.  Their eyes reflect light in the dark, like those of a cat.

ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ often live in the houses and barns of human farmsteads, secretly acting as their guardian, protecting the family and animals, and aiding the chores and farm work.  However, they are known to be short tempered, especially when offended.   Once insulted, ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ will usually play tricks, steal items and even maim or kill animals (very rarely will they harm humans or humanlike beings).Observance of traditions is very important to the ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ as they do not like changes in the way things are done; scientists believe this is closer to a processing difference (akin to the experience of many Autistic humans) than to any conservatism in their culture.  They are also easily offended by rudeness; swearing, urinating in inappropriate areas, or not treating animals well have all been known to drive ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ to violence.  One piece of evidence in favor the neurological explanation for this behavior is that shouting a warning to the ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅ below when someone spills something on the floor in the house tends to prevent any anger on the part of the elf. 

Porridge is a favorite food of ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ, always with a pat of butter on the top.  An often retold story tells of a farmer who put the butter underneath the porridge before gifting it to the ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅ who lived on his farm.  When the ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅ found that the butter was missing, he was filled with rage and killed the cow resting in the barn.  He thus became hungry and went back to eat his porridge, finding the butter at the bottom of the bowl.  Full of grief, he then hurried to search the lands to find another farmer with an identical cow, and replaced the former with the latter.

The magical traditions of the ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ tend towards necromancy, often communicating and forming close bonds with the ghost of the first inhabitant of a farm, the one who cleared the field.  They often live in burial mounds on the farm

ᚢᚢᛚᛅᛘᚬᚾᛏᛅᚾ are, at their base, ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ who have been changed by their proximity and service to Santa Claus over the last century and a half or so.  As Santa began to set up his operation, he found a population of ᚾᛁᛋᛋᛅᛦ in Denmark whose homes and the farmsteads which hosted them were being destroyed in order to make space for the rail transport that was spreading across the country like iron cracks.  Santa reached out to these disaffected and angry elfs, offering them a new home in the North Pole.  Most he talked to reluctantly took him up on the offer.

Very invested in gift-giving, ᚢᚢᛚᛅᛘᚬᚾᛏᛅᚾ spend their time and magic creating ever more toys, cakes, sugarplums, and candycanes for Santa to give to the children of the world.  They also operate police and air forces in the North Pole, help Santa outside the Pole when he is captured by the real-world police, serve as Santa's secret-service-like bodyguards, tend the flying reindeer, and one elite group of elves known as Prep & Landing makes houses ready for Santa's deliveries.   They tend to emphasize the point in their hats. 

Rumors have begun to fly as fast as Santa's sleigh that the ᚢᚢᛚᛅᛘᚬᚾᛏᛅᚾ have begun the process of unionization and might be planning a strike, as Santa has spent the years since 1996  taking out his anger at his wife's divorcing him on his employees.

ᚢᚢᛚᛅᛘᚬᚾᛏᛅ Template

PC PL 5 / NPC PL 7 / MR 5 / SR 14
AGI 1  DEX 3  FGT -2
Powers
Elf:  Innate Immunity 1 (aging); Movement 1 (trackless); Shrinking 5, permanent, innate • 10 points
Eyes in the Dark:  Noticeable Senses 2 (darkvision) • 1 points
Giftmaker:  Comprehend 2 (objects); permanent Create 2, innate, precise, subtle; Quickness 2 • 13 points
Goatfriend, Companion of Pigs, and Reindeer Groom:  Comprehend 2 (animals), limited to cloven-hooved animals; Enhanced Animal Empathy, limited to cloven-hooved animals; Enhanced Presence 2, limited to cloven-hooved animals • 14 points
Holiday Cheer:  Independent auditory/olfactory/visual Illusion 1 • 4 points
Nisse's Bite:  Array • 9 points

• Physiovenom:  Grab-based progressive incurable Weaken Strength 3, variable descriptor (affects Stamina after Strength becomes debilitated) • 8 points 
• Cognovenom:  Grab-based progressive incurable Affliction 7 (resisted and overcome by Fortitude; entranced, compelled, controlled), limited to causing erratic or insane behavior • 1 point

North Pole Native:  Immunity 1 (cold environments) • 1 point
Secret Helper:  Visual Concealment 2 • 4 points
Advantages
Artificer, Favored Environment (arctic), Great Endurance, Improvised Tools, Inventor, Teamwork
Skills
Expertise: Magic 2, Expertise: Toymaking 3, Sleight of Hand 1, Technology 2

Complications

Abilities 4 + Powers 56 + Advantages 6 + Skills 4 = 70 points

Today is just the outfit yesterday showed up at the door wearing (Mutants and Masterminds)

"When pain, suffering and the advent of death become intolerable, there is Tlazolteotl hovering at the crossroads of life to lure a person away from his or her seemingly appointed destination and we are held embrujadas, kept from our destiny, our soul arrested.  We are not living up to our potentialities and thereby impeding the evolution of the soul -- or worse, Coatlicue, the Earth, opens and plunges into its maw, devours us.  By keeping the conscious mind occupied or immobile, the germination work takes place in the deep, dark earth of the unconscious."
--Gloria Anzaldúa

Ghosts, of course, are the pseudo-living (though some ectologists might use the term post-vital or even theorize that wraithly existence constitutes simply an oft-unrecognized additional stage of life) recurrence of a dead being.  Well, objects can sometimes form ghosts, as well, such as the ghost ship phenomenon or the superhero Excelsior, the ghost of a sentient car from the future.

In almost every recorded instance, something or things have kept the ghost from dissipating or continuing on to some form of afterlife.  Ectological databases list almost every imaginable thing as anchors for the dead; they might be tied to a particular object, person, time, or location, or there might be unfinished business or a promise they feel an undying need to fulfill, or even a particular unusual action to which they are metaphysically bound.  Extreme mental states are also quite common in reports of interactions with ghosts.  Many find their emotions continuously routed through depression or wrath as if by some psychic riptide, and memories might be tattered, with grand gaps, or restrictively short and cyclical.  Some ghosts have been known to interpret whatever is occurring to them through the lens of their death or some memory related to their anchor(s).  Simple confusion is rarer than one might imagine, but shows up enough to be a well-known possible symptom of PMPCS (post-mortem persistent communication syndrome).

As a result of the pioneering work done by the androgynous supergenius Professor d'Eon, ectomedical specialties have exploded in number and funding, though not always to positive effect.  Ectodopamine was first discovered, and then extracted, in 1992.  It has since become the foundation of numerous highly addictive, highly dangerous psychoactive substances ~ superdrugs ~ that often give their users temporary spectral superpowers.  The first of these, known as smokes, was created in 2015, only to be followed by a veritable cornucopia such as bean seed, ralph, and a derivative of MDMA (ecstasy) called 2,3-methylene-ectodioxy-indolyl-aminomanteion (or MEDIAM).

"Because of media hype and woefully inadequate information, too many people nowadays are deathly afraid of their food, and what does fear of food do to the digestive system?  I am sure that an unhappy or suspicious stomach, constricted and uneasy with worry, cannot digest properly.  And if digestion is poor, the whole body politic suffers."
--Julia Child

The reasons, mechanisms, and dynamics of the transition into an ectothanatopic state are wildly diverse, and result in a chaotic variety of expressions that are difficult to classify.  The included template covers only the base commonalities of (most) ghosts ~ feel free to modify it to fit a specific ghost.  This includes adding individual powers, such as telekinetic poltergeisting, skin-riding (which has been noted to correlate with an increase in the ghost's intelligence, though ectologists remain baffled as to why), illusory apparitions, flight, life-draining, and more.  Relatively often, ghosts will have additional or greater powers when it comes to affecting their anchors.  For the most part, this would be a -2 points per rank flaw, though a larger or broader anchor such as a widespread family line would be only worth -1 point per rank.

Furthermore, there are certain complex expressions that recur in greater numbers (usually with a similar cause or in a particular geographical or cultural context or with some other common origin), forming what are called ectotypic families, such as the bean sidhe/banshee, भूत, 幽霊, las lloronas, 餓鬼, cihuateteo, and others.  Some ectotypic families, such as the imperial cult of ancient Rome, the ninunò, the 𓅜𓐍𓏲𓏛𓏥, or the lwa for example, have been known to partake in one or more colors of the infinite colors refracted from the Worldlight by the Green Glass Gods at the boundary of the atmosphere ~ that is to say, they partake of the rainbow of divinity. 

"The earth, it has been said, is one vast graveyard, and man can nowhere put down his foot without stepping on the remains of a brother."
--M. Schele de Vere

Ghost

PC PL 5 / NPC PL 0 / MR 5 / SK 13

STA — PRE +1

Powers

Anchored:  Feature 1 (always know where your anchors are) • 1 point

Creep:  Concealment 2 (normal sight); innate Enhanced Stealth +6 • 8 points

Dead:  Immunity 38 (aging, critical hits, Fortitude effects, Sensory Affliction effects); innate permanent Insubstantial 4 (what affects the ghost differs among individuals) • 59 points

Memento Mori:  Innate Enhanced Intimidation +4 • 3 points

Advantages

Fearless

Attributes -8 + Powers 71 + Advantages 1 + Skills 0 + Defenses 0 = 64 points

Born from the metal that burns in our blood so as to carry our breath within (Mutants and Masterminds)

<PBS voice> This blog is made possible by the generosity of patrons like you! </NPR voice>  Special thanks go out to my patrons Keeper, Dave, Ferny, and Diane.  If this post or any of my others impresses you enough to wish to join their ranks, you can do so at this link. 

"There comes a time in the life of every human when he or she must decide to risk "his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor" on an outcome dubious. Those who fail the challenge are merely overgrown children, can never be anything else."

— Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

The planet Mars is a shockingly populous planet, with possibly the second most active and diverse ecosystem among all Sol's planetary children.  From the three-legged blade-footed mollusc-like hematophagous sarmaks to survivors of Atlantis and lost collectives of cube-shaped combining robots, the planet abounds in sentient life.   This is perhaps understandable.  After all, the red-dirt elementals of Mars, cousins to the earth, blood, and rust elementals of Earth, famously gifted several of their own number to the creation of humanity.  Among all of these, however, two species stand out among the others:  the marmar and their advisor species, the vlenti ne.

𒀭𒄊𒀕𒃲, Mars, Αρης, मङ्गल, Angaraka, 𓅃 ~ so many of the gods who focused their attention on the Red Planet have been wargods over the years, and the marmar have been their creation.  Slight humanoids with metallic-green skin and fetish for enhancing themselves with cybernetic antennae who live in tunnels and rooms carved below the Martian surface, the marmar might not seem like the chosen race of a series of divine generals.  Their devotion came in the twin forms of a rigorous dedication to ascetic efficiency and computer-aided mathematical tactics.  Marmar cuisine was reduced to simple pills, light, easy, and without need for attention, which were the general goals in the mechanization of their entire culture; joy, humor, individuality, and most freedoms were excised to allow the troops to focus entirely on achieving their mission objectives.  A very small and select group of marmar known as sages developed  unique and very scientific approach to divination magic, as well, in order to use knowledge of possible futures to ensure marmar victory.

As long as they faced away from Sol's burning shores, these twin virtues ensured marmar victory.  At one point, they were only a moon and couple dozen asteroids away from uniting the entirety of the outer Solar system in one empire.  The problem came after the 1830 Martian Civil War, precipitated by the loss of the frontier to which the marmar had become accustomed.  The victors knew theat their people's martial fervor could not be denied, and so they turned their attention inward, using a 64-Earthyear period of tactical planning as a chance to foster less warlike and more scientific memes in their immortal constituency. 

 "All this trouble over a fat little man in a red suit!"

— Santa Claus Couquers the Martians

They invaded Earth alongside sarmak mechanized tripod infantry in 1894, and were defeated by the inevitable biowarfare of a planet full of microbes.  The sarmak-marmar coalition tried again in 1938, and were beaten back once more by the quickly blooming crowd of Earthling superhumans.  Attempts by the most bloodthirsty among the marmar to understand their chosen enemy by allowing Earth's transmissions to be received by the general populace resulted in marmar children becoming addicted to joyful, cheery Earthling holiday TV, restless and distracted.  The fateful decision was made in 1964 by National Sysadmin-General Kimar to kidnap Santa Claus.

The aftermath of that plot involved Kimar's former servant Dropo being raised to the position of Martian Santa.  The effects have been widespread, multivalent, and unpredictable, as the marmar attempt to weld a newfound crazed addiction to schmaltzy sweetness and incessant humor to their previous militant austerity.  Millennia of repression are bursting forth without rejecting the agent of that repression.

Luckily, the vlenti ne, a species of large black arachnids with bald human faces and eight prehensile hands covered in the same green skin as their heads, exist.  Early on in this process of radical cultural shift, Kimar reached out to these philosophers in their deeper cavernous homes, hoping to enlist their aid in shepherding the marmar through these trying times.  Although Kimar had to enlist Dropo to give them a crash course in humor, they were willing to engage with the cultural conundra plaguing the marmar civilization.

 "Man has escaped from his head just as the condemned man has escaped from his prison, he has found beyond himself not God, who is prohibition against crime, but a being who is unaware of prohibition. Beyond what I am, I meet a being who makes me laugh because he is headless; this fills me with dread because he is made of innocence and crime; he holds a steel weapon in his left hand, flames like those of a Sacred Heart in his right. He is not a man. He is not a God either. He is not me but he is more than me: his stomach is the labyrinth in which he has lost himself, loses me with him, and in which I discover myself as him, in other words as a monster"

— Georges Bataille

Extremely peaceful, in counterpoint to traditional marmar militarism, the vlenti ne are quite violent in the earliest stage of their life.  Coming forth from their eggs as nymphs with quite limited intelligence, they receive no nurturance from adults and often turn to fighting each other for resources, with 90% of nymphs dying on their first day of life.  This is seen as a weeding out of the weak to ensure the ability of the community to endure the hardship and paucity of Martian living.  Vlenti ne lack any kind of sexual dimorphism, their reproductive abilities and roles being instead a function of age and pupation.  After a vlenti ne nymph gives birth for somewhere between the first and third time, it will undergo a chrysalis and emerge as an adult with a significantly more developed brain and the capability to sire children rather than bear them.

Vlenti ne adults receive all the nurturance denied to them as nymphs.  Very tall, they are passive and communistic, rejecting the idea not just of personal property, but of possessions themselves.  As a result, despite their magnificent cities clustered around the few underground water sources, their lives seem quite impoverished.  Because water is so rare on Mars, and there are so many sentient competitors for what water there is, the voluntary sharing of water between two vlenti ne marks the deepest and most important relationships in their culture, one marked by a complete and ultimate trust bordering on mutual submission.  Water is so important in their culture that they use the same word for both "to know" and "to drink", and their word for "god" is simply an agent noun formed from that word.

The final stage of vlenti ne life are the ones they simply call "the Old".  Ghosts of dead vlenti ne, the Old are almost incomprehensibly intelligent, spending all of their time in ethereal contemplation.  The Old form the governing class of the vlenti ne, their decisions unquestioned, though they often take a few centuries to be made.  This gives vlenti ne civilization its unique feel, in which individual, material, and even political problems are trivialized in favor of abstract yet logical aesthetic questions.  The vlenti ne pursue knowledge out of a deep, patient enjoyment of it, an intuitive and receptive leisure, rather than the active searching and examination to acquire the power to set definitions and draw conclusions.  They thus reject the scientific method, treating religion, philosophy, and science as the same subject.

 "They — my political adversaries — define ‘other’ as anyone not white, male, cis, abled, and allegedly Christian. Romance [fiction], on the other hand, is and has always been about opening oneself to the risk of the ‘other.’ Whether (from the traditional heroine’s point of view) that ‘other’ is a pirate, a Viking, the lord of a manor, or a war-hardened Navy SEAL, a connection cannot be made without accepting one’s own vulnerability, and opening oneself up to intimacy."

— Suzanne Brockman

It took Dropo Claus some time to explain the nature of the crisis facing the marmar to the vlenti ne, for they also lacked an understanding of humor, just as they, with their contemplative lives, lacked an understanding of surprise or resentment or hurry.  Even the idea of fiction once engendered in the vlenti ne a great and terrible distress.  However, theirs was an intellectual confusion, and when Dropo Claus invoked their inability to hate something without first identifying and sympathizing with it, the idea clicked for them.  However, even to this day, the vlenti ne have trouble with telling jokes; they believe that correct timing is accomplished by the completion of waiting, and that just does not lend itself well to comedy.

To this day, the marmar make pilgrimages to the vlenti ne, both individually and as a collective, for advice and counsel in important decisions and for cultural direction.  The vlenti ne's commentary tends to center a few key ideas developed from considering what they have learned from Dropo Claus, listed here in relative order of importance:

1. Being funny is not a good thing, for it is never funny to the one to which the thing happens.  However, laughter is bravery, and goodness, a sharing against pain and sorrow and defeat.
2. The essence of the discipline is, first, self-awareness, then, self control.
3. Live each golden moment as if it were eternity — without fear, without hope, but with a sybaritic gusto.
4. Every drinking thing is simply your other end, and the universe is just a little thing we whipped up among us the other night for our entertainment before agreeing to forget the gag.
5. You eternally are the action you take at the cusp.

As a final note, Santa Claus has demonstrated that human and marmar biology is compatible enough to cross-breed; the byblow of his affair with Kimar's wife Momar is the superhero known as Silverbelle on Earth.  Indeed, ever since the marmar entered the United Nations in 1996 (thanks to the pioneering work of diplomat Professor Donald Kessler), their ambassador to the UN, Consmar, has been dogged by rumors of incessant indulgence in sex workers and other affairs of the loins.  If you believe the tabloids, he has sired any number of half-Martian bastards throughout New York City.

 "The first question I ask myself when something doesn’t seem to be beautiful is why do I think it’s not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason."

— John Cage

Physical Appearance:  I can't draw, so I really like providing a few reference pictures and trusting in your imagination to build a good image of the marmar and the vlenti ne.  They each look like some combination of three pictures:
Vlenti Ne Nymph

Vlenti Ne Adult

Marmar

 "There was something that He hid from all men when He went up a mountain to pray. There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation. There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth."

— G.K. Chesterton

Marmar Template
PC PL 8 / NPC PL 8 / MR 8 / SR 24
STR -1  INT 11
Powers
Cyberbrain:  Comprehend Languages 5 (read, speak, and understand all languages, speak with machines); Quickness 4, limited to mental tasks; Remote Sensing 4 (auditory and visual), limited to technological sensors; Senses 9 (acute analytical extended radius rapid ranged Detect Wireless, radio, time sense) • 29 points
Cybernetic Antennae:  Selective area rapid subtle 1 radio Communication 4  • 26 points
Long-Lived:  Innate Immunity 1 (aging) • 2 points
Martian Native:  Innate Movement 1 (environmental adaptation: low-gravity); Senses 3 (visual: direction sense, distance sense, low-light vision) • 6 points
Metallic Skin:  Innate Protection 1 • 2 points
Powerful Mind:  Impervious Enhanced Will +6 • 12 points
Advantages
Assessment, Beginner's Luck, Eidetic Memory, Fearless, Jack-of-all-Trades, Second Chance (Deception effects), Second Chance (Intimidation effects), Second Chance (Persuasion effects), Skill Mastery (Technology), Ultimate Effort (Expertise: Science), Ultimate Effort (Expertise: Tactics), Ultimate Effort (Technology), Well-Informed
Skills
Expertise: Science 4, Expertise: Tactics 4, Technology 4
Complications
Weakness:  Disease-related effects have their degree of effect increased by 2 when affecting a marmar.

