Category:Caitiff

From CNWiki

Caitiff: Originally meaning a captive, by extension a wretched miserable person. It often expresses contempt and means a despicable wretch or villain.

Caitiff, also called Clanless, are vampires who do not belong to any Clan. The term is traditionally used by the Camarilla; clanless Sabbat are known as Panders.

A Kindred can come to be clanless in two ways. Relatively rarely, a Kindred may be "banished" or thrown out of his Clan, or may elect of his own accord to leave them. In some cases there is ritual or formality involved, in other cases the change is mainly political, not supernatural. While Caitiff of this sort may, over centuries, come to lose their Clan Flaw or learn other disciplines, it is a gradual process when it occurs at all.

The second, and far more common cause of Caitiff, is through Embrace. In some cases the Sire abandons the Childe, or some quintessential essence is not transferred to cement the Clan's bloodline, or the Sire's blood is simply too weak or ineffectual to pass on the family line, but in any case, the result is the same: a "congenital" Caitiff, Embraced without the Sire's Clan's Disciplines or weaknesses. These Caitiff occasionally inherit the most common of their Sire's disciplines, but mainly learn a hodgepodge of whatever disciplines they can master. The lack of clan weakness particularly galls the Nosferatu, who otherwise might have been considered the Clan most friendly to society's rejects. Ventrue are largely considered to be the second-least likely Camarilla Clan to sire Caitiff (or to let them live, if it occurs): no Caitiff has ever emerged from a Tremere Chantry.

Caitiff are not often well received by fellow Kindred, either because of ancient apocalyptic superstition, fear of the unknown, or simple disgust at the abomination of blood; it all depends on individual perception, but is almost universally dim.