Clanbook: Lasombra Revised - Episode 72

20 years of past since a tragic fire at an illegal rave killed over a hundred people outside Austin, Texas. But is that all that happened? I'm a knight in question. Experience the horror of vampire the masquerade like never before. Jackalope Larb and Whitewolf present a blockbuster-larb horror event. The knight in question November 17, 2018. Austin, Texas. Jackalope-larb.com for tickets and information. Where will you be on the night in question? This is 25 years of vampire the masquerade, a retrospective podcast, brought to you by UtilityMuffinLabs.com. Welcome to another episode of 25 years of vampire the masquerade, I'm Nathan. And I'm Bob. And we're here doing the final revised edition plan book, "Clanbook with Sombra." What do you think, Bob? Like, best for last? Best left unsaid? I love the, they're my favorite clan in the Sombra. And what I got to say is, I love who's on the cover. You see this in an Austin character, you see the Derragons. Like one of those characters where people either love that character or hate that character. Well, they did a different thing, right? They made her super sexy and dangerous and bold and everything else. And then they had Fatima Alfakadi as her lover, which was bold and great and sexy. And then they put them in the novels as such. Then they made Arotica about her. And it's an eternal heart, they did that. Which put her on main stage for a lot of people, read the book, you'll know why. But ultimately- There's a Lucida comic book. Yeah, like she's, she's almost a flagship character. She is. She's very much a flagship character. Her and Theo Baller, like the big- Everyone. Right. Everyone. Back it. Hannah Tull. Back it recently. Right. Because I think back and back in the day was that name you mentioned people like, huh? And then you mentioned Indiana Jones and like, oh, okay. Right. But then that new Jihad diary, right? That put it on main stage. Well, yeah, definitely. I mean, if you read Gahanna, like he's the main character, like he's the character. So like at the end, it was kind of like focus shifted from Lucida to him. But she's in the book too. And she's like a focal point. But anyways, that's neither here nor there about this book. Wrong book. So, but the sound of Claimless got her in the cover. I love the artwork cover. Where it kind of makes her very effeminate. It's one of the most dangerous Los Alamos that's out there. Right? And that's pretty cool. The author of the book, if you forget his name, his name is Bruce Ball. Bruce Ball has- He's a very unique perspective in looking how this book was set up. Justin and Kili up in the develop, right? It's right there near as well. And as we know, if Giddle J.A. is on it, pretty much we're about it. Right. That's where it gets. And this holds no different, at least for me. I read this book and I have to think that if you're wondering what the subod is and how White Wolf envisions it, and you're not going to read the novels, and you're not going to take those authors' perspectives, get this book because it's all written from a subod perspective. Right. It's all about LaSombra Pax. And it starts with a cool story about how another good character gets embraced, right? Giddle Emery. Emery is the crippled LaSombra who was- He was made such- The handicap LaSombra. It's well. The cripple. I mean, yes. I apologize. I'm using terminology. Use in there. Right. You know, that's what he said. That's what I usually read in. We cripple in air quotes. We're not like, we cripple. Right. Exactly. And so the opening story, and you got to read the opening story because it flows, it's like, this reads like a book. Yeah. Right. Absolutely. So that's the one thing that- I don't know that I ever read this book in the heyday. I thought I had, but rereading it, it was like reading it for the first time. Like I didn't- I didn't know this story at all. So either I forgot about it, or I was so obsessed with the LaSombra would a big old black hand print on his forehead that I just was like, I don't need to read that. It's not black paper. Right. You know, I don't know what happened. But yeah, the reading this was like literally like reading through the documentation of a character being embraced as a LaSombra into the sabbat for the first time. Right. And I think it's unique in that perspective that, you know, it's telling that tale. And then he takes a very bold perspective. I mean, the other authors are fantastic that we've reviewed so far and doing very good. But I think this guy hit me, hit it home because after you read all the content on our journey, we've taken 25 years. We get here and it's like it's pulling it all together because we've been trying to hit viewpoints to give everybody a taste of what it's like. This book lands what it is to be sabbat from a LaSombra perspective in any sabbat's perspective. It starts with the typical. Emory gets embraced. Well, let's explain what LaSombra do. And we won't get into the story because it actually kind of does ruin the book a bit. But to review it, they're going to highlight the fact that LaSombra's methodology for the embraces this. You literally test the character of your perspective chilled by controlling every aspect of their life to ruin it. You give them challenges. And if you think that chilled's worth it, they'll survive in some type of way that you agree they would be worthy as a vampire. Right. Now a lot of people, but mom, I thought that this about just whacked people over the head with a shovel and just it was kind of like embraced Willie Nilly. We get that perspective a lot, right? We hear that that people make short-sighted summaries of what that is. And you're right to do it. That's part of the sabbat propaganda machine. They want you to believe that they're all sought-off psychopaths that pop out of the ground and they come out as raging Canaan warrior supreme. What doesn't that help their war effort? Right. Because