Abilities 20 + Powers 77 + Advantages 13 + Skills 6 + Defense 0 = 116 points

Vlenti Ne Nymph Template
PC PL 3 / NPC PL 3 / MR 3 / SR 9
STR 0⇰+2 STA 0⇰+2 AGL -1 FGT +3 INT -3 PRE -3

Powers
Bloated:  Permanent innate Growth 2 • 5 points
Chitinous Exoskeleton:  Protection 1 • 1 points
Grub:  Burrowing 2; Movement 3 (slithering, wall-crawling 2) • 8 points
Insectile Sensorium:  Senses 5 (danger sense, darkvision, acute smell, tracking) • 5 points
Mandible:  Binding, dangerous 4, grabbing, impressive Damage 3 • 10 points
Martian Native:  Innate Movement 1 (environmental adaptation: low-gravity); Senses 3 (visual: direction sense, distance sense, low-light vision) • 6 points
Advantages
Fearless, Great Endurance, Trance
Skills
Perception +6
Defenses
Dodge  +2⇰+1
Parry  +2⇰+1
Fortitude  +6

Abilities -8 + Powers 35 + Advantages 3 + Skills 3 + Defense 10 = 43 points

Vlenti Ne Adult Template 

(for an Old, simply use both this template and the ghost template, with all the variation that implies)
PC PL 6 / NPC PL 6 / MR 6 / SR 17
STR 0⇰+4 STA 0⇰+4 AGL -1 FGT +3 INT +4 AWE +2 PRE -1

Powers
Chitinous Exoskeleton:  Protection 3 • 3 points
Discorporation:  Attack Movement 2 (dimensional 2: afterlives; resisted by Dodge) • 4 points
Eight Legs:  Dynamic array (6 points) • 11 points

• Extra Limbs 6 • 7 points
• Leaping 6 (30 feet) • 2 points
• Movement 3 (sure-footed 3) • 2 points

Hands for Feet:  Movement 2 (wall-crawling 2) • 4 points
Insectile Sensorium:  Senses 5 (danger sense, darkvision, acute smell, tracking) • 5 points
Large:  Permanent innate Growth 4 • 9 points
Martian Native:  Innate Movement 1 (environmental adaptation: low-gravity); Senses 3 (visual: direction sense, distance sense, low-light vision) • 6 points
Upon the Completion of Waiting:  Immunity 5 (interaction Skills) • 5 points
Advantages
Eidetic Memory, Fearless, Great Endurance, Second Chance (trip), Trance, Ultimate Effort (Will checks)
Skills
Perception +6
Defenses
Dodge  +2⇰0
Parry  +2⇰0
Fortitude  +6
Will  +5

Abilities 14 + Powers 47 + Advantages 6 + Skills 3 + Defense 15 = 85 points

Half-Marmar Template

PC PL 2 / NPC PL 6 / MR 2 / SR 6
STR -1  INT 9
Advantages
Assessment, Beginner's Luck, Jack-of-all-Trades, Second Chance (Deception effects), Second Chance (Intimidation effects), Second Chance (Persuasion effects), Skill Mastery (Technology), Well-Informed
Skills
Expertise: Science 4, Expertise: Tactics 4, Technology 4
Complications
Weakness:  Disease-related effects have their degree of effect increased by 1 when affecting a half-marmar.

Abilities 16 + Powers 0 + Advantages 8 + Skills 6 + Defense 0 = 30 points

All the world is made from oppression; how then do we use what we are given to free ourselves? (Mutants and Masterminds)

Thank you again to my patrons Keeper, Dave, Ferny, and Diana ~ your contributions are invaluable.  To join them, become my patron here.  Thank you in advance!

 Dr. Barbara “Barbie” Banger

"Censor the body and you censor breath and speech at the same time. Write yourself. Your body must be heard."
--Hélène Cixous, "The Laugh of the Medusa"

 Doctor Barbara Banger got rip-roaringly drunk for one of the only times in her life after the Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center in Las Vegas offered her the position.  It was a dream job, researching the effects of quantum dynamics on neurological processes.  Possible breakthroughs abounded, any one of which would make her career for life, all on its own.  Not to mention save or improve countless lives.  Sure, one of her coworkers, a Dr. Bobby Lirdenham, was a particularly creepy blend of dapper 19th-century chauvinist and railing internet incel, but he seemed to know to keep his head down at the job.  Sometimes the threat of getting fired was enough to keep it in people’s pants, and it is true that his insights, while few, were instrumental in their experiments.

Dr. Lirdenham had a hobby, however, delving into occult secrets and pushing the boundaries of technological knowledge for the purpose of shaping women into the sex objects he believed them to be.  He chose the stuck-up bitch he worked with as his first test subject, slipping strange chemicals into her tea, hacking her equipment to bombard her with rays hitherto unknown to science, and more, until he finally got up the courage to tell her to come to his house for Christmas, knowing that he would have almost two weeks wherein no one would worry overmuch if she didn’t come into work.  She seemed perplexed and angry at being told to come over, but found herself at his door that night.  And then in his basement, strapped down and surrounded in ultratech devices, being changed.

"It is thus necessary to envisage a parodic-serious stage where the accumulation of detourned elements, far from aiming to arouse indignation or laughter by alluding to some original work, will express our indifference toward a meaningless and forgotten original, and concern itself with rendering a certain sublimity."
--Guy Debord

The Patriarch, as the new supervillain dubbed himself, used her to recruit more and more women for him to “perfect” and his operation got fairly large before hubris got the better of him.  Well, Hubris’s niece, anyway.  Bobby wanted a pet superhuman, and ended up targeting said niece, the fey werecat Dikadora Kelly, otherwise known as Catspaw.  Because of the nature of the Patriarch’s control, being an increase in certain of Catspaw’s urges and inclinations paired with a reduction in others, she was free to act as a liberator without negating her own maledictive powers, which strike any trying to use, manipulate, or control her.  When everything Bobby had built collapsed under this curse-weight, Catspaw acted quickly to liberate the women he had oppressed, desperately finding ingenious methods of reversing Dr. Lirdenham’s procedures.

The androgynous supergenius Professor d’Eon was certainly surprised when Dikadora showed up in eir lab with a crowd of supervillainously dumbed-down women behind her, but e immediately set emself the task of reversing what had been done to them.  Luckily, Catspaw had nicked some examples of the Patriarch’s techniques and chemicals, which gave the Professor the advantage e needed to quickly develop a reversal process and run all of Bobby’s victims through it.  That was when a few of them surprised their benefactors, their faces fallen and their voices grievingly quiet.  When Catspaw approached them to find out why they weren’t rejoicing like their fellows, one among them stepped forward to tell her that they were grateful for her actions, but that the problem hadn’t been what the Patriarch had done to them.  They liked being stupid and horny and giggly like they had been; they just didn’t like being enslaved by a man who wanted to exploit them.

"When Hardbeen heard this, a demoniacal frenzy suddenly took him; he furiously bit and devoured the edges of his shield; he kept gulping down fiery coals; he snatched live embers in his mouth and let them pass down into his entrails; he rushed through the perils of crackling fires; and at last, when he had raved through every sort of madness, he turned his sword with raging hand against the hearts of six of his champions. It is doubtful whether this madness came from thirst for battle or natural ferocity."
--Saxo Grammaticus, "The Danish History"

That was when Dr. Banger spoke up.  She didn’t know exactly what Bobby had done to them, but her field of expertise and the many hours of shared lab time she’d had with Dr. Lirdenham gave her some ideas.  With a little bit of help from Professor d’Eon, she thought she could whip up something relatively similar.  Though she wasn’t among the seven who wanted to return to what they had been, only sovereign and free, her ethics refused to allow her to use anyone but herself as a guinea pig for the process.  It did, in the end, work, and it was Dr. Banger herself who named the group even as it was doing so ~ as she felt her brain slowing and her libido rising, she thought of H.G. Wells’s vision of the next stage in evolution and giggled out, “I guess we’re, like, the Whorlocks!”

Once everyone who wanted to return to that permanently altered state had done so, the Whorlocks tottered out onto the Las Vegas Strip to make whatever life they could for themselves in this world.  Of course, any number of nefarious forces out there sought to take advantage of those who rejected the benefits of intelligence as base and leaden.  They weathered through every trial by sheer force of luck and heart.  Once, all of Las Vegas was bedeviled by a zombie horde staggering hungry and untiring down neon-lit streets.  The Whorlocks found themselves trapped in a truck stop on the edge of town, with a Lakota truck driver who ended up in a conflict with someone he said was going to cause problems in the future.  Tonka Truck was the truck driver’s name, and he said he was a time-traveller.  When someone supposed aloud that that was why Tonka Truck had arranged to be at that truck stop at that time, he simply said no, and then turned to Barbie Banger.  He held out a bra of brown and coarse lace and told her that a Vinlander spirit had told him to make it for her.  That, according to him, was the most powerful thing he could do to build a better future than the one he came from.  Barbie quickly discovered that the bra, which had been sewn from bear-fur, allowed her to assume a much bulkier and somewhat hairier form while an astounding rage overtook her.  Foaming at the mouth, she knew she could defend her bimbonic family this way.

