Shreh Ren - Vampire WWW Server USA

Shreh Ren

by Kwei-Cee Chu - kchu@uop.cs.uop.edu

There stood the remains of the Second City; the Sire gazed upon it for hours, motionless, silent, filled with sadness. When our Sire at last turned to me, a great fury burned in his eyes. "They have destroyed that which was greater than them. Never forget, nor forgive. They are to us, less than the cattle of the Land, and I do renounce all of them and their get. This I charge you: Go from this place, never to return, until there be nothing of the Faithless but ashes. Grandchilde of Cain, I release thee!" Thus spake our Sire.

- The One and Prime

Ah, China! So very mysterious, so isolated, so closed! Many Kindred have tried to pierce the Veil of the Lotus, few have succeded, fewer still have lived to tell about it. China, what secrets do you guard?

The Shreh Ren

Kindred in China do refer to themselves as Kindred; they are "the Faithful", to set themselves apart from the rebels of the Second City and their childer. To call them Kindred, while accurate, is also a grave insult. Dominant among the Faithful are the Shreh Ren, the "People of Blood". The rest are blood- lines derived from the Shreh Ren.

The Shreh Ren are unique in that their founder is not of the 3rd Generation, but in fact, 2nd Generation. What this means can be a matter of much spec- ulation. However, it does seem as if the fractiousness that plagues other Kindred Clans has been muted in the Shreh Ren. This does not surprise them at all, for they regard all other Kindred as the rebel childer of rebel sires. Their organization is said to surpass that of the Tremere and Ven- true.

The Shreh Ren have one purpose, and one alone: The total annihilation of the non-Faithful. They take this purpose quite seriously, and literally. In fact, interpretation of the Purpose has been a valid reason for splitting from the Shreh Ren (The Avengers of the Black Lotus believe that only the Antediluvians of the Second City need be extinguished, for example). It is to this purpose that they organize.

Nickname: (yeah, right)

Appearance: Official functions: Embroidered silk robes with headdresses denoting exact rank. Unofficial: traditional robes, sometimes suit and tie, "official" kine clothing.

Haven: Palaces, subteranean complexes (furnished palatially); wherever one could "live" in opulence without causing a furor.

Background: Almost always a mortal descendant.

Character Creation: Must show excellence (i.e. a five in a trait). Any ability may be primary. All Shreh Ren must take at least one dot in Status, and Mentor, Generation, and Resources are other common backgrounds.

Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Fortitude, Shreh Nao

Weaknesses: Shreh Ren are always Blood Bound to their Sires; those who find themselves without the Bond through circumstance find themselves unable to perform Shreh Nao. Further, must feed from amortal descendant, or a mortal descend ant of the Sire, Sire's Sire, etc.

Organization: As mentioned before, Shreh Ren are perhaps the most organized of the Kindred; they are organized into thirteen Ranks, always starting from the bottom, each Rank having thirteen degrees, this is represented by the embroid ery and color of the formal robes of the individual, and informally, it is custom to exchange rank and degree before names. Furthermore, each different rank/degree has a different function and duty.


Shreh Nao

Shreh Nao is the Discipline developed by the Shreh Ren. It developes from the Blood Bond shared by all Shreh Ren. The maximum rating in Shreh Nao is not limited by Generation. Rather, use the character's Rank instead of Generation (it is theorized that this stems from an unbroken link of Blood Bonds going all the way to the 2nd Generation Founder).

o Singing the Blood

You can set up a resonance in your Blood ("singing the Blood") which will cause sympathetic resonances in others of the Faithful, which you can detect.

System: The player rolls Shreh Nao + Empathy (difficulty of 6) and then consults the following table to determine the range of the resonance she has released/detected.
1 success All within 100 yards
2 successes All within 1 mile
3 successes All within 10 miles
4 successes All within 100 miles
5 successes All within 1000 miles

oo Speaking the Blood

You can speak telepathically with another Shreh Ren by expending a point of Blood.

ooo Channeling the Blood

For every two points of Blood spent, the character may channel one to another Shreh Ren of equal or higher Rank (e.g. an 8th Rank Shreh Ren could channel to another of 8-13th Rank).

oooo Seeing the Blood

You can, after your ghoul imbibes 10 points of your blood, see through his eyes, hear what he hears, feel what he feels. With the expenditure of a Willpower Point, character may issue one-word commands similar to Command the Wearied Mind.

ooooo Rage of the Founder

You may tap your Bond to project some of the Founder's Rage at all Faith- less within 100 yards, causing them to frenzy in terror unless they make a Self-Control roll (difficulty of 8).

System: The Player rolls Shreh Nao + Intimidation (difficulty of 8); the number of successes determines how many Faithless are affected:
1 success one Faithless
2 successes two Faithless
3 successes six Faithless
4 successes 20 Faithless
5 successes all Faithless within 100 yards

oooooo Summon Faithful

The character is able to make a powerful summons to the Shreh Ren in closest proximity to her. They will do their best to come to the character's aid with all haste.

System: Character spends as many points of Blood as she wishes to roll dice (difficulty of 7) and consults the following table:
1 success 1 Shreh Ren
2 successes 2 Shreh Ren
3 successes 4 Shreh Ren
4 successes 8 Shreh Ren
5 successes 16 Shreh Ren

ooooooo Imitate the Blood

Character may use any one Discipline of the line he is descended from (up to but not including the Founder) with the expenditure of (5 + 1 per generation removed) Blood Points in addition to whatever other costs are involved.

oooooooo Wake the Perished

Character may try to ressurect a Diablerized personality (destroying the Diabolist's person in the process).

System: The character must spend 5 points of Blood, then roll more successes on Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty equal to target's Willpower + 3 (max of 10)) than the target on a Willpower roll (difficulty of 6). Once this is done, target is subject to an immediate Possesion attack by the awakened victim (see Dominate). This power may be used only once per diablerized personality.

ooooooooo Scorn the Faithless

You may spend Blood to block one of a Faithless opponent's disciplines.

System: Character must spend as many Blood points as levels that he wishes to block (1 blood point blocks level one, 2 points block 1-2, etc.), and score a hit in hand-to-hand combat and do damage. Note that if a hit is scored, but no damage is done, the blood is wasted.

oooooooooo Summon the Founder

Spend 10 points of Blood and he might come. Then again, he might not.

Converted to HTML format by Makala Fahr Thuren - chalod@rpi.edu