if you believe every sabbat peck you come across is going to be able to tear you apart. We should do that. We should make a poster that's like you too could be a sought-off psychopath and have like a sabbat shovel party like. Absolutely. And instead fear. Where are people even terrified of reading about the sabbat yet there's nothing to be terrified about reading? You know what I mean? They won't do it. They challenge Christian methodology. No, they don't. Right. But even if they did so what? It's a fantasy game. Right. And it's those terms, right? Right. But this is all propaganda and it works very, very well. White wolf does its research period before it makes the authors do their research before they're right about it. I think to the best of their ability and you know, maintaining and I think this is an important thing to remember too. And this is off topic just a tiny bit. But I think it relates especially when we're talking about the sabbat. People go, oh well, this isn't like that. And it's like, right, but at the beginning when you first started playing this game what did they tell you about the world of darkness, right? It is not our world. It is a darker reflection of our world. So it's not that they're challenging the moors of our religious beliefs, but they're challenging the moors of a religious belief that is very similar to ours in a fantasy world. Right. That's what we need to keep in mind. This exists in the world of darkness, right? In the real world there is no Pentax. There are plenty of companies that have, you know, huge conglomerates and they're doing terrible things to the earth, but they're not controlled by demons or interdimensional monstrosities, right? Like that's what we need to keep in mind here. This is an our world. It's a world of darkness. How the technocracy wants it. Yeah. Absolutely. Complete plausible deniability. I'm not serious to that point. When you read about the LaSambra, especially in this clan book, they're going to tell you off the bat, everything's a lie. They immediately tell you that that if you're a LaSambra, we have to give you're the leaders, right? Right. You're the leaders of the Sabat because we're the ones who thought of the organization of the Sabat. We used this amuse for the spiritual magical power we needed to get the ability to have a valdry and that's their contribution. Their reward is that they're the second, but we are the first. And to be the first, we are our brothers keeper. Now we'll hit this. I said this in part one when you asked me that question as well. Is like, aren't they just like souped up venture? Aren't they the same? Yeah. Fucking no. And that's why not is because they're their brothers keepers. They care about everyone under them, but everyone under them is going to fulfill a role. They're going to have a use. I said this to a person recently online. I said, you know, you're most useful tools. You're going to keep on your hip, depending on how much you need them. Right. But when that useful tool is no longer in use, you put them away and take very good care of it until you need it again. Right. That's more than food for thought. That's a high LaSambra perspective. That's an elder perspective. No, also if the tool is broken, you discard it. It's just a tool. Right. How does this different from venture? I'll underline something about the venture because if you miss, you miss the boat. If you think they're the same, the venture believe in lineage. They believe in a manifest destiny. They believe they were meant to rule because even in their own history, Cain says they're the ones to rule. LaSambra have no such pretension, nothing whatsoever. And they also know that that's the exploited weakness of the seven clans that they all have some derangement that they're human. This is outlined in the first LaSambra book and it's hammered home in this one. And this one is written from a very logical perspective. This is a LaSambra who primarily are within 400 years of age. They're less than a thousand who you're dealing with. And they start by talking about Bishop Emory. Right. And I love this description. It's like the middle of winter and what I believe correct me from wrong, it's New York. And I think it's like supposed to be just after Pony. It's a go over there here in their training. And this is whatever it is. And I may have the city wrong, it slips my mind, but I always got the description because whenever you hear about it New York or see New York, it's really super cold in Fregin and we damn well know it's not Chicago. Right. So, but the point is, Emory has rituals for his peg. They know that since he embraced them all, this, these candidates, he knows how they operate. And so when they wake up, they go through the Ruger-Maro of relying on not having to communicate to talk. To the author's definitions of aniculum gives you insight into how each other feels in the pack. That's very much true. Right. And so, you look by players. It's overlooked by a lot of storytellers too. Right. And well, in storytellers, it's easy. It's either it's an on-switch and you can do this or it takes away from the bloodbond depending on how it is. And if you're going to have the bloodbond in your game versus the vaniculum, then I would agree. Because if someone has the bloodbonds, it's an immensely stronger feeling. Right. Instead of other slavery, vaniculums to that of loyalty, deep emotional tie. Right. But both are true in this. Yes. You will get emotional insights into your pack. That's how it works. And the way he blends in together in this is that the pack instinctively knows that begrudgingly it's lecture night. They know it's lecture night. But it's frigid cold outside and they have to prove that they're learning. And so they like basically damn your strip themselves. Right. To climb this frigid building on the outside and one guy, of course, has to be the A player, does it one-handed? To get to the top to meet with Emory. Now