When you apply to join Avernus and fill out the character creation form it is important to know what latitude you have in its creation. In addition to the character creation parameters below, we strongly recommend that you make yourself very familiar with the Sabbat genre as slight misteps in protocol in the Sabbat setting can be fatal. Choose wisely and buy a few 'ettiquette' abilities if you think you may have problems and will need a few "get out of jail free" cards socially. Character generation is based on Laws of the Night, Revised, and if done well, will aid in gaining your Invitation. We recommend applicants submit a thorough character history and haven description. As you will see below, this can benefit your character tangibly.

Rare and Unusual:
Some character groups and various Merits, Abilities, Backgrounds and Paths of Enlightenment are considered "rare or Unusual" and as a result may be restricted from play or require an approval. To see a full list of these classifications check our Rare and Unusual Page.

Clans
Standard Sabbat Clans are accepted. The following are Restricted Clans , meaning they we are no longer accepting characters of these clans (because they are not permitted in this chronicle as PCs or because the available slots have already been filled): Koldun Tzimise, Harbingers, Furies, Ravnos Antitribu, Tremere Antitribu, Ahrimaine, Daughters of Cacophony or Kiasyd, Gargoyle Antitribu and Blood Brothers. No PC may play a revenant or ghoul; this is for vampires only. Further, the Sabbat is composed of 60% Clans Major (Tzimise and Lasombra). Should registrants file for an excess of Antitribu such that it would skew this distribution, the Antitribu numbers will be capped. Notice will appear here, if and when that eventuality arises.

Clan Advantages and Disadvantages
You need not add the Advantage and Disadvantage to the character creation form when submitting, unless you have a preference from among choices offered. If you do make a selection, please note it on the creation form. If we do not see a note regarding a selection, it will be added for you at the time of Approval.

Age
The majority of Sabbat members do not survive over 5 years due to their practice embracing 'shovelheads' for crusades from which they are inadequately trained and never expected to survive. It is a sect predominantly made up of Neonates both in generation and age. Additionally the sect is a young one by Camarilla standards. It's birth was in the signing of the Convention of Thorns on October 23, 1493 when the enraged members of Clan Assamite and the unsurrendering Anarchs laid waste to the town of Thorns, committing themselves to the cause known as the Sabbat. However the movement did not flourish until the discovery and population of the New World which they saw as a new empire for the taking. Shortly thereafter the Lasombra and Tzimisce ended up warring against one another over the quickly depleting resourses in this underdeveloped land. In 1803 this civil war was ended with the help of the Black Hand and The Purchase Pact (1803) was drafted which enforced sect unity. In 1933 the Code of Milan was signed which created the closest thing to a body of law that they would endure and structured the Sabbat, hoping to unify them further against the ever increasing encroachment of the Camarilla and Independent forces against their holdings. Please remember these facts when creating your character. Additionally, prior to 1600, anyone of a higher generation than 10th was considered a thin blood. Thus if you are selecting to be older, you must have a minimum of 10th Generation which is a gamble in the Generation Lottery. Also, if you plan to be embraced prior to the formation of the Sabbat but lie in torpor to explain your low level of development, know that any chance you might have of arising from Torpor and finding you way safely into the ranks of the sect are very very slim. Write that background well. It is a young sect.

Merits and Flaws
Our Merits and Flaws list is extensive, but it is safest not to try for a Merit or Flaw that is outside of your Clan Book or the genre. We will however review all requests. Some combinations will not be permitted, especially those which stack additions to trait limits.

Generation
When creating your character, following Laws of the Night, Revised with a maximum cap of 10th unless spending XP for Ancillae or Elder schedules which can be found in the right hand panel of our Online Character Creation form. Generation costs one freebie per generation lowered from 13th. If you wish to submit a Thin Blood character, we recommend you read the Thin Blood documentation first and possibly contact your Storyteller for other inquiries.

Freebies & Extras
Refresher: at creation, a character recieves 5 freebies in addition to all of the other goodies they select per Laws of the Night Revised. She also recieves, one-for-one if you choose to select these:

• 1 additional freebie for each Negative Trait taken (maximum of 5)
• 1 each per Flaw point (maximum 7)
• 2 freebies for dropping one humanity/path point
• 2 freebies for taking a Derangement.

Addendum: If you use the Generation Lottery, you have those points that would've gone toward Generation to distribute elsewhere. Additionally, the Director will add some goodies to your character based on your lottery generation and your submitted background story to round out the world as would be appropriate, especially in the areas of Lores, Abilities and power levels. So, writing an effective character history is strongly recommended to recieve these extra benefits, as well as to recieve your Invitation.

Morality
While it is true that the Sabbat embrace the Paths of Enlightenment, it is also true that 90% of Sabbat vampires do not survive past their 5th year as vampirese due to an alarmingly high attrition rate. The lifestyle is brutal and short. As a result, the vast majority of Sabbat vampires have not lived long enough to lose their Humanity and get onto a Path.

Humanity is governed by the Virtues of Self-Control and Conscience. Paths may be governed instead by Instinct or Conviction, respectively, or mixed permutations such as Self-Control and Conviction or Instinct and Conscience. Normally, when selecting Virtue points on Humanity, the character recieves a free base point in each category. However for those on a Path, they lose that free point for each category which differs from Self-Control and Conscience. In Avernus, you do not reveive any free points in either of these two categories (you still get Courage) to represent how severely a character must be torn down to get off Humanity and what a hard road it can to rise bak up once the vampire is on one. If you choose a Path, learn what governs it and your Heirarchy of Sins.

Status
All characters are assumed to have the status Initiated inaddition to your selected free status which should go toward a Proven unless taking the Flaw: Prbationary Sect Member, in which case, it is forfeit. Additionally, you may spend freebies on appropriate other sect and clan status. Be sure to account for this in your character history.

