Toreador

**Parent Clan**: Daeva

**Disciplines**: Celerity, *Dominate*, *Majesty*, Vigor

## **Bloodline Weakness: The Aesthete**

When
a Toreador is exposed to a work of art in a particular style (chosen at character creation), he becomes intensely fascinated with
it and is unable to divert his attention. He takes the “Distracted” Condition for the rest of the scene.

## **Bloodline Gift: Good Taste**

All Toreador are obsessed with art, and gain the Taste merit for free.

Your character has refined tastes and can identify
minor details in fashion, food, architecture, and other forms of
artistry and craftsmanship. She can appraise items within her area of expertise. With a Wits + Skill roll, depending on the creation in question (Expression for
poetry, Crafts for architecture, for example), your character can
pick out obscure details about the item that other, less discerning
minds would not. For each success, ask one of the following questions, or take a +1 bonus to any Social rolls pertaining to groups
interested in the art assessed for the remainder of the scene.
* What is the hidden meaning in this?
* What was the creator feeling during its creation?
* What’s its weakest point?
* What other witness is most moved by this piece?
* How should one best appreciate this piece?

## **Devotion: Virtuosite**

### **Muse**

*Majesty • 1 XP*

**Dice Pool**: Presence + Expression + Majesty

**Cost**: –

**Modifiers**: –

The Patrons inspire artistic creation. The target of this devotion gains the Condition: Inspired which must be used towards artistic endeavours. Additionally, they receive the Rote permutation for one roll to create art, so long as they possess a Specialty in whatever roll they are attempting.

### **Cutting Wit**

*Majesty • 1XP*

**Dice Pool**: Manipulation + Socialize + Majesty – target's Composure

**Cost**: –

**Modifiers**: Caster is Harpy (+2), target suffered a loss in Status in the past month (+2)

With an incisive witticism (or a “sick burn” as the kids call it), the Toreador belittles or disparages a target, causing all those within earshot to get a chance to choose a negative social Condition (ie. Prejudiced) as they start seeing the target in a harsher light. If you are one of those within earshot and you take a Condition, take a beat. The Condition lasts for a number of nights equal to the Toreador's dots in Majesty, or until resolved, whichever comes first.

### **Toro, Toro**

*Majesty •• 1XP*

**Dice Pool**: –

**Cost**: 1 Vitae

**Modifiers**: –

Inspired by their Bloodline founder's love of bullfighting, this simple Devotion increases the ability of the Toreador to remain safe from harm. Whenever Dodging the Toreador may spend one vitae to subtract their Majesty from the opponent's attack pool.

### **Pygmalion**

*Dominate ••••, Majesty ••• 3XP*

**Dice Pool**: Manipulation + Persuasion + Dominate vs. Composure + Blood Potency

**Cost**: 1 Willpower for activation, 1 Willpower for each subsequent change.

**Modifiers**: Blood Sympathy (+1 to +3), blood bond (+1 to +3)

Pygmalion carved a woman out of ivory, and then fell in love with it. Many Toreadors fancy themselves sculptors, carving and moulding mortals in accordance with their visions of perfection. These lucky souls will be uplifted and transformed—like Eliza Doolittle or Julia Robert's character in “Pretty Woman”—to become paragons of etiquette, able to move seamlessly in upper society. They become rising stars, the “darlings” of the fashion world, or the hottest avant-garde trendsetter in Berlin's club scene.

The target must be a mortal, ghoul, or a Kindred with a lower Blood Potency than the Toreador. With the first use of the devotion, the target gains the Condition: Protege, as follows:

Allows a user of the Toreador devotion “Pygmalion” to mould you to his heart's desire.
**Resolution**: Spend 1 Willpower to resolve this Condition.
**Beats**: Target makes a conscious decision to follow the Toreador or revert back to her old ways. n/a

For subsequent uses, the Toreador is able to enact permanent change on certain points of the target's sheet. For every Willpower point spent, the Toreador can change one Skill dot or two Merit dots.

**Skills**
The protege is able to gain dots in a Skill that their Patron possesses at a higher level. The skills are limited to Academics, Crafts, Politics, Athletics, Brawl, Firearms, Weaponry, Empathy, Expression, Intimidation, Persuasion, Socialize, Streetwise, Subterfuge. For every increase, the protege must “lose” a skill elsewhere. It is, in effect, a limited Respec.
The rule of “Sanctity of Merits” also applies to Skills.
**Merits**
The protege is able to gain Merits possessed by their Patron, with the exception of CG-only merits. Status Merits can also be gained this way, but are limited to: High Society and Counterculture (subject to availability), and Mystery Cult Initiations. For every increase, the protege must “lose” a skill elsewhere.
**Vice and Mask**
The protege is able to change their Vice or Mask. In mortals, the Patron may try to whittle away any flaws possessed by their Protege, leaving a void only for another Vice to take its place. If the protege is a neonate, the Patron may attempt to groom her for place in society by giving her a different Mask, ie. “Rebel” to “Courtesan”.
**Example of the devotion in play**
Eliza is taken under the wing of charming man-about-town Henry. She gains a dot in Socialize after some intense etiquette lessons, but loses a dot in Streetwise as she no longer fits in with her working class friends. Eliza had the Vice of “Envious” towards those of a higher social standing, but after Henry's corrections, she gains the Vice “Arrogant” instead, as she fancies herself better than others.
In cities with multiple Toreadors, the Patrons may even hold competitions to see who can produce the most stunning Protege. The changes are permanent unless the Protege spends Willpower to revert them (spending double the Willpower spent by the Toreador). The Protege has the chance to consciously resist changes and revert back to their old ways—but who would even want to?

### **Vanitas**

*Dominate •••••, Majesty ••••• 5XP*

**Dice pool**: Intelligence + Expression + Dominate

**Cost**: 1 Willpower

**Modifiers**: –

Dorian Gray, if he were Kindred, would be a Toreador, and it was said that the novel inspired the creation of this Devotion by an elder Toreador who wanted to sin without repercussions. This devotion allows the Patron to transfer Humanity losses towards a work of art. The work of art chosen must be singular and contain symbolic meaning to the Toreador (i.e. a self-portrait, a music box containing a requiem for the Patron written by Mozart). The work of art takes any Humanity losses for the Toreador as damage, becoming more warped and corrupted as a reflection of the character's soul.

If the artwork is a Touchstone, the Touchstone is lost. The artwork will have the same Durability as the character's dots in Dominate. When all of its Durability rating is exhausted, the artwork is destroyed and deals back Humanity losses to the character as aggravated damage. The character also loses two dots in Humanity (and any additional if diablerie has been committed) as he comes to terms with his monstrosity.

#### **Source**

Vampire: the Requiem p. 246-248. With reference to revisions by Blackjack@ShadowsOverReno and Is\_A\_Becca@RequiemforKingsmouth.