On the subject of Toreador: A lot of people really don’t get this clan. They think of them just artsy fartsy, high falutin’ types with no real depth or potential as vampires – let alone characters. They envision some comic parody of Andy Warhol at best or a mannequin of poor RP at worst. I’ve run Toreador as my favorite bloodline since ’94. I can tell you that they have the potential to be one of the creepiest clans, but it’s in how you read between the lines. Namely, the obsession with beauty. A lot of players think they just stand around looking at pictures. The entrancement can be more sinister than that. Imagine bringing a neonate to Elysium and the Toreador think she’s pretty. Staring is boring. Have the Toreador crowd her. Grope her. Lick her. Smell her hair. Run their hands over her skin, all of it with a hungry, insensitive look in their eyes. They don’t give a dry shit if it’s invasive. They can’t help themselves and they wouldn’t try to if they could. Tactile rape by vampires of such status and power that neonate doesn’t dare resist. Or a prize ghoul? Suppose a Toreador keys in on her the same way and makes owning the ghoul – or killing him or her out of spite – a major obsession because they are so preoccupied with that ghoul’s looks. Or voice, or hair. It doesn’t even have to be a major thing, just something the vampire wants to be around. Ghouls have it bad enough already without that. Picture a Toreador lurking a suburban neighborhood, staring inside windows at pretty tableaus of family, framed by the windows he passes. He stares obsessively until he gets particularly hungry; perhaps he’ll summon the 14 year old girl into the alley behind the house for a quick nibble. Oops, killed her! Thank Caine for that dumpster…though, she seems so pretty, lifeless. Just take her back to the haven and stare at her, caress her until the skin starts to go bad. Then pitch her down a manhole. What about a Toreador who learns to love the splatter of blood, who makes violent bloodletting – even outright serial killing to revel in it – part of his or her practice? Or a Toreador who loves the sound of screaming, so she tortures people to get them to the right pitch? No need to be Sabbat. Just be a Toreador with a fetish. There’s a Torie in my story, an elder vampire gal, who was so smitten by Gainsborough’s Blue Boy portrait that she found young boys of that age range impossibly beautiful, so she ghouled several. She’s attended by a pack of those boys, each the Gainsborough ideal, who fawn over her every wish (and she theirs, within her tolerance). Factor in the rivalry ghouls may feel for each other for their master’s favor, and the vampire’s delight at such violent games for her affection, and shit goes south quickly. That’s the thing about Toreador. They’re not simple. They’re not shallow. They CAN be, but you can portray them as something particularly creepy. Use the clan weakness to show the dark side of obsession, especially refracted against a dwindling humanity. Obsession without a moral compass or grounding within normal strictures of reason. Toreador can be the creepiest stalkers you’ve ever seen, and the most violently possessive, the most invasive in their admiration. Never overlook the Toreador as something as a vessel for horror, because believe me, it’s there. It’s all in the spin.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 16:06:57 +0000
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