Vampire Biology 101:
Avernus has made some adjustments and clarifications in the area of vampiric biology that have proven useful in playtesting.

Becoming a Caitiff and Thin Bloodedness:
Per Time of Thin Blood, vampire physiology is a facet of a spiritual transmission between sire and the corpse that will become its childe, not one in the blood such as a physical element. What a childe becomes is part of his sires "heredity" as well as the very nature of the Beast which vampirism imparts. There is nothing isolatable in vampire blood either physically or energy-wise that is detectable via modern science. This text indicates that caitiffs seem to be caused by one of 3 things:

1. Contaminated (group) embracement
   
2. Lack of training during the first formative weeks by the sire or wholesale abandonment by said sire.
   
3. A thinning of the blood, such that the sire's vitae was too weak to even fully pass on his heredity - the sign of Gehenna.

Though awakening ravenous, feeling the first touch of the Beast, this text further alludes to a formative period (2-3 weeks) after the embrace in which a physical "refinement" occurs, eliminating the imperfections of the corpse, and in the case of the Nosferatu, it is an excruciating period in which the deformity sets in and cements. During this period they should be "taught" the disciplines and ways of the clan. We have extrapolated that they are just beginning to develop and that through exposure to their sire and the acquiring of their first disciplines, it cements their clan into their spiritual essence. It does indicate that the spiritual heredity of the clan produces some predisposition but that the first 3 disciplines learned are the disciplines that will be their in-clans from then forward. Thus, sires race to teach the rudiments of the clan's speciation to their offspring. If the fledgeling is taught no disciplines he will naturally develop
Fortitude, Presence and Potence (the ghoul disciplines) or these and a misture of of their heredity disciplines. Thus the abandones or improperly made childe of a Toreador may have Potence, Auspex and Presence. This is what they revert to if left to their own devices, otherwise they will learn the first 3 they are taught, much as the Tremere learn the first Thaumaturgy they are taught and it becomes their "in-clan" or "primary path" which takes no tutelege after the rudiments of Thauaturgy are learned.

White Wolf uses a mutation metaphor to describe the speciation of the blood into Clans and blood lines, indicating that it may have something to do with the sorts of mortals selected dominantly by these groups, as well as stating that both Clans and Generations do not have any referenced appearance until the Antideluvian 3rd Generation and later. Time of Thin Blood is recommended reading. The text does indicate that Clan Curses seem to stick with the Caitiff childe of direct siring, but not in all cases. Thus, it refers to a certain mutational nature of the vampiric creature in the WoD, wherein a member of one clan may have the curse of another in saddition to its own.

As a result of all of these factors, all starting Avernus characters must have at least one level of each in-clan as their first disciplines or the first three they learn will be their new in-clans and they will be Caitiff. You may purchase other disciplines after one of each is bought. Further, during this formative 2-3 week period, if the new childe is Diablerized, it will yield no benefit and shall not ghoul nor be able to Embrace.

Gettin' High:
Avernus allows vampire characters to take drugs and drink alcohol directly. Provided the liquor is primarily fluid there should not be much trouble in keeping it down or passing it through. The higher the particulate matter, ice content (remember: ice headaches are hell, and don't go away very quickly because of the lowered body temperature) or water, the more difficult it will be to pass it normally and discreetly later on, but instead the vampire may vomit it up suddenly and, perhaps, unexpectedly. If the water content is very high and the character is for example pounding a 12-pac of beer, he may find himself peeing his pants, unable to contain the unabsorbable fluid and unaccustomed to worrying about bladder control with atrophied plumbing.

Still, the alcohol ingested into the system will effect the vampire's senses as if they were mortal. For each step of Drunkenness on a scale of 1-7, the character will take cumulative negative traits, i.e., clumsy, oblivious, obnoxious, as assigned by the presiding Storyteller. He will not lose consciousness though it may effect his memory. You may wish to take this into account if your character suffers an "addiction" flaw. If your character has an addiction to a mind-altering substance, you will be expected to take on the negative traits assigned for it during any given session and duration so be sure to notify the staff.

Gettin' Laid
Vampire sexuality versus sensuality has been a much convoluted subject and when tangled in the definition of what is "human behavior" (something Sabbat members tend to abhor), it gets even muddier. The fact is that a WoD vampire, regardless of sect, cannot reproduce sexually and does not have physical urges for sex though he may still have vestigial psychological ones. According to the source material, a vampire's drives are replaced by the need for Blood. The Beast is focused on it for food as well as dominance, a critical survival mechanism in its savage nature, which manifests itself in the pack tendencies in Wights.

The Beast is equally pleasured by receiving blood to sate its hunger as it is enraged to be forced to drink vampiric vitae that binds it. Either wayit is just drinking blood but with two very different reactions. Thus, the pleasure principal is more difficult to understand in Undead Biology because of its fickle nature and tie to this primiative psyche. However, vampires, especially Sabbat ones, are awakened into a world of sensation and freedom that is often expressed in the debauchery and depravity of one who lives without societal limits. They express their break with human kind by throwing off moral constraints. Further, while they no longer seek coitus per se, vampires still possess the same need for intimacy, comfort and enjoy sensual contact which, in conjunction with blood exchange could constitute "vampiric sex," producing the same bonds of love, jealousy, hate, desire and the same overall experience as a full body orgasm. So while Sabbat vampires would probably avoid having sex in the traditional sense, they are still capalbe of all the human emotional foibles associated with it. They are even more seceptible because they are not reigned in by the convenience of traditional morality and experience the world so intensely and savagely. The Avernus environment attempts to reflect the intensity of this highly charged emotional nature to its fullest.