what's cool about this is that I keep calm Bishop Emory, but that's because people will know him as Bishop Emory. He's not Bishop yet. He does go later on in the story, but they get to the top and while they're climbing, they give insight. They all know that they got to show that they know how to use trace amounts of blood to warm their body to combat the cold. And they got to show that they're not cheating. Hence, the stripping of clothing. Everything has a purpose in training. And that's the sombra methodology. And you will get lectured. You need to know how to operate because everything's a test. To the LaSambra, you earned the embrace because we ruined your life. You proved character worth. We embrace you. That does not mean you're in LaSambra and you're now untouchable. What it means is the elders will want to talk to you. They will want to lecture you. They will want to know that little shadow is capable of swimming in the abyss. And if you can't and are found wanting, they will discard the broken tool. That's the short, short version. That's it. If you want to know how to play LaSambra, we can stop there. And you stop listening to your thing. But if you're still curious, that's how the book begins and they begin to get into their history. And they give you different lessons of the LaSambra and where they were in the beginnings. Basically, they do the same thing every other clan book does, but they do it in a way where they break them out into lessons. Right. So the first lesson, the beginnings, where the clan emerged from, where it came from, how it became what it is. And they do it beautiful. Right. Because what do they say? They get into it and one of the things is just what we already, we already kind of revealed it, but they said everything's, there's no truth. Right. Right. They talk very specifically. They say, you know, there is a place in this world for science. It's not to say that that science is worthless because it's done great things. However, we are living proof or unliving proof, if you will, that everything is manipulatable. Memories. You know, I can manipulate your memories without you even knowing it. And I tell you this because there's nothing you could do about it. It doesn't matter. So if the, if truths can be manipulated, what is truth? What, where, where could we possibly came from? Exactly. And does it matter? They use logic. Right. They use a conversational logic. I adore that in this book because the whole pack listening, they're learning. You listening are learning. When you read it, you'll get that perspective. And remember, this is the beginnings. They go through the fact that you probably were expecting us to talk like the pretentious humanist seven week clans who are going to claim that they know Cain better than any other Cain. And quickly, the off or the, I believe it's a, it is a bishop. Sorry, they embrace some as a bishop. Boko, I believe her name is, could be wrong or Den, a Dendo. It's one of the two. But the point is, she goes into it. She says, let me point something out about Cain. You ever notice how they spell Cain without the E? Did you know that spelling Cain either way is not seen anywhere in the Middle East? The old assimilizations come from over there and yet the spellings not there. So already we're in our first fallacy. It's proof that somebody wrote what we know of it and probably somebody English. It's what she points out. And you can't refute the logic of it, but it's a simple logic. It's a logic that everyone can get and they're pointing out to question everything. Right. Find your own truth and of that truth, find what's useful. And that's what you keep of it. The rest of it is smoke and mirrors, manipulation. And they roll from that, right? They go from that's the beginning and then they start talking about the founder and the founder is quantifiably one of the most profound things you'll find in any of the books. Every book describes their founder in a deific fashion of the immense power they have in whatever. They make this seem like the founder. They call it an it number one. They call all antidelucans, it's though. This is important. They have a little blurb, right? They make that clear distinction that things that are this old and this mysterious, they've kind of transcended gender-based pronouns. And they talk about how most of the clans usually identify the gender of their antideluvian based on the inherent masculinity of the clan, right? The Bruha was a he and the ventry was a he. In this we make the distinction it. It's too alien, too old and too unconcerned with gender to give a shit. About making that distinction. And there's no way to know. It's just it's too far back. There's just no way to know. And it's careless, but they do highlight one thing. If you want an origin story, pay attention to the old god myths. Every civilization, every ancient civilization has a goddess myth where the goddess is the one that comes in darkness with darkness to demand rights of meat from humans either through animal sacrifice, but all of it relates to blood. Blood was in everything and used for it. And they said if anything, odds are it was a she or what made it was a she. They were fascinating opinion that the fact that vampires as a whole were probably not even human initially. Fascinating, right? I'm going to tell you something I believe though Nate real quick. It's awful white wolf. There was a series of books Brian Lomley made called Necroscope that you should check out where they do use that myth that's like alternate creatures merged with this reality. Right. I think we've even talked about Necroscope a little bit a couple of times, but I don't know if we've done so actually in this in 25 years. But anyways, continue your point. We haven't, but Brian Lomley's books, they really did inspire a lot of horror, especially from the myths of vampires of different different directions ago than being a curse from God. And their