"No pedagogy which is truly liberating can remain distant from the oppressed by treating them as unfortunates and by presenting for their emulation models from among the oppressors. The oppressed must be their own example in the struggle for their redemption
--Paulo Freire

Home Base:  Las Vegas.
Gender:  Bimbo ciswoman
Sexuality:  Heterosexual vanilla/bimbo
Romantic Identity:  Aromantic free use

"If woman has always functioned "within" the discourse of man, a signifier that has always referred back to the opposite signifier which annihilates its specific energy and diminishes or stifles its very different sounds, it is time for her to dislocate this "within," to explode it, turn it around, and seize it; to make it hers, containing it, taking it in her own mouth, biting that tongue with her very own teeth to invent for herself a language to get inside of. And you'll see with what ease she will spring forth from that "within" - the "within" where once she so drowsily crouched - to overflow at the lips she will cover the foam."
--Hélène Cixous, "The Laugh of the Medusa"

Recurrent Characters:

• HEART:ACHE II:  Although at first the Invisiblizer aimed his resurrected supervillain team at the Whorlocks out of the simplistic and mistaken assumption that any group of women rejecting male control must be composed solely of lesbians, it is true that four of the dozen Whorlocks fall afoul of the team’s vision of strict and enforced heterosexuality.  As such, their attacks upon the ragtag group of bimbos making their own way through the world have continued.  Sometimes they come with a frontal assault, but they are increasingly trying any number of schemes, cunning or crazed or both.  Every time, Lingerage is there to bash back.
• דּוּמָה, the Angel of Silence:  The Whorlocks, obviously, would never give up being what they have chosen to be.  However, their state does make it difficult for them to get their needs met sometimes, leaving prayers as the only currency they have to feed themselves, and to pay rent, and all the many other costs associated with keeping twelve people happy and alive.  Well, if they were different people, they’d probably have a wider variety of strategies, but see the previous note that they like being what and who they are.  This has made them something of an engine furiously throwing out requests to Heaven, which has in turn purchased them not only food and gifts, but דּוּמָה’s attention.  Megaconsumers of divine aid, they are the very epitome of what it hopes to avoid, taking up more than it considers their fair share of space on יהוה‎’s to-do list.  Empowered by a different divinity entirely, Lingerage has had to insist that fairness has little, if anything, to do with prayer.  Even under the effects of berserkergang, fists don’t help much against angelflesh, yet somehow Lingerage manages to come out ahead anyway.
• Powers:  Messenger to All That Lives, Longing (renamed) from Rack Angel’s statblock.  Flight, Summon Angels of Destruction, thousand eyes, flaming sword (Immunity (fire), Nullify Summon, Damage, other fire powers), magic item with spell array, Movement (dimensional), Senses (analytical extended rapid vision that counters concealment and illusion and penetrates concealment, darkvision, distance sense, infravision low-light vision, ultravision, microscopic vision, dimensional).  Sonic Absorption, Sonic Immunity, Phase Cancellation linked with Silence, Sonic Masking, White Noise, Lamal's Rebuke, Mists of the Modrossus, the Second Wheel of Weyan, the Fifth Wheel of Weyan, the Seventh Wheel of Weyan, the Wondrous Working of Weyan, Fireflash, close Melt, Nova Burst, Warm, Danger Sense, Defensive Awareness, Aura Reading, Lie Detector, X-Ray Vision, Synesthesia from Power Profiles. (PL 16) 
• Váli Óðinnson:  While Váli’s brother Víðarr might be fixated on avenging Silverbelle’s theft of their father’s intellectual property and aesthetic, Váli is an ulfhednar, a wolf-warrior.  News of a new berserker walking Miðgarðr naturally piqued his interest, and his rage when he discovered that it was a woman!  Completely ignoring his on father’s history, Váli became enraged that the one masculine magic was being co-opted by one who should, by all rights, be seiðkonur or völva.  He has once more taken his oath to kill, and has neither washed his hands nor combed his hair the entire duration of his pursuit of Lingerage.
• Powers:  Asgardian template from Book of Magic doubled, silence, additional super-strength (and most of the strength powers from Power Profiles), magic thick shoes, magic armor, magic shoes, rage (PL 16)
• Rack Angel:  The Whorlocks visited Rack Angel’s homeless shelter and soup kitchen shortly after they were liberated from the Patriarch’s control, before they really had their feet under them as a group and when times were even harder than they are now.  Seeing them as a group which has all-too-often been ignored, nay has made the uncharacteristic definition to refuse them the benefits of Vox Populi Vox Dei Est.  Nay simply cannot condone stealing the voice of the routinely voiceless.  This doesn’t mean the fallen angel has hardened nix heart against the group, however; perish the thought!  Rack Angel has simply had to find more mundane and effortful ways to give aid, and has been able to do so, in both forms!
• Lieutenant Bubblegum:  Glowsmith, the leader of the zamynto klyltling, sent one of her fellows to Earth in an attempt to recruit the klyltlingsa Bile, who had been the very first of the species to come to the planet.  It had been rejected by the other two interstellar polities of the klyltling, and Glowsmith thought that perhaps that might make it useful to the zamynto.  Sanguine, as Glowsmith’s agent came to be known by the Earthling media, had budded off of Glowsmith directly, which might perhaps be why it went rogue, joining Bile and two other klyltling in a superteam known as the Four Humors.  The Four Humors themselves ran afoul of the United States government, specifically the forces of Colonel Cadmus, head of Area 51 who had been charged with finding ways to weaponize superhumans.  Her agents managed to acquire a small portion of Sanguine’s amorphous body, which they took back to Area 51 and forced it to develop into a full-grown klyltlingsa while subjecting it to any number of cruel experiments.  One such involved exposing it to highly concentrated doses of magical radiation and alchemical mistures from the Land of Sweets, which seems to have turned it pink.  Once they thought they could do no more to the alien without killing it, they finally allowed it to bond with a soldier picked carefully for his patriotism, naming the result Lieutenant Bubblegum.  Colonel Cadmus sees a useful tool in the Whorlocks’ combination of lust amplification and lack of intelligence, and she has sent Lieutenant Bubblegum to collect the girls.  Lingerage has an opinion about this proposal.
• Powers:  Elite Soldier from Gamemaster’s Guide, Visual Concealment, blending, partial; Enhanced Traits (Agility, Strength, Benefit (ambidexterity), Fearless); Extra Limbs, continuous, AE: Str-based Damage, variable descriptor (weapon types); Immunity (all suffocation effects); Feature (extradimensional storage of 50 pounds of material), limited to one mass rank lower; Sticky (Affliction (Resisted and Overcome by Strength; Impaired, Disabled, Incapacitated), reaction (when touched); AE: same thing but ranged instead of reaction); Protection; Bubble (Deflect; AE: Immunity (life support)), Movement (Safe Fall, Swinging, Wall-Crawling).  Tarpit, Slingshot, Stretching Stride, and Stretching from Power Profiles (PL 11)
• The Patriarch:  Naturally enough, the women of the Whorlocks are the very definition of a Gigastacy to Bobby Lirdenham.  Worse yet, he made them that way, raised them from Stacylites (at best) to this exalted state, then they go on to call him a Melvin!  Simply unacceptable.  Ever since they were “liberated” from the effects of his inventions, he has sought to reclaim what he understands to be his natural position in the hierarchy.  For their part, the Whorlocks has found Bobby nauseatingly useful from time to time.  A few women (and one enby) have sought to join their ranks since they struck out on their own, prompting them to steal some of Bobby’s technology from him.  Once, HEART:ACHE II had almost defeated the Whorlocks, and it was only an uneasy alliance with the surprisingly gay-friendly Patriarch that they were able to fight off the homophobic supervillains; naturally, the Whorlocks turned on their former oppressor as soon as the danger had passed.
• Powers:  Pink pills (array:  Enhanced Trait 2: Attractive with Affects Others and Reduced Trait 3: Awareness or Enhanced Trait 3: Presence with Affects Others, Quirk: Increases Libido, and Reduced Trait 3: Intellect), bimbo-maker raygun (Weaken: Intellect with Quirk: Increases Libido), pheromone spray (Emotion Control from Power Profiles with Area and Limited to Horniness). Artificer, Inventor, Ritualist, Very Attractive, Fascinate, Daze.  Bitter Lash of Bal'Hemoth and the Enchantment of Ios and Mists of the Modrossus and Shatachna's Seal of Silence and Somnambulent Silence of Sirrion from Power Profiles (PL 11)
• Catspaw:  Dikadora made it a point to habitually check in on the Whorlocks after rescuing them, worried that some master plan of the Patriarch’s yet ensnared them or that their chosen horny vapidity would make them easy victims for any predator to come across them.  She was quite impressed when nothing like that occurred, and by then had struck up a number of friendships with the women.  Catspaw remains in close contact with the Whorlocks, has gone on several adventures with them, and has even begun dating Lingerage!

"My community, the BimboTok, the place that I’ve created, is so important to me because all it means to me is self-love. I will wear a mini-skirt with pride and you’re not going to blame me for the way that men treat us. We’re going to blame men for the way men treat us"
--Chrissy Chlapecka

Physical Appearance:  I can't draw, so I really like providing a few reference pictures and trusting in your imagination to build a good image of Catspaw.  She looks like some combination of these five pictures:

"A third song I know, if sore need should come

of a spell to stay my foes;

When I sing that song, which shall blunt their swords,

nor their weapons nor staves can wound

. . . .

An eleventh I know, if haply I lead

my old comrades out to war,

I sing 'neath the shields, and they fare forth mightily;

safe into battle,

safe out of battle,

and safe return from the strife."

