Status Updates From Ancient Bloodlines

Wooooow the Ahl al-Jabal section is just as racist as I feared. A small sample: "Some might expect that the monsters have won the Middle East, that the people of the region are too busy fighting one another or plotting terrorist strikes to organize themselves against the monsters of the night."

dry. so dry.

Some parts read more smoothly than others. Sadly I glazed over the extremely in-depth Bloodlines of the Age of Treachery, but everything else has held my attention well. And GUH Kindred Vodoun is super fascinating.

While the last entry on the partially real and partially "fake" ancient egyptian vampire book ("fake" because an anicent vampire wrote parts of it in the 19th century) is interesting but the whole loosing memory because of a curse thing seems a tad too obvious not to be widely known. Sure it can be cure by e.g. further studying the book but how many would there be driven enough to go this far?

As interesting as the story of the Bak-Ra and their status as fallen kings who lost their memory is, I wonder why we never get told about the many other families.

These Usiri vampires and their Hypnagogia power of stealing and manipulating memories are also interesting. However just like among the En the vampires were all whiter than white, here they seem to overdo it as one of the two egyptians is rather looking like statue instead of bronze.

While you can argue why these Edimmu are in this book to begin with at least they are connected to the two bloodlines. Plus they look interesting. Each is basically 7 spirits in one vampire body and by reshaping and reorganizing skin and flesh can harden their bodies, make them stronger or stretch them or make weapons out of their muscles. A muscle whip must look pretty disgusting.

The bloodline of the En that have a symbiotic relationship with the demonic Alu sounds interesting, albeit you could argue whether they are truly a bloodline in every sense, but considered what the gifts of the Alu allow the En to do (e.g. staving of torpor and thereby not losing power and memory when they are smart) you have to wonder why these En do not lod over all other vampires.

While the Mérges Sorcery at first sounded very similar to the poisonous discipline of a bloodline from World War I but its effect are more widespread. The poison of this sorcery doesn't just cause death, but also torture, craziness, being gullible, can be used to cleanse somethinge of poison, induce rage or master it (makes sense considered that these vampires turn their own rage into poison) and invoke vices.

To master Mérges Sorcery, an Iltani must never let go of his hatred. Instead, he must fuel it, control it, and transform it through his Beast... To an Iltani, anger is fuel, but because he never ceases to carry corrosive emotions within himself, his own hatred slowly begins to eat away at his Humanity.

About Babylon ruled from the shadows by the Damned...In those nights, demons and desert whispered their secrets to Kindred, and they were host to many strange powers.

Despite having said already that these hunters do not kill indescriminately but with precision so not to harm bystanders they apparently had to say that none of them has ever become a suicide bomber...
And I still wonder why they are in here when they have no connection to the two bloodlines.
PS. "Satan" is the christian name, for Islam it would be "Iblis" or "Shaitan."

Even were one of these holy killers to develop such skills, her fellows would almost certainly destroy her as one of the enemy.
"Her?" The members of this organization of hunters are drawn from the lands where Islam is strong so I have my doubts that it has many women among them. So why is "her" in here? Is that common in english to refer to the feminine when something is unspecific?

An American soldier moves to help a fallen Iraqi citizen only to be hit in the back of the head with a brick by another (a man who is riddled with bullets moments after by the Marine’s squad mate).
Why does that scenario of the American being the hero not surprise me?

After the Mystikoi and the Order of Sir Martin (or Leper knights) there seems to be another order but apparently not a bloodline called Ahl al-Jabal, the martyrs. Looks like anothe rreligious organization like the Sakadagami of Thailand.

While the Spiritus Sanctus power of drawing out the Beast and at the highest level infusing it into your flesh is really interesting. The abilities they have at level 5 are contradictory. They say that the vampire gains physical changes like grey or chitin hide or animal features etc. So how on earth would you have the striking looks merit? The rest work but not this.

The vicious behavior among spirits observed by elders of the line serves as part of the reason that so many consider their Beast a divine guide.
That makes a lot of sense. In the game line spirits are highly self-centered and focused on survival. No wonder these vampires would then see their inner Beast as divine, many spirits are a lot worse.

Mystikoi devote themselves to understanding the universe, both in its base physical and higher spiritual aspects, and reshaping their own forms in what they believe to be God’s image. Unfortunately, their primary guide in this endeavor is their Beast.
That sounds interesting.

While this entry on the buddhist sect of vampires is interesting, especially considered how violent they can be, the story hooks once again remind me how USA centric these books are, so far all where a place was named that was not in the country of origin of the non-US bloodlines it was always a USA place.

This buddhist way of vampiric enlightenment and salvation is interesting and truly similar to the covenant Ordo Dracul. Both have the desire to overcome the vampiric condition. The buddhist way basically has the ground of saying that you are a vampire, accept it and learn to be good as a vampire. Both ways e.g. allow even an elder vampire to feed on animals just like a neonate would.

Bhumisparsa has an inherent limitation. During any night when the Mayarap has gained sustenance from an unwilling vessel, Bhumisparsa refuses to function.
That is an interesting concept.

While the concept of these Kinnaree vampires is ok, I wonder why this section has three story hooks (all involving the USA of course) for storytelling. Actually it is really inconsistent here which chapters have them and which not.

Considered that no form of boxing was ever mentioned so far in this book I can only assume that the insertion of the Muay Thai fighting style box (for game mechanics) is there because this is a Thai bloodline.
Also while the skin tone fits, the drawing of the faces does not actually spell "Thai" to me. These poeople could be from anywhere.

Ok, that little part with the trio of two vampires and one ghoul and the ensuing conflict (one killed the sire of another without knowing, the other doesn't know and one does know everything) was interesting, even if a bit stereotypical that it was again in the USA, but once again I have to ask why this is here.

While the Nburu power of of melding with and influencing plants and influencing insects is interesting, the very first step called "Silent Passage" that allows you to move completely unheard on natural surfaces, does not really fit if you ask me. I mean where is the connection from walking unheard (level 1) to destroy swaths of smaller plants, kill trees and insects, or even render tools useless (level 2)?

their utter contempt for humanity’s decision to abandon them for Christianity
Why always christianity in this chapter? Even when you make the argument that they only talk about subsaharan Africa, but even there there are still native religions. So shouldn't they still have found some niches according to their traditional ways?

Attempting to enslave new villages, manipulate other Kindred, and reestablish their divine place over mortals rarely met with success.
Rreally? Why not. Polytheism is still pretty prevalant. I mean its good that not just the younger Adroanzi but older ones as well left Africa but you would think they would be doing good somewhere.

They were known to take on widely different forms, and most of their appearances did not resemble the typical dark-skinned native African.
You point being? Many gods have downright alien colors and appearances. So is this supposed to imply something?

The Linagem power's effect of making use and influencing blood ties between vampires is a useful and interesting technique, but considered that these vampires are called Telepaths, that is not a power I was expecting.

As interesting as the telepathic Corajoso bloodline is, they did bring one thing to mind: Bloodlines that spread across the globe in these books, especially in terms of direct exploration/conquest, are almost entirely European. Sure some non-European ones that are not old have spread, but none older than 300 years. And that is pretty odd if you ask me, especially considered the history of Asia and North Africa.