vampires are distinctly different than vampire of the masquerades. But the key elements like the theme, you know, the feeling you get like the old horrors, like goods, there are definitely connections between those and vampire of the masquerade. The biggest connection they destroyed canon wise, which is good. That's where these amies. This amies are the perfect reflection of what the Wampri are, which is what they're called in Necroscope. And those alien entities that devour you from within, they were the soul leaders. This clear relation linear wise, the old spirit that's bound to the soil. Right. Right. It's been a really long time since I've read Necroscope, but yeah, I mean, you know, I'm getting there with you. But the beauty of it is that like here it is even an Alessandra book where they're hinting at and not that they're whammed for you or anything at all. It's just that keep your mind open to that there was probably a race before us. Well, and yeah, right. And that's the other thing that they do touch on here. They say that, you know, perhaps evolutionarily, every strongest species has had something that's fed upon it, you know, some offshoots, some derivative of that race or that species. What have you? And they talk about that man's kind of greatest strength. Almost superior is greatest strength is that they are almost superior. The X men, sorry, a homo sapiens greatest strength is the fact that it's adaptability. And so many highlight this, they say, and I actually went with them on this, like just follow it down the rail, they said, let's talk about cana second. And let's think about cana and able, able was the old version of what we were. And this is a possibility. He knew how to hunt, right? Because he sacrificed animals, raised animals, right? But he was out there trying to figure it out with the great beast that were hunting men. Because the first of mankind were gatherers, right? They were not hunters. The hunters came after. So here you have cane, excuse me, able was the future, excuse me. Here you have cane, the farmer, the gatherer, who is watching how the hunter is getting along, but she watches cane utterly destroys that which would surpass him by sacrificing able. And how do we know that cane wasn't just the one to steal their power somehow, or maybe it's a matter of he got infected by them or whatever, or he evolved from doing it, but he utterly wiped out the race before. That's possible too. We don't know, but we do know this is that when we think about our origins, we only have to look to history to find the snippets and of that there is no truth we can define. And so that we did ourselves by our own hand when we killed our antiteluvian. Right. And on the topic of killing ones antiteluvian, there is a blurb in here and they talk about how that it's something that's mentioned about the devil being in the details. anything I think that none of the other people are going to be able to do anything. Not only this clan book, but almost everything that's ever been produced that's quote unquote canon. That's like the story of the story. I think that bears mentioned that, you know, they talk about how there are a number of different individuals who are still functioning, who are still up and walking around that are still active in the final nights, and none of them have the same story. And all of them are dead set on their story, and none of them bear any symptoms of being dominated of having their mind altered. And I think that one of the key things that's important to remember about Vampire the Masquerade and typically White Wolf in general is that we're not here, like these books are not here to tell you the whole story. And I think a lot of players really get kind of like their undies in a bunch because they don't agree on what the truth of the stories are, like this happened for sure. That's not what this is about. That's not what this is for. That's not what any of these books are for. These books are to tell you, give you an outline to tell a story, right? Because remember, this is a storytelling game. And I think that's really super important to remember that the truth is always subject to interpretation. Just like they say at the beginning of this clan book, there's no inalienable truths. Everything can be manipulated. So who's truth is the truth? That's perfect, right? And it's done on purpose because in their canon, if you need to see the truth in what we're saying, by the Gahennem book, we haven't reviewed it yet, but when we do, you're going to see that it's literally a bunch of endings. Right, right, right. It's a bunch of endings that could happen that include the antideleuvians of every type. And so I mean, that's keep that in mind. But more to keep in mind of what this book is, this book is telling you without telling you. We didn't kill an ant, they didn't kill an antideleuvian, right? Right. Because everyone that could, there's a different story that is proving to be true as far as they know it, aspects to text them and proves them correct, even looking at their memories. They see their truth. This doesn't mean anything. But also when they tell you how they hand to deluvian operated, it makes sense. Right. Like a bit of quick history rundown real fast. They talk about the see people. This is how bad their history is, is a La Samba called. They can't recall the name that they had when they dominated the ocean. And so they don't even try. They're like, well, memory, right? What it was. They were of the sea people. This is why we're tied to the sea. This is why we're on the sea. And they dominated the age of the whole, the whole ocean area, especially around the Greek islands and all that stuff. And they go over it. And that's where the antideleuvian dwell was on a coastal city. They don't even name really where it is. They give guesses. And the fact is that they were so good at dominating the area that they cause another dark age. It was around the late