--The Poetic Edda

Lingerage (PCPL 10 / NPCPL 7 / MR 10 / SKR 30)

STR 0⇰8 STA 0⇰4 AGL 0 DEX 1 

FGT 0⇰3 INT -2 AWE 1 PRE 2⇰6

Powers

Bear-sark Brassiere:   Device (removable), noticeable, quirk (must be the only thing worn, other than shoes, accessories, and makeup), alternate form (standard action required to activate) ● 90pp

• Berserkergang:  Enhanced Athletics 4; Enhanced Dodge 4; Enhanced Fighting 3; Enhanced Fortitude 2; Enhanced Parry 2; Enhanced Stamina 2; Enhanced Strength 6; Enhanced Will 2 ● 34pp
• Hamrammr:  Enhanced Perception 4; Feature 1 (eat anything); Growth 2; Immunity 50 (fire, piercing, slashing); Protection 2; Senses 2 (low-light vision, acute smell) ● 61pp
• Weapon-Blunting Glance:  Perception-ranged incurable move-action Weaken Damage 7 (resisted by Toughness), affects objects, limited to metal effects, limited to slashing and piercing damage ● 22pp

Cloud of Pheromones:  Permanent progressive insidious subtle 2 burst 2 olfactory-dependent Weaken Will 2 (Fortitude to resist) ● 9pp

Seductive Attention:  Visual-range cumulative vision-dependent Affliction 6 (resisted and overcome by Will; dazed, compelled, controlled), Persuasion check required (DC 10), limited to pursuing Lingerage romantically or sexually ● 11pp

Sexually Optimized Brain:  Enhanced Presence 4; Enhanced Persuasion 6; Enhanced Inspire 3 ● 18pp

Surgically Enhanced:  Enhanced Advantages 4 (Attractive 2, Fascinate (Persuasion), Great Endurance) ● 4pp

Advantages

{Attractive 2}, Benefit 2 (independently wealthy), Equipment 3, {Fascinate (Persuasion)}, {Great Endurance}, {Inspire 3}, Inventor

Equipment

Camera, knife (Strength-based Damage 1, Improved Critical), motorcycle (Medium; Str 1; Speed 6; Defense 10; Toughness 8), smartphone

Skills

Athletics 0 (0)⇰4 (+12), Expertise: Current Events 2 (0), Expertise: Pop Culture 2 (0), Expertise: Science 6 (+4), Intimidation 0⇰1, Investigation 4 (+2), Perception 0 (+1)⇰4 (+5), Persuasion 0 (2)⇰6 (+12), Stealth 0⇰-1, Technology 6 (+4), Vehicles 2 (+3)

Offense

Initiative 0

Unarmed 0⇰+3; Close, Damage 0⇰+8

Knife 0⇰+3; Close, Damage +1⇰+9, Improved Critical

Weapon-Blunting Glance Toughness vs. DC 17; Visual perception range, reduce Damage by check difference

Cloud of Pheromones Target’s Fortitude vs. DC 12; Within 60 feet of Lingerage, reduce Will by check difference

Seductive Attention Lingerage’s Persusion vs. DC 10 then target’s Will vs. DC 16; anyone who can see and be seen by Lingerage, 

Defense

Dodge 0 (+0)⇰4 (+3)

Fortitude 0 (0)⇰2 (+6)

Parry 0⇰2 (+4)

Toughness 0 (0)⇰4 (+8) 

Will 1 (+2)⇰3 (+4)

Size rank -2

Ground speed rank 0

Complications

Motivation ~ Responsibility:  The Whorlocks need a defender, someone to ensure that they never again fall under the dominion of a man (or anyone else) who would control and exploit them as the Patriarch once did.  Lingerage put herself forward to be that defender, and the collective of bimbos readily agreed.  Of course, this also means that many chores and random bits of work fall upon Lingerage’s occasionally-furry shoulders, but she doesn’t mind.  She loves this family she’s found.

Perpetually Horny:  The Patriarch’s processes overclocked and heightened the various hormonal and neurological processes involved in human sexual attraction, interest, and readiness.  Like all the Whorlocks, Lingerage chose to revert to that state after Catspaw freed them.  As such, their baseline is significantly hornier than the general population.

The Wages of Power:  Use of the Bear-Sark Brassiere takes a toll on the body it changes.  After any scene in which its power is used, the wearer must roll their unmodified Fortitude vs. a DC of 15.  On a success, they are impaired for the next day.  On one degree of failure, they are instead exhausted for the day; every degree of failure thereafter either adds a day to the duration.

Abilities 4 + Advantages 6 + Skills 11 + Powers 132 + Defenses 1 = 150pp

The Whorlock Procedure

The various chemical, ray-bomabrdment, and other ultra-scientific processes that the Whorlocks underwent and, on a couple of occasions, have given to others reduces the subject's INT to -2 and gives them the Perpetually Horny complication.  Its benefits are a bit more mercurial, especially as Dr. Banger both had to reverse-engineer the process and tries to operate it in her current condition.  The subject receives 30 power points, plus however many they lost with the INT reduction, to spend on Cloud of Pheromones, Seductive Attention, Sexually Optimized Brain, and Surgically Enhanced.  Almost always, Surgically Enhanced (Enhanced Attractive 1 or 2)) is among the powers chosen.  However, the options are not restricted to those manifested by Barbie ~ remember, it is a mercurial process ~ feel free to add any other sort of power based on the idea of being sexually attractive in some way.

Amalgam Cinematic Universe

This post, like all my posts, is only possible through the generosity of my patrons.  I'd like to thank Diana, Ferny, Keeper, and Dave, for their continued support!  If you'd like to join them, you can become a patron of mine here.   

Hmmm....

Iron Man 2 came out in 2010. Green Lantern (which, admittedly, sucked) came out in 2011.

In Amalgam Comics, there is Green Lantern, who is both of them jammed together by the powers of a cosmic-level mutant named Access and metacosmic beings known only as the Brothers.

What if there was an ACU (Amalgam Comics Universe)?

Phase 1 Films (12)

Iron Lantern: When Hal Stark, veritable rock star in the world of aircraft manufacturing and technology, escapes imprisonment from the Legion of the Ten Rings terrorist group, this newly changed man shuts down his entire weapons division and dons the Iron Lantern suit he created from alien technology to fight the Highly Evolved Creature Totally Oriented on Revenge (H.E.C.T.O.R.), changing the entire world in the process.

The Incomprehensible Skulk: Bruce Banner is a man on the run. Once a brilliant scientist, radiation from his failure in recreating the 1940s Super Soldier serum changed him into the mindlessly sullen monster known as the Skulk. Dr. Strangefate's magics can return him to humanity for short periods of time; however, Thunderbolt Ross, his old government benefactor, only sees a weapon and will stop at nothing to reclaim it.

JLX Origins: Dark Claw: Having come to live with his RCMP uncle after the death of his father, Logan Wayne ends up having to flee with his first cousin, Creed H. Quinn, after criminals kill his uncle, too.  The two join the Royal Canadian Army and fight together as soldiers for the next century, eventually transferring to the Royal Canadian Ari Force and becoming enrolled in Canada’s answer to the Super-Soldier program, known as Weapon X.  Simultaneously the program’s greatest successes and greatest failures (for Logan has a conscience and Creed is criminally insane), the two fought alongside other superhumans in Team X.  After Weapon X is finally dismantled as a result of his leaving the team disgusted by their lack of concern for life, Logan lives as a lumberjack with a woman by the name of Kayla Silverfox.  General William Stryker arrives, claiming that Quinn ~ now known as the Hyena ~ has killed Kayla.  Logan agrees to have adamantium attached to his skeleton so that he can defeat the Hyena, but breaks out after overhearing that Stryker wants his memory erased.  He learns during the breakout that Stryker is in the service of ancient metamutant Ra’s A-Pocalypse, who wishes the destruction of all other metamutants.  The movie ends with Dark Claw and Hyena teaming up to defend New Gotham City from Ra’s A-Pocalypse, Ebenezer Crane / Scarecrow, and General Stryker’s team of metamutant agents.

Iron Lantern 2: Hal Stark's ego has grown something fierce since announcing that he is Iron Lantern. Throwing lavish parties and organizing massive expos, he's living like a man with nothing to lose. But a smarmy rival, a mysterious foe with a powerful grudge, and Agent Bruce Wayne of S.H.I.E.L.D. remind him of who he is and what his legacy means.

Thorion of the New Asgods: After prideful and vain Prince Orion Thanoseidson is resurrected on Midgard (Earth) by Highfather Odin using the power of the Hammer of the Old Gods, he grows close to Dr. Jane Foster and learns compassion and humility, taking the name Thorion the Hunter. All the while his half-brother L'ok D'saad of Apokolips, schemes to conquer New Asgard for their true father, Thanoseid.

Super-Soldier: Founder of the Justice League Avengers: World War II is coming to a close, but the Nazi deep-science division HYDRA is still a problem. Clark Kent is chosen to become the Allied Powers' first-ever Super-Soldier thanks to cellular samples from an alien corpse and an infusion of solar radiation, and together with a Franco-British agent codenamed Mademoiselle Peggy and Sgt. Rock's Howling Commandos, Super-Soldier fights to save the world from the ambitions of HYDRA's insane leader, Lex Luthor / The Green Skull.

The Dark Claw:  Logan Wayne is summoned to Hawai’i by the head of a tech company, whose life he saved when they were both imprisoned in a POW camp in Nagasaki in 1945.  The man offers to relieve Dark Claw of the immortality which so curses the hero, transferring it into the executive’s body instead.  Logan is tempted but after battling the Hyena (who had followed him to Japan on a whim), he refuses; that night, he dreams of the man’s doctor introducing something to his body.  After gangsters in the service of the Hyena shoot up the executive’s funeral, Logan escapes with the man’s granddaughter (with whom he falls in love), his wounds healing more slowly than usual. The two team up with the local district attorney, Harvey Osborn, to defeat the Hyena.  In the process, they discover a robotic parasite on Logan’s heart, suppressing his metamutant ability to heal; while Logan cuts himself open to remove it, they are attacked and the granddaughter taken.  Logan turns to the district attorney for help, only to find that the Hyena has facilitated his transformation into a supervillain calling himself the Two-Faced Goblin.  Tracking his love interest, the Dark Claw arrives just in time to witness her death at the hands of the Hyena, be captured, and be hooked up to a machine designed to remove his metamutant abilities.  The Silver Samurai, a suit of electromechanical armor with energized adamantium katana reveals itself as the man who brought Logan to Japan, having faked his death in an attempt to acquire immortality.  With help, Logan escapes and kills the Silver Samurai.

