Protean

Disciplines / Discipline Techniques

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

- From "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats

Introduction to Protean

While other Cainites huddled in caves and villages with mortal populations, the Gangrel stomped about for thousands of years conquering the world as they knew it. They adopted mortal tribes and migrated with the herd and harvest, following their human prey from grassland to grassland. Gangrel nomads benefited from their own Discipline of Protean, a secret of the Blood that meant that they did not have to keep within half-a-night's run from the shelter of a hut or cave. For millennia, the Gangrel kept this Discipline secret and private so that members of no other clan could learn it. Gangrel legends say that the other clans believed them to be gods of the steppe, immune to the sun's scorching rays.

In these nights, the secret of Protean is no longer entirely the property of the Gangrel. Other clans have unearthed the Discipline's secrets and passed them from sire to childe, but no bloodline has the flair for it that the Gangrel do. Protean allows a Cainite to change his body's for to aid in his nightly hunting, and in escaping his enemies (both physical and spiritual). The ability is a reflection of God's curse on vampires because it peels away the layer of protection and civility provided by a vampire's human shape. It displays the Beast in the vampire using it and keeps him from denying it and hiding from it.

As a character's shape changes, the use of certain Disciplines may become impossible. A Cainite in mist form cannot use Dominate, as it depends on eye contact, for instance. While general guidelines are provided, the final decisions in these matters rest with the Storyteller.