Bronze Age they're talking about. And they're out there kicking rocks and stopping people from doing what they want. Well, then the thing happens. See Alexander the Great comes across. He says, guess what? Kiss my ass. Everything's mine. And they were like, wait a second. Well, we're having a hard time keeping this whole sea dominance. And then in like Palm Pays Day, Rome, Rome comes around and goes, no, the sea is ours. Right. And they give you a cute little Roman phrase in there, which literally means RC. And the Lusomber were like that we they killed everybody. We literally have nothing now. There's nothing we can do. Right. And he's like, well, what was the antideleuvian's decision then at that point? Well, the antideleuvian just stayed where he was. Right. It is coastal haven't until a volcano erupted. I feel like the Lusomber antideleuvian is one of the antideleuvians. It's like, it's like the most is known, but is the most elusive. Right. It's like, you can't really pin down. What this individual, this entity was like. And I've always liked that about this clan that we supposedly went in and diabolized it. And we don't even have like the gratifying, shamise, wink of the eye story. Nope. It's just like, no, he's dead. Okay. What happened? And we killed him. They do a fantastic job of giving a love, crafty and evidence of it. In the novel, watching a reading about Montana. Right. That they mentioned. And before I dead said say the novel, I want us to, we may come across in a darkening book, but I'm almost positive it's a novel story where Montana was sitting in the abyss. And there's Leviathan's that he never summoned. Right. And he's the most powerful. Yeah, I recall that story too. I also, I don't remember like which I, there's a bunch of like Lusombre novels too. So we'll get to all that stuff. But why it's cool is because they give even further mention in and in great descriptions of why Montana feels in himself, you didn't kill what you think you did. And only he's the keeper basically. He's the keeper of that which you do not want to know too. That's why he's walking, running around and doing it. And that's why this clan, this clan book, I like a lot because they refer to Montana as being that one with the weakness of honor. Even when you look at Montana's history, he was embraced because of that honor. He serves a purpose and what perfect purpose then to be the gatekeeper. Right. And that's one of those who seek whatever because he doesn't oppose the clan. Right. He just stops those who come to kill him. Yeah, yeah. Move on. But back to the point, they get to see they lose the sea, volcano erupts. And the Lusombre as a clan basically said, well, let's move out. Let's move out because feeding so long or easy because everyone's super protective of the resources, these communities are so close and so insular that any stranger coming in, you're, it's going to be too difficult. So let's go where there's not ash and lava and we'll, we'll dandel it. Some of you stay here, rest, leave. And the Lusombre had to do just one on one of his wanderings. That's how they describe it. That's literally how they give you the history of, of a son of herself. And when they describe his demise, they're not praising Gratiano, right? Did you catch that? They like give you a history lesson of what Gratiano did. Mm-hmm. Because it's talking to students, right, telling them how a good, solid plan and its execution are all you need to take down even a god. And that's it, but they're not praising him. They're praising themselves and their ability to plan. That's why we do what we do. And Gratiano stories, a story of eminent failure, right? Fails as a mortal can't get it done. Then the antediluvian fails them. And I love this. The insight to the antediluvian and what's frightening about Lusombre or whatever it is is when it goes to Gratiano when he's captured by his enemies and one caught up in his schemes that Lusombre designed him to get captured in and he tells him, "I want to give you the option of the embrace right now." But Gratiano feels that he can beat even his rap as he sits in jail. I can get out of it. They're still life in me yet. And Lusombre, it looks at him and goes very well. And it leaves. And then the Lusombre set it up to where that day his enemies come in and beat the shit out of him. They break both his legs. They collapse, ocular cavities. He can't open his eyes when next to comes on the next night. And it goes, "Do you see the lesson now?" And Gratiano is like, "I need your power. I need raw power." And that was the lesson. No matter how good of a manipulator you think you are, raw power is raw power. And then he accepts the embrace. And the clan hammers at home, but they're also studying the students, the new crop of sabbat, who are supposed to be digesting these lessons because they will be tested later. Right. Exactly. I think at the end of this chapter we talk about the antitribute. And for those that listen to the previous one, you know, the eldest that's still up and functioning is still Montana, right? Like that hasn't changed. And I feel like there's a couple of clan books where like they're very character driven. And the Giovanni, that is definitely a very character driven clan book. Right. Very little change. This one is very character driven as well because the original Asamber clan, which I love them for this. Like they did it with the Shamsay or the Zameez. They did it with the Asamber. They did it with the Giovanni. Like you have these kind of like personalities that are very important to the creation and the history of the clan. Venture I think has it a little bit, but really they didn't in the first clan book. They did kind of in the second one, but they didn't in the first clan book. But this one is still the same. So if you've listened to that, like these characters are still here. We haven't erased them from history. We haven't deleted them. And we still have this