Man of War: After sacrificing himself to defeat Ultra-Metallo, a robot built by the Green Skull, Clark Kent wakes up to find himself in a 1940s-style hospital room.  Hearing a radio broadcast of a baseball game that he attended in 1941, Kent grows suspicious, flees outside and finds himself in present-day Times Square, where Agent Bruce Wayne of S.H.I.E.L.D. informs him that he has been "asleep" for nearly 70 years.  Agent Wayne proposes a mission with worldwide importance, sending Super-Soldier to investigate a starship resently discovered in the Canadian Arctic by the Green Skull's daughter, Selina Luthor (also known as Madame Cat).  Clark learns much about the alien species that contributed its cells to the formula that transformed him (falling in love with Madame Cat in the process).  Just in time for a fascist criminal from that species to escape from the Phantom Negative Zone and attack Super-Soldier in hopes of rebuilding his planet's population and building a society on his ideal of genetic purity.

Dark Claw vs. Super-Soldier: Avenging Dawn:  In the aftermath of the destruction in Metropolis caused by the fascists in *Man of War*, Logan Wayne/Dark Claw grows dangerously wary of Super-Soldier despite the latter’s mid-century fame and having saved Earth, and sets out to kill him. Public opinion is also deeply split about the Man of War. Meanwhile, the sinister Green Skull conspires against both superheroes behind the scene, turning a scientist employed by him into Doctor Doomsday, who finally kills Super-Soldier.

Imperial Suicide Squad: Unscrupulous Shi’ar government official Amanda Deathbird secretly creates an expendable black ops team on Earth, Task Force X ("The Imperial Suicide Squad"), by coercing super-criminals (Deadeye, Typhoid Harley, Captain Boomerang, Diablo the Volcano Man, Cybercroc and Slipknot) into it. When she accidentally resurrects Enchanted Tigra, former lover of Thanoseid and mother of Orion/Thorion, Amanda Deathbird sends the team to deal with the threat. Meanwhile, the Hyena sets out to rescue his lover, Harley.

Freelance: Diana of Themyscira, daughter of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, grows up and trains as a warrior on the isle of Themyscira alongside her adopted sister and rival, the rescued metamutant Ororo. Upon rescuing the vengeance-driven US pilot and secret agent Trevor Castle (codenamed the Punisher) from nearly being killed by a Mafia criminal, she sets out to kill the god of war Ares on the European battlefields of World War I.

Justice League Avengers: Following the death of Super-Soldier, L'ok D'saad has returned with a vengeance and the Steppenwolf Legions in tow, declaring war on Earth with the intent to bring the powerful Tesseract to his father. To stop this threat, Agent Bruce Wayne of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Freelance assemble the greatest heroes Earth will ever have: Hal Stark / Iron Lantern, Clark Kent / Super-Soldier, Arthur McKenzie / the Aqua-Mariner, Thorion the Hunter, Bruce Banner / The Skulk, Blaze Allen / Speed Demon, Eve Romanoff / Night Widow (given powers from the Darkshade Dimension by a Soviet attempt to recreate Super-Soldier), Clint Archer / Hawkeye (who studied archery in a Tibetan monastery while creating an arsenal of high-tech trick arrows), and Aaron Stone / Cyber Man.

Index of Coterie Types (Vampire: the Masquerade 5th edition)

As always, I thank my patrons Alan, Keeper, Ferny, and Dave.  If you enjoy what I do and want to help keep me doing it, please consider becoming my patron!

    One of the reasons I'ven't posted in a while is that I have buried myself in a big V5 project, converting everything ever written about the Kiasyd to V5.  This includes a quick sketch of Strasbourg, the only city in the world with a Kiasyd Prince, and that the first one, to boot!

    Anyway, while doing so, I tried to assay the various coterie types published among the books, only to find that no one had made such an index!  The travesty of it!  So I did it myself.  It's not glamorous, but it might hopefully be useful to someone.  Every coterie type published until now for V5:

