Before the Flood:Sangiovanni Bloodline

“The Ancestors are very disappointed with your progress, so much so they’re threatening your Final Death so that they can take up the matter with you personally. I’ve settled them down for now, but la Famiglia needs the matter handled quickly. Raise some dead and clear out the docks immediately so father can buy up the property already.”

The Sangiovanni are an old family dating back to Renaissance Venice, but their dark necromantic practices stretch back even further. Calling this clan close-knit is an understatement since they are in constant contact with their deceased forbearers, the ones who actually got to die a mortal death, and their still living brethren that have been so twisted by incest, Vitae ingestion and black arts that little differentiates them from their Kindred relatives.

As a large, hoary and ridiculously wealthy family, the Sangiovanni have their fangs securely fastened in a lot of enterprises legitimate and illegal, attained through the most expedient means with the only concern ever being to keep it in the family and do no harm to the family. Of course such attitude never plays well with the rest of the Night Society so they do their best, if rather unsuccessfully, to maintain at least civility.

Background: Lodovico Sangiovanni was the founder of the Bloodline. As a mortal he used the black arts taught to him by his mother to achieve great success, a gift he repaid by putting a dagger through her heart. At the end of his living days he caught the attention of his Sire when Lodovico sacrificed his daughter in an attempt to achieve immortality. Lodovico gained what he had sought then through another means but never saw his Sire after that again. As it is the Sangiovanni Bloodline and their perverse ways are somewhat of an embarrassment to the Mekhet Clan as a whole, but it hasn’t stopped the Bloodline from surviving to the modern era.

The Becoming: The Sangiovanni are always chosen for Embrace from within their family ranks, with any exceptions considered a cardinal sin to be summarily destroyed once discovered and the offending sire punished harshly. Also considered off limits are the naturally occurring Ghouls in the family. All candidates for Embrace are chosen from the most favored of created Ghouls, and only the matriarch or patriarch, living, unliving or dead of a given family branch, may decide who a Sire can be regardless of a Sire’s personal interests on the matter. Lastly, the most favored to be Ghouls, and by extension future Kindred, are always Single-Blood, meaning Sangiovanni family members who are the product of incest, and only those not carrying detrimental traits.

Besides those requirements, Sangiovanni are selected from the brightest or most social of family members. Often such a family member begins training early in a vocation in which that particular branch of the family sees necessary for future success. Scholarly pursuits are recommended, followed by any skills that help foster connections with their many contacts in business, crime or occult society. Rarely are physical aptitudes rewarded but it has happened, especially when a family branch is beset by enemies.

In the Danse Macabre: The Sangiovanni tend to stray on the periphery of Kindred society. Their degenerate practices and clannish mindset rankles many of the other Kindred which makes it difficult for any individual Sangiovanni to establish positions of prestige within any Covenant. However, they see no value in being unaligned so participation in a Covenant is a must. Due to old tradition the majority of familial branches are members of the Lancea et Sanctum, mostly paying their beliefs lip service while continuing to follow their own dark arts.

Nickname: Necromancers

Bloodline Gift: Dead Reckoning

The Sangiovanni are so attuned to the death they study and