individual who is considered a La Asamber and to tribute. And they're very rare. They're very few and far between. But they come from a very powerful source, which really isn't any different than it was originally. Right. We're not telling a new story here. We're telling the same. It's just it's less of an interest or concern because remember where La Asamber were Sabat. We are the clan and then also there's like this offshoot and we don't really talk about it. And this is a training manual. Right. Right. So there's not a lot of time spent giving a shit about what those folks are doing over wherever they're at or whatever the second. And I love it. One of my favorite comments is books like if you were looking for a tale of what happened and not and Kane and all the other clans, let me tell you one thing. There's no other three that were Kane's shoulder. None of them were worthy of embracing us. So none of them had the skill sets. So there had to have been more than three second gen and just doesn't make sense. And if I may, let me add that also how did they get killed by the let that's not just makes no sense. But I digress. There's a truth somewhere in it. We don't know it. So we don't waste time on it. Let a notist talk your head off for hours about how it might have been and we stick to what works. What's now? The glancing at this human hardcore blurb in the second they talk about serial killers about the merit of embracing serial killers. And you know, for the most part, people would think, well, hey, basically, they're already sub-aught. not just embrace those sick assholes. Well, they give you an idea. The level of obsession and focus and the quote unquote signature of such individuals actually doesn't translate very well. They become less like good soldiers and it says serial killers let loose among the ended almost inevitably burden themselves out in a few years. If not months or weeks, they can't continue doing what they do what they used to without significant modifications to their routine. And even though their unlives, unliving brains don't have the biological compulsions anymore to have it remains. So they go down in gunfire under the fangs of their fellow vampires, another experiment failed. And I just, you know, I think that that's interesting. That's why someone who is already a deranged individual, especially in the sub-ot, were sort of like, you know, social moors are sort of rent from you and you don't have the same restrictions like you have all this power. You know, it's not, it's not a good idea, but also it tells to the tale of what the Lassamard do to potential children, what they put them through. And, you know, someone who's like this already, not a really great candidate. And it's not gonna be because we've got to remember that many talks, right, you and I over the years, with think tanks and late nights and the point is, it doesn't make sense. If you can't, it's a war machine. If you can't build up after breaking down your soul. And that should be familiar to any soldier out there. - Right. - What is boot camp? It's breaking you down of your habits to train you to habits that work for the military. - Right. - The Lassamard's method is truly no different save. There's no real boot camp as much as, 'cause I mean, it's an undead body. It's not physiologically trying at that point. So they got to do it character-wise. You know, we got to make sure you're worthy of doing it so you can grow up being the perfect vampire you can be. That's the point. - Right, absolutely. And so in the next chapter, they talked to us about the process one goes through becoming Lassamard. And I think this is great for anybody who wants to play that sabbat clan and actually see like what a nuanced experience it is to be embraced, to be chosen for the embrace by this clan. And so it's definitely, to me, it's invaluable. I mean, they talk about like, it is a long, involved process. And that very first story will tell you, right? What does that character go through? They talk about the loss of loved ones. They talk about, you know, losing limb, essentially, you know, becoming paralyzed, going through all this stuff. And like all of these downfalls over the course of 10 years. And to me, it was, I thought it was funny. It reminded me immediately of like fight club, right? And it was just like, you're stripping away everything you are to reveal your rock bottom self and how you can deal with all of that loss and then the ability to rebuild yourself, right? Stripping you of all ego and just breaking you down to like brass tax. What are you? What is Bob? What is Nate? Take away everything you've ever known and loved and all that, the comforts you've become accustomed to. And we're just muffins. (laughs) Or just crumbs. That's it. But luckily, we're a sturdy cornbread muffin. - Cornbread hardy, goes with any meal. - A utility muffin, perhaps. Anyways. (laughs) So you could go through all of that. And then of course we have the Lissombra Mechanics, the obligatory merits and flaws, all of which are very cool. You know, very interesting little details to iron out your character. - You know, like, oh, two myths. Let's have fun with the myths for a second. Why are Lissombra tried to see? I already explained that. They come from see people. There's some fascination or there's some connection. FYI, never explained. Know where, anyhow, is it ever explained? Why it's not explained? 'Cause it's a cool thing. There are a lot of cultures that tie a lot of lore and myth to the ocean. - Deep in the ocean. - Exactly. - Let's see the sun. - If you wanted to do a thing where the mother of Grendel is just in a lot of writing, she's tied to the sea as well. That's the antediluvian somehow. In some way, you don't ever tell the players, we use a story to decide to have fun with that myth and spread out, you could do it. And it makes sense because whenever Lissombra's embrace, they can take merits and flaws that tie them to the ocean. That's what's there. It's inherent. And really, the fact that you know why we like the ocean so much? 