Gargoyles

The Gargoyles are the youngest of the Clans, their existence going back only to the dark ages and only having status as a full Clan since the Anarch Revolt. Gargoyles were originally the creation of another Clan of vampires, a Clan of blood sorcerers who kept their magical arts as a great secret and huddled in secluded castles to perfect their art. This Clan of warlocks had few members but aggressive and ambitious. They pursued power over mortals and vampires alike, so to fight their wars for them they created the Gargoyles - a bloodline of loyal slaves to protect the keeps and wizards' towers of the warlock Clan. The Gargoyles proved to be powerful warriors, though they were treated as chattel and their lives were thrown away in great numbers in conflicts that they did not start or understand. They were designed to serve and were also blood bound to the eldest warlocks of the Clan. With the Anarch Revolt and shattering of the blood bond, the Gargoyles rose up against their sorcerer masters, which they now outnumbered by a significant margin, and slew them. Many of the Gargoyles drank the life force of their former masters, gaining the strength of their blood. The ancient of the warlock Clan was eventually slain and his essence consumed by one his own Gargoyle bodyguards, the warlock Clan was replaced by the Gargoyles. To this day, the Gargoyles serve the Sabbat faithfully and abhor slavery and tyranny. Because of their inhuman appearance and general lack of social skills or powers, they must frequently depend on the help of other vampires within the Sabbat in procuring food or hiding their existence from mortals. This is made up for by the fact that Gargoyles are such terrifying warriors and serve as front line fighters against the Camarilla in virtually every battle with them.

Nickname: Slaves (considered derogatory), grotesques, or often merely Gargoyles.

Disciplines: Potence, Fortitude, Flight, Visceratika

Weakness: Gargolyes are hideous and obviously inhuman. They suffer a +2 difficulty to all social rolls, aside from inspiring fear, unless they are disguised somehow. Their appearance is so obviously inhuman that anyone who sees them will immediately know that they aren't human. Additionally, because Gargoyles were created to be slaves, they have an innate weakness to mind or emotional control. Their Willpower counts as two points lower than it actually is for the purposes of resisting supernatural mental influence. Additionally, they can be Dominated even if they are of a lower generation than the dominator.

Advantage: Gargoyles get the extra Discipline of Flight which they start with one free dot in, plus they all have claws (or horns, wing barbs, a spiked tail, etc.) that cause Strength+1 lethal damage when used to attack and reduce climbing difficulties by 2.

Appearance: Gargoyles look like their namesake. They grow larger and more menacing, with their skin becoming gray and scaly or stone like while their hands develop into claws and their faces become more feral and ferocious. There is a great deal of variation between gargoyles, some grow horns, others have stoney spikes or protrusions, most are bald but some have hair or even tufts of fur. Additionally, they all have large bat-like wings which grow in size as they develop their Discipline of Flight. They usually don’t put much effort into clothing, wearing what they were embraced in even if they have become rags, what ever is most practical, or perhaps nothing at all. Many Gargoyles have the ability to assume their mortal form temporarily, in which case they will usually need to acquire new clothing to fit their goals while in human form.

Haven: Gargoyles usually seek out remote out of the way places where mortals are unlikely to discover them. They favor abandoned warehouses, caves, sewers, old factories, or other places where humans seldom visit. With their ability to fly, Gargoyles can get into locations that are difficult for mortals or other vampires to find. Alternatively, some Gargoyles will live with Children of Osiris or other Sabbat groups and serve as bodyguards.

Background: Gargoyles almost always select candidates for the embrace based on two criteria, the physical prowess of the human and the hardship that human has endured. Gargoyles believe that those who have been enslaved or persecuted, as the Clan itself was in its early days, become mentally stronger and more determined to fight oppression as a result. Also, as dedicated warriors of the Sabbat, they look for people of great physical strength and toughness as well. Since their rise to Clan status in the middle ages, the Gargoyles have selected their progeny from among those most downtrodden classes, slaves, oppressed minorities, conquered peoples, or the desperately poor. Unlike many other Clans, they do not spend a great deal of time trying to study or test the target of an embrace. They merely find a candidate which strongly fits the criteria of having been oppressed and who has great physical ability, though some more discerning or thoughtful Gargoyles also look for mortals who are loners or have few friends and family so that their disappearance won't be a problem. As many within the lower classes of society tend to have a poor education, that is reflected in Gargoyles as well. In many first world nations, Gargoyles have begun to select gang members as potential childer - people who have faced hardship on the bottom rung of society, who have experience fighting and combat, who understand the value of loyalty, and who won't be missed by most of humanity.

Organization: This Clan is very loose knit in its organization, depending mostly on the loyalty of their fellow gargoyles combined with the structure of the Sabbat. Usually groups of gargoyles will cling together under the wing of the strongest among their ranks, often but not always the sire of the others. Gargoyles feel a stronger bond with each other than with members of other Clans so even within a common Circle, the Gargoyle members might form their own little clique and spend most of their time with each other. There is no greater organization than these small groups aside from the general respect given to elders of the Clan, especially those who survived the Anarch Revolts. Some groups of gargoyles form their own Circles exclusively for their own Clan, where other vampires are not allowed to join. This causes some irritation within certain segments of the Sabbat who oppose Clan loyalty as being overly divisive, especially among Panders who form a large segment of the Sabbat. Despite eschewing strict organization, the Gargoyles are fiercely loyal to each other as a Clan on an almost instinctive level. They will seldom fail to come to the side of another Gargoyle against a vampire of any other Clan, regardless of the nature of the dispute.

Stereotypes

Ahrimanes: They think they are meant to rule, I think that they are meant to die.
Baali: Vile manipulators and liars. Never trust them, never listen to their honeyed words, destroy them when ever you find them 
Blood Brothers: Brave and noble warriors, should we clash they will prove to be fierce opponents.
Children of Osiris: Their service to us will never be forgotten, but we must not allow their weakness to make of hesitate in destroying our mutual enemies.    
Kiasyd: Withered husks who should have been destroyed centuries ago.
Laibon: They mind their own business and have never troubled us, if they continue in this way we shall not cross them. 
Lamia: Snobbish bitches who hold all others in contempt. Fierce warriors, show no mercy and no quarter.    
Lhiannan: I long for the time when we shall drain their blood, smash their alters, and make their mortal pawns watch as they burn.
Nagaraja: Cowards that hide in the shadows and prey upon the weak. We will make them suffer from their evil ways. 
Salubri: Cowards who hide behind their betters and spout nonsense. Crush them in your talons.
Samedi: Even more frightening and removed from humanity than us. Beware their dark arts, for the restless dead are frightening foes.
Sybarites: Pathetic weaklings who are barely warrant the effort to destroy. They have neither the courage nor inclination to bother us.  
Caitiff: They are our brothers in persecution, if only they would strive to fight against their oppressors as we have. 
Camarilla: The dark lords of the night shall be dragged from their castles and put to the torch. 
Sabbat: A flawed body who has lost its purpose. We should direct them against the true enemy, the elders of the hated Camarilla.
Anarchs: The worst kind of cravens, those who see evil and dare not rise against it.

Gargoyle