1. Blood Cult (Core, p. 197)
1. Formally condemned as violations of the Masquerade, blood cults have nevertheless resurged with the coming of Gehenna.   This coterie entices mortal worshippers, feeding them vitae or just enslaving them.  Many blood cults reveal enough supernatural truth (though not always vampiric lore) to alert the Second Inquisition, adding yet more implacable foes.
1. Domain:  Lien (🩸), Portillon (🩸🩸)
2. Herd: (🩸🩸🩸)
3. Status Flaw:  (🩸) Suspect
4. Possible extras:  Enemies (🩸🩸), Haven (cult church or compound), Mask Flaw (🩸🩸) (on the Second Inquisition radar), Retainers
2. Carnival (Chicago By Night p. 260)
1. Carnival coteries move from place to place, bringing the party with them.  Where Nomads celebrate rootlessness, Carnivals strive to make an impression on mortals, Kindred, or both, depending on the coterie's style.  Some Carnivals appeal to elders by providing deliberately anachronistic entertainments, recalling Dust Bowl circuses or further back, medieval troubadours.  Others organize raves with cutting-edge music spun by six-figure-a-night DJs.  Not all Carnivals are devoted purely to entertainment and the chance to feed, however.  Their spectacles might include politics and theater or Cainite rites, hidden in plain sight.
1. Domain:  None
2. Contacts: (🩸🩸🩸) (fans in every town)
3. Fame:  (🩸🩸🩸) (a wandering spectacle)
4. Retainers:  (🩸) (daylight help)
5. Possible Extras:  Allies, Herd (fans who follow), Resources
3. Cerberus (Core, p. 197)
1. The coterie exists to protect or guard a certain spot or important location, such as a grave, a portal, or the vault of a priceless relic.  Cerberus coteries often become "legacy coteries", with membership passed down to generations of new vampires.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸), Portillon (🩸🩸🩸)
2. Haven:  (🩸🩸)
3. Possible extras:  Adversary, Haunted flaw in Haven, Status (for legacies)
4. Champions (Core, p. 197)
1. The coterie exists to fight for a cause, possibly even one that mortals might recognize as worthy: clean up the neighborhood by devouring drug-dealers, for example.  Thin-bloods often begin their unlives as champions.  Thicker-blooded champions likely consider themselves anarchs or at least anarch sympathizers, although a clever Prince of the Camarilla can put even the highest-minded vampires to good use.  In the end, even champions have to make the hard choice between their human charges and their vampiric urges.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸) and Lien (🩸🩸🩸)
2. Allies:  (🩸)
3. Enemies:  (🩸🩸)
4. Possible extras:  Adversary, Contacts
5. Commando (Core, p. 197)
1. The coterie exists to fight its master's enemies: the vampiric equivalent of a SWAT or special operations team.  You may even disguise yourself as a squad of the city's tactical police, as long as you don't try to pass as officers in front of a real one.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸), Portillon (🩸🩸)
2. Mawla:  (🩸🩸🩸) (whoever tasks you with your missions)
3. Status:  (🩸)
4. Enemies:  (🩸🩸)
5. Possible extras:  Adversary, Haven (base of operations), Mask
6. Corporate (Chicago By Night p. 260)
1. Corporate coteries exist to further the economic and territorial goals of their members.  They use modern business methods, supplemented by the strongarm tactics and psychic manipulation members can bring to bear as Kindred.  Corporate groups are either wracked with infighting or tightly organized in pursuit of their goals, with little room in between, as their selfish goals make or break members' social bonds.  In modern nights, Camarilla traditionalists consider Corporate coteries gauche but useful, since they have the collective skills and resources to harness contemporary capitalism.  Stereotype holds that Ventrue lead many of these coteries, but while it is true the clan has long functioned inside bourgeois institutions, the edifice of global capital is too large for any one clan to dominate.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸) and Lien (🩸🩸)
2. Influence:  (🩸🩸) (business community)
3. Resources:  (🩸🩸🩸) (the portfolio)
4. Possible Extras:  Contacts, Herd (interns)
7. Day Watch (Core p. 198)
1. The coterie guards the undead city from mortals, especially during the day when most Kindred sleep.  Each member must be a thin-blood with the Day Drinker Merit, or the Storyteller needs to provide them another means of remaining active by day.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸), Portillon (🩸🩸)
2. Influence:  (🩸🩸)
3. Enemies:  (🩸🩸🩸)
4. Possible extras:  Allies, Contacts, Haven, Mawla, a shared relic or ritual allowing activity by day
8. Diocese (Children of the Blood p.83)
1. The coterie represents the cult leadership within a territory.  From secret meetings in dingy basements to regional bosses of pyramid schemes, to shining offices of gaudy mega churches, they are the leaders.  They are responsible for ministering the followers, directing the cult’s efforts and building its influence and congregation within a given domain.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸🩸🩸) Lien (🩸🩸) (a diocese domain might be a large, rich, and well-integrated area, but it is only secure if the local prince or baron is on-side.)
2. Influence (Church):  (🩸🩸) (An established diocese hascinfluence within its borders and in the cult.)
3. Herd:  (🩸🩸) (the true believers, most devout of the mortal cult or those tied to the mask)
4. Mask:  (🩸🩸) (a diocese can either have a well-established front, a shelter, pyramid scheme, an evangelical church, or be completely secret.)
5. Flaw:  (🩸🩸) Enemies (the success of one cult in any area inevitably draws the ire of others.)
6. Possible extras:  Allies, Resources, Retainer, Status, a shared relic of significance to the cult, Adversary, Suspect.
9. Envoys (Cults of the Blood Gods p. 195)
1. This group serves on diplomatic missions, functioning as negotiators and mediators between disparate parties.  Most often, envoy coteries form in the wake of conflicts between warring factions.  When two or more cults come to a compromise, they sometimes task their younger members with forming such a coterie so shared service and common causes can transcend old grievances.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸), Lien (🩸🩸🩸)
2. Contacts:  (🩸🩸🩸) (mortals from diverse backgrounds and professions)
3. Resources:  (🩸🩸) (pooled cash and assets)
4. Status Flaw:  (🩸) Suspect
5. Possible extras:  Mask (cover identities for different domains), No Haven (always on the move)
10. Excommunicates (Children of the Blood p. 84)
1. Within any religion there are those who fail or fall.  They learn too much too fast or say the wrong thing in front of the wrong person and find themselves the scapegoat in a witch hunt.  Those who were once of the cult who are no longer, and the cult does not forget.
1. Contacts:  (🩸🩸🩸) (the cult might have made you purge your outsider acquaintances but any you’ve retained are loyal or too terrified to rebel.  Maybe one remains within the cult, alerting you when they’re closing in.)
2. Loresheet:  (🩸🩸🩸) (secrets discovered that led to the cult turning on you.  A mistranslation or mistake in the sequence of events that irrevocably changes the narrative.)
3. Mask:  (🩸🩸) (Documents, drivers’ license, and passport the cult provided you with before they declared you outcast.)
4. Special:  Excommunicate coteries always have one or more Flaws (usually Excommunicated) related to the cult they escaped from, such as Adversary, Enemy or Despised.  These can be applied individually for groups from multiple cults or as a coterie background for groups from a single cult.
5. Possible extras:  Adversary, Destitute, Influence (outside the cult), No Haven, Shunned.
11. Family (Cults of the Blood Gods p. 150)
1. The family coterie is one of reliance, connection, and support networks.  Vampires within this coterie may be related in a mortal sense as well as through the Blood, and they likely recruit mortal members of their extended family to assist them in their plans.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸), Lien (🩸), Portillon (🩸🩸🩸)
2. Ally:  (🩸) (a connected mortal family member)
3. Contacts:  (🩸🩸) (family, extended family)
4. Resources:  (🩸🩸) (cash and assets on loan from the family)
5. Enemies:  (🩸🩸) (one or more mortals who oppose the family business)
6. Possible extras:  Herd (extended family members), Influence (family business), Mawla (vampire within the same family), Retainers (a family ghoul), Fame Flaw: Dark Secret (family criminal connections)
12. Fang Gang (Core p. 198)
1. The coterie operates as a criminal gang, or possibly as a crew of burglars or con artists.  The fang gang may disguise itself as part of the city's organized crime syndicate, or act as the Prince or Baron's liaison with them.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸), Lien (🩸), Portillon (🩸)
2. Contacts:  (🩸) (fence or other criminal middleman)
3. Enemies:  (🩸🩸)
4. Possible extras:  Haven (clubhouse), Herd (human members/victims of your gang), Influence (organized crime), Retainers, Status (likely with anarchs)
13. Flagellant (Chicago By Night p. 260)
1. Flagellant coteries have a mocking name, given to them by Kindred who may or may not care about the plight of the kine, but don't go around being so publicly remorseful, or so desperate to make amends.  Flagellant coteries try to redeem their members for the harm they visit upon mortals.  The coterie sponsors charitable works, and individuals behave as good Samaritans and occasionally, as vigilantes, hunting down mortals who prey on their own.  Most vampires have few objections to this sort of thing, but that changes when Flagellants go after other Kindred.  The most extreme of these coteries may act as judge, jury, and executioner over vampires they believe mistreat the kine.  Some coteries even abuse the Blood itself, treating the sick by giving them vitae.  Thus, the Camarilla keeps a close watch on these "kindly coteries".
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸) and Lien (🩸🩸)
2. Allies:  (🩸🩸🩸) (mortals they've helped)
3. Influence:  (🩸) (local charity)
4. Adversary:  (🩸🩸) (Flagellants almost always annoy a local Cainite)
5. Possible Extras:  Contacts, Loresheet (Golcanda or some other reputed path to salvation), Retainer (nursed back to health with vitae)
14. Fugitive (Chicago By Night p. 260)
1. These vampires are on the run.  The Second Inquisition is after them.  The Camarilla proclaimed a Blood Hunt upon them.  Anarchs want to treat them to a stake-and-boot party.  The pursuer may even be a single, potent vampire.  Fugitive coteries keep low profiles, cultivate resources they can take with them or liquidate, and develop contingency plans for when their pursuers catch up with them.  It's rare for every member of the coterie to be hunted.  Instead, one or two Kindred on the run convince others to go with them due to bonds of love or camaraderie.  In any case, Fugitive coteries survive or perish based on the bonds of loyalty members hold for one another.
1. Domain:  None
2. Contacts:  (🩸🩸🩸) (help on the run)
3. Mask:  (🩸🩸) (Cobbler; fake IDs available for members)
4. Resources:  (🩸🩸) (cash and a lightproof vehicle)
5. Retainer:  (🩸) (daylight driver)
6. Special:  Fugitive coteries always have one or more Flaws related to whoever or whatever is pursuing them, such as Adversary, Enemy, or a Flaw such as Known Blankbody
7. Possible Extras:  Allies, Despised, Shunned, Loresheet (when being hunted because they know too much)
15. Gatekeepers (Cults of the Blood Gods p. 150)
1. The gatekeepers coterie utilizes their skills in communion with (and potentially control over) the dead to establish a type of coterie common among the Hecata and other Oblivion users, providing spiritual aid and counseling to some, spectral assaults and sabotage against others.  They are prestigious users of animated corpses and ghosts as servants.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸🩸), Lien (🩸), Portillon (🩸)
2. Contacts:  (🩸🩸) (graverobbers, morticians)
3. Resources:  (🩸🩸🩸) (stolen from the dead)
4. Retainers:  (🩸🩸🩸) (a wraith servant and spy)
5. Enemies:  (🩸🩸) (a vampire hunter who recognizes the coterie dealing with the dead)
6. Status Flaw:  (🩸) Notorious (dealings with dark entities)
7. Possible extras:  Mawla (accomplished necromancer)
16. Hunting Party (Core p. 198)
1. The coterie specializes in hunting and capturing humans with particular qualities of the blood.  With knowledge of, and tastes for, humors and resonances spreading among thin-blood cookers and Toreador gourmands alike, coteries on the make often choose to become coteries on the prowl for others.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸🩸🩸)
2. Ally:  (🩸) OR Mawla:  (🩸) (blood broker)
3. Possible extras:  Herd, Influence (organized crime)
17. Maréchal (Core p. 198)
1. This coterie serves and guards the Prince or Baron, doing their bidding as attendants and hatchet-men.  Their direct access to the ruler means that influential elders attempt to insert their childer into the coterie ~ indeed, every member of the coterie may be Primogen get.  Elders left out use every means at their disposal to turn (or break) the coterie to their advantage.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸🩸), Portillon (🩸🩸)