'Cause who's blood's in our veins? And it likes the ocean. That's all you need to know. - Right. They talk a little bit about morality and they talk about the different ways that one can apply the powers of the shadow. - And it's great. I don't know what can't be almost forgot about that. This is a claim book that really opens your imagination to the many ways that the shadows are used. 'Cause the whole thing is written as a story, but what's cool about the story, you can go and look at the merits and flaws they might have taken or the ideals to help them do that. So to stop your tendrils from being octopods, octopus limbs or something like that, you can make them be something else. It's okay. Play with it. And believe in the opening chapter, the bishop that makes Emory embraces him, they all come from shadows of her hair. - Yeah, the way that they describe her, she is, I'm reading this description and I'm like, what the fuck is this thing? Like what is this shadowy thing? But it outlines for you that this is a claim and it is a discipline that this claim has and it allows for a great deal of creativity. And I feel like there's nothing wrong with that. Like use this, right? And I think that also I like to touch on the fact where every once in a while, these are not just for players, right? These are for storytellers too. - Absolutely. - This is an amazing resource for a storyteller to go, ah shit, I always thought that these guys were just like generic Venture pirates. No, they're not. Here's why. - There's some stuff. - Here's the thing, and here's the coolest reason why I love Obtenebration over any power ever made by White Wolf. It ties to the clan, LaSamba, so well. - Right. - One, it explains why they have no reflection. - Right. - Right, it really does. Like they have to sacrifice something to be there for some reason and I've always been fascinated by why is that and makes sense that if they're tethered, calling some other power that you call the abyss, it calls to you. - Right. - It really fits to them, right? And that's awesome. The other thing is, is that this book, this book here, describes what it's like to be in the effects of any of the shadows, whether it's shroud or a tendril grab or what have you. And the way they describe it is, it's the same thing as being in a sense deprivation tank. Right, it's a weird sense of peace, because it blocks, it stops your mind from thinking of anything but the infinite dark that it's in. It's cold, but not so cold you can't exist. What happens is, it shocks your system. It almost puts you in a state of near death is what it reads like. And in those moments when people see their life flash perform or insights really is what goes on, same story as people talk about being in a sense dep tank. And if you read up on that, they're profound experiences. And I'm not saying they're gurus, like you want to meditate, throw up shroud and sit in it, but tell me you can't imagine playing a character who would sit in his own shadow in his haven at night for an hour or two, contemplating how he's gonna go through the machinations of the night or some plan. But remember, it's devoid of any petty emotion or feeling, like your body, it's like being outside of yourself. Because the shadows are from a different place. And it's like they feed on the emotions you have so they temporarily disable them. And because they're using them, and I love that. Because it makes you a monster. - There's just so much more that you as a storyteller, you as a player can investigate when you understand that optenabration isn't just a manipulation of shadows, right? It is communing with the abyss. It is essentially, it is your one way ticket to a whole other world of concepts and of play and of understanding. And just like so much more horror can be found with this clan. I think it's something that if you have the opportunity to roleplay with a storyteller who's very imaginative and also has a level of knowledge where they can properly portray this stuff, you should definitely take advantage of it. I think it's potentially a great experience. And if you don't have one, damn it, be that storyteller and do it yourself, I think. So. - No arguments for me. - Right. We're gonna move on past that chapter. And there's one character I wanna talk about in chapter three, chapter three they talk about, the obligatory 10, you know, ready made characters. One of my favorites. And this concept generally speaking is one of my favorites period, but it's the successful mass embrace. And it's this like 60 something year old grandmother and she's holding a cake. And I always like the concept of sort of very average human beings, average people, living average lives, you know, just like we live, who are suddenly and unexpectedly thrust into a crisis situation. And then in that situation they thrive, right? It's the same thing I like about like zombie movies. I've kinda, I'm on the back end of the zombie phenomenon, like I'm pretty much over it. But I've always liked the concept of like, hey, you're just the average Joe, right? You turned a wrench or you worked at a Dunkin' Donuts. And now you're thrust into this, crisis situation and suddenly your personality put into crisis or put into a completely fish out of water situation. There's something about you that helps you to thrive in there, whether it's just dealing with the horror, the crushing horror of having to run from zombies or be a vampire or feed off of people. And I love the successful mass embrace. I love that sort of concept. But again, you get 10. Nothing out of the ordinary. And then at the end, Bob was talking about how this book is kind of like, it's about packs, right? And that's where we have here, Sample Roode, the black eagle consulting incorporated. And you know, these are resources that are awesome for you as storytellers and for players as well to give you an idea of like, okay, what kind of a pack could I operate? What kind of a group of individuals are we going to sit down at the table and make? And then we have the Asamber of note, which again, are not any different. Right. There's still, we've, I know we've gone over them. Yeah, we've done that. Yeah, the first edition clan books, they have these characters. And by now, you know, if you've been playing for a while, you're probably pretty familiar with them. So now, chilling tonight has three of them. We just haven't reviewed that book yet. No, no, no, we haven't reviewed the newer book that's coming out in a couple of weeks. I say a couple of weeks, but I mean, a couple podcasts down the road. So, which thoughts? Well, Asamber clan book. I cheated. I said, well, I'll say it again. I love it. It's a fantastic book. Well, I've made no, I have not made any effort to hide the fact that I truly enjoy the sabbat. And I think that the Asamber are an amazing clan. And I think that they're one of the most underrated. And I don't really understand why. Because I think that they're one of the better realized clans by and large. And yeah, there are some like annoying characters, but also there's some fricking ridiculously awesome ones. And I feel like the entirety of this game kind of hinges on a clan that came to the game late. And I really appreciate that, you know, they made these newer clans. We'll call them the Zameez and the Asamber newer clans, but they really kind of hung their hats on them. They're really imperative to the overall concept of the game. And I mean, I always like them. And I don't think that we've done ourselves a disservice with this clan book. So not at all. And there's three clans in all of Wightwolf that I think define what the traditional vampire is when you're on the love. And that's the Zameez, the Asamber, and of course the, why did I suddenly brains get? I don't know. Sorry, Gengro. Right. And so that's it. It's from there. Honestly, those three clans, if you could somehow blend them, you would have like, to me, I see Dracula. Yeah, you fully would. You could probably blend them, but then you'd have to play Ruck Wim. That's too true, man. Well, they, you know what? Let's not start any fights or any, uh, any fires here in, in common sections, but we'll get to them. Yeah. We'll definitely get to that. But anyways, clan book, Osambra, uh, it's, I think it's definitely an imperative for you to have on your book or on your bookshelf rather, um, if you're, if you're not going to, you know, investigate them further, even if you're only using the Sabat as antagonists, I feel like it behooves you as a storyteller to know your antagonists well so that you can properly portray them because really we're just the same concepts with different ideologies. And just throwing Osambra at your brew hot players is not really doing anybody any service as. And just treating stuff like up to an abrasion, your description is only so much as to say that Osambra inks and runs away. Probably not going to do any justice either. Yeah. Yeah. If you, if I'm playing in your game and you go, yeah, that was somber, they ink and they run away. I'm also going to ink and I'm going to run away because, um, I think that you're being, you're being lazy fundamentally and you shouldn't be lazy when you're trying to have fun. So anyways, we're going to be off for about a week or so so there will be no podcast from us next week. But then second week of May we should be back with a new, with a new podcast. Two weeks from now we will be back with another podcast. We will be doing, we will be reviewing blood sacrifice, the thometergy companion. So for all of you, trimir and you thom heads out there, that's probably going to be a long one. And companion books tend to be a bit long. So it has to mean they believe in hammering home. Those books were made to explain and dispel a lot of myths that people are hanging hands on to understand where it comes from. They have to be long. Right. So how many podcasts do we have left? You're asking yourself to know on, um, for vampire, the masquerade, we've got to probably about a good 30. So just so everybody's aware, we're probably going to still be doing vampire books through the end of the year. However, um, with the changes coming to the utility muffin labs, um, we may have more time, we may have more podcasts coming. Um, so definitely stick with us. We're going to be experiencing hopefully a great deal of growth in the next couple of months as things change as our lives evolve. And we just become more amazing at what we do. I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about. So you do. I feel that we're writing the same wave and don't and don't doubt yourself. I don't doubt myself for a moment. Good. Not at all. Ever. I never have doubted myself for a moment. Constant. Constant doubt. Right. Thank you guys for listening. We hope you enjoyed the podcast. Until next week, I'm Nathan. And I'm Bob. Actually, until two weeks, I'm Nathan. And I'm still Bob. Hey folks, this is Nathan from 25 years of vampire, the masquerade. If you'd like to help support our podcast, there's a few ways you can go about doing so. First, you can get some cool rewards by supporting us at patreon.com/25yearsofvampire.com Check out our website at UtilityMuffinLabs.com. We now have a shop where you can get your very own UtilityMuffinLabs sticker. Or pick up a cool shirt from our tea public shop. That's teapublic.com/utilitymuffinlabs. If you want to send us comments or you are a content creator who'd like to be on one of our podcasts, send us an email to [email protected]. Finally, you can send me actual physical letters to PO Box 30332 Indianapolis, Indiana 46230. We will be at Jencom this August as well, so keep listening for more details as they become available. Thank you for supporting UtilityMuffinLabs.com. We are Consistently rated adequate.