2. Status:  (🩸🩸🩸)
3. Possible extras:  Adversaries, Influence, Mawla (Prince/Baron), Retainers
18. Missionaries (Children of the Blood p. 84)
1. Each diocese starts with a mission, trusted cult members spread the word to new, often hostile, territories.  The missionary’s task is building the foundation for a diocese.  Lucky Kindred find themselves promoted to lead the fledgling diocese or, should the elders decree, shipped off to another mission.
1. Domain: Chasse (🩸🩸) (a target area for Missionaries is likely to hold assets valuable to the cult.  Wealthy, influential mortals, abundant feeding grounds, or a place of significance to the cult.)
2. Mawla:  (🩸🩸🩸) (deciding who spreads the word is not a task entrusted to mere neonates.  The Mawla of a missionary group has influence within the cult.)
3. Resources:  (🩸🩸🩸) (Missionary groups are usually well-funded.  Emissaries to a new territory must secure a Haven and a place to conduct worship either openly or in secret.)
4. Status:  (🩸🩸) (Kindred chosen to become missionaries should have already proven themselves worthy for the task.)
5. Possible extras:  Mask, Retainer, Suspect.
19. Nemeses (Cults of the Blood Gods p. 55)
1. Formed from the ranks of Kindred who were kept down in life or unlife, nemeses coteries exist to ruin their enemies and improve the lot of those who suffered like them.  Far from altruistic, most such coteries behave this way as a form of catharsis, often escalating until vengeance consumes them and all thoughts of questing for equality are long forgotten.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸🩸), Portillon (🩸)
2. Contacts: (🩸🩸) (downtrodden kine)
3. Influence: (🩸🩸) (marginalized mortals)
4. Enemy: (🩸) (a mortal who the coterie wishes to ruin)
5. Status Flaw: (🩸) (Suspect)
6. Possible extras:  Herd (survivors), Retainers (survivors)
20. Nomads (Core p. 198)
1. The coterie travels from place to place.  It might pose as (or actually be) a band, theater troupe, or other itinerant artists.  Indeed, this coterie might perform exclusively for Kindred audiences at Princely courts, not just second-tier rock clubs in the old factory district.  Alternatively, nomad coteries might be refugees from the Gehenna War or just "kings of the road."
1. Domain:  None
2. Contacts:  (🩸🩸🩸) (audience, promoters, travel bookers, etc.)
3. Retainers:  (🩸🩸) (at least one adult to handle daytime travel problems)
4. Status Flaw:  (🩸) Suspect
5. Possible extras:  Herd (fellow travelers)
21. Plumaire (Core p. 199)
1. Birds of a feather flock together, and social coteries like plumaires ("feathered ones") exemplify this adage.  United by ties of social prominence or simple common enthusiasms, social coteries appear in Camarilla courts and anarch alleys alike.  Some plumaires unite under gothic, club, or other countercultures, sharing similar tastes in music and fashion.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸🩸), Lien (🩸🩸)
2. Contacts:  (🩸🩸🩸) (fellow members of your subculture)
3. Possible extras:  Adversary or Enemy (rival fashionista), Status (for high society Plumaires)
22. Questari (Core p. 199)
1. The coterie exists to accomplish a great enterprise or objective.  Questari coteries often form of their own volition, pursuing their purpose out of desire rather than by edict.  They may chase a target, hunt a relic, or solve a mystery.  They may often need to leave the city.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸), Lien (🩸🩸🩸)
2. Contacts:  (🩸🩸)
3. Possible extras:  Haven with Library, Mawla, Resources (research budget)
23. Rectorate (Chicago By Night p. 248)
1. A Rectorate is a coterie dedicated to the acquisition and management of esoteric knowledge.  The title comes from the term for an ecclesiastical or academic administrator's Domain.  Like a Questari coterie, a Rectorate is devoted to a specific purpose, but seeking out the subject of its concern is secondary to organizing and managing it.  A Rectorate usually operates from a secure location where it can safely store items (or people) of interest, perform rituals, and organize operations over their chosen protectorate.  Many traditional Tremere chantries are coteries of this type, though in modern nights, these are much less common than they used to be.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸🩸), Portillon (🩸🩸)
2. Resources:  (🩸🩸)
3. Retainers:  (🩸) (daylight guardian of their secrets)
4. Possible Extras:  Contacts, Enemies
24. Regency (Core p. 199)
1. An elder of the Camarilla chose or created the coterie to guard their legacy as they were Beckoned into the Middle East.  They hold the elder's vote among the Primogen.  Anarch elders who feel the Beckoning likewise facilitate the selection of a steering coterie in their place, or just appoint one to a watching brief on the Council.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸🩸), Portillon (🩸🩸🩸)
2. Mawla:  (🩸🩸) (major-domo or zampolit)
3. Status:  (🩸🩸🩸🩸) (or 🩸🩸🩸 for anarch Regencies)
4. Advantages:  Select up to 10 dots shared among Haven, Herd, Influence, Resources, and/or Retainers
5. Flaws:  Select the same amount of dots worth of Flaws as Advantages, above
25. Saboteurs (Cults of the Blood Gods p. 84)
1. The saboteur coterie is one without an immediate powerbase or roots within their new domain, but their reach among the kine is likely impressive.  They often have the support of a vampire assigning them to the task of spying, assassination, or political disruption.
1. Contacts: (🩸🩸) (disenfranchised, outsiders, etc.)
2. Influences: (🩸) (surveillance companies)
3. Mawla: (🩸🩸) (the vampire who set them to their task)
4. Mask: (🩸) (cover identities)
5. Resources: (🩸🩸) (liquid cash to assist with their cover story)
6. Adversaries: (🩸🩸) (at least one vampire who would oppose their mission with violence)
7. Possible extras:  Domain (if the coterie is embedded in their current locale), Status Flaw: Suspect
26. Sbirri (Core p. 199)
1. This coterie disguises itself as one type of coterie, while secretly serving another Prince or Baron that they feign allegiance to.  Their patron hand-picks a group of Kindred, and then dispatches them to another city or sometimes to a separate faction within the same metropolis.
1. Mawla:  (🩸🩸) (handler or messenger)
2. Mask:  (🩸)
3. Possible extras:  Adversaries on tearget city's Primogen, other Advantages from the coterie's supposed cover type
27. Schism (Children of the Blood p. 84)
1. The cults of the night are as vulnerable to schism as the faiths of the kine.  Minds questioning the early translations of the word.  Minor changes in inflection or interpretation change the meaning of entire verses of scripture.  Leading a schism is dangerous, powerful cults reject change fervently and any vampire leading a schism needs total conviction to their cause.
1. Loresheet:  (🩸🩸🩸) (the keystone ‘truth,’ the basis of your conviction the cult has lost its way.)
2. Resources:  (🩸) (it takes more than an idea to beget a schism)
3. Status:  (🩸🩸) (the leader of a schism is a wise or respected member of the cult already.  Their status grants them access to the scriptures that prompt their discovery.)
4. Possible extras:  Influence, Fame, Adversary, Despised, Excommunicated.
28. Somnophile (Chicago By Night p. 260)
1. Many coteries are rumored to be Somnophiles, but the term is primarily used as a slur ~ as slang, it actually comes from the old days of the Sabbat, where loyalty to old, torpid elders was likened to a sexual fetish.  True Somnophile coteries represent the oldest vampires, who may well sleep, but are just as likely to dwell in ancient labyrinths (as was the fad shortly after the fall of Rome), masquerade as younger vampires, or otherwise place multiple degrees of secrecy between themselves and modern Kindred.  A Somnophile coterie's patron is often powerful enough to send messages through Disciplines, as omens or dreams, or have penetrated mortal institutions so completely they can relay messages through proxies that can never be traced back to their point of origin.  Each coterie has its own reasons for obeying these hidden masters, from Bahari religious convictions to ambitious Kindred convinced their association will bring them power, as major players in the Jyhad.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸), Portillon (🩸🩸)
2. Loresheet:  (🩸🩸) (their master teaches them secrets)
3. Mawla:  (🩸🩸🩸) (the somnolent or distant elder)
4. Possible Extras:  Allies, Retainers, Status (guardians of an esteemed vampire)
29. Theologian Society (Children of the Blood p. 84)
1. The coterie is a cult of cultists pursuing universal truth.  By comparing the various ways the Kindred worship, they might unlock a dark power or path to true redemption.  This is among the most dangerous of coteries, the SPCs remain embedded within their cults but it is a brief misstep to becoming hunted excommunicates.
1. Haven:  (🩸🩸🩸) (a clandestine location, perhaps a forgotten old speakeasy or a hidden cellar where meetings can be held in secret.)
2. Resources:  (🩸🩸) (access to the restricted libraries, scriptures, and sensitive research materials of the members respective cults.)
3. Retainer:  (🩸🩸) (a ghoul or thrall, a doorkeeper charged with watching over the coterie’s Haven and steering away the uninitiated.)
4. Possible extras: Allies, Contacts, Suspect.
30. Think Tank (Cults of the Blood Gods p. 195)
1. Consisting of old and more established Kindred think tank coteries are advisors, strategists, and researchers for a given cult.  Preferably, they are a small group of individuals who are part of the membership, but leaders sometimes hire think tanks when they are trying to take their faith to the next level.
2. A think tank can take a small cult and grow it into a powerful entity through their expertise.  They tend to research the best ways to recruit in a particular city, how to disseminate information, and how to use the local laws to the cult's advantage.  They have almost unlimited access to the logistical aspects of the church so they can create new procedures or policies for the benefit of the leadership.
3. Most think tanks are long-standing allies who have spent years working together, but some come together for a specific task and dissolve once they complete their goal.  Members of think tanks are often procedural specialists, efficiency experts, former bureaucrats, marketing geniuses, or experts in a subject critical to a cult's interests.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸), Lien (🩸🩸🩸)
2. Allies:  (🩸🩸🩸) (analysts, bureaucrats, soldiers, etc.)
3. Haven:  (🩸) (a small office as base of operations)
4. Possible extras:  Resources (profits made from selling their services), Retainers (librarians, scholars)
31. Vanguard (Chicago By Night p. 235
1. Vanguard Coteries are most common among anarchs, though Camarilla coteries surrounded by the most hostile political rivals may also belong to this type.  "Mastery in one domain, revolution in many," is the Vanguard way.  These coteries establish a strong Domain among their enemies, but after seeing its borders, check further ambitions in favor of making their own position as strong as possible.   This allows them to be "first among equals" in any embattled alliance and prevents enemies from crushing them.  After that, a Vanguard engages in a campaign of destabilization against established powers.  The point isn't conquest, but to make the Vanguard a better alternative to the enemy.  Vanguards might call themselves Soviets, Syndicates, Councils, and the like.  Once entrenched, the Vanguard assumes decision-making powers over other Kindred, with their ostensible consent, though naturally, this springs from realpolitik more often than a shared ideology.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸🩸), Portillon (🩸🩸🩸)
2. Status:  (🩸) (anarch, usually)
3. Enemies:  (🩸) (reactionaries and bootlickers!)
4. Possible Extras:  Adversary, Mawla
32. Vehme (Core p. 199)
1. Named for (and possibly descended from) the vigilante secret society in medieval Germany, Primogen task this coterie to protect the Masquerade at all costs.  The Vehme has the authority to arrest and subdue violators, if need be, to bring them before the Prince and Primogen.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸)
2. Influence:  (🩸🩸🩸) (especially in police and media)
3. Status:  (🩸🩸🩸)
4. Possible extras:  Adversaries, Mawla (on Primogen or Anarch Councils)
33. Watchmen (Core p. 199)
1. The coterie patrols the city and protects it from intruders, especially anarchs and werewolves.  Camarilla coteries established in border cities to repel Sabbat influence or to colonize newly won territory also count as Watchmen.  Anarch cities call their Watchmen (who also guard against reactionaries and Camarilla infiltrators) the Committee of Public Safety, the Cheka, or the Eyes of the People.
1. Domain:  Chasse (🩸), Lien (🩸🩸), Portillon (🩸)
2. Status:  (🩸🩸) (Camarilla)
3. Possible extras:  Contacts, Retainers

Coterie type average a net of about 6 dots, with a general range of about 4-8 dots.  Several outliers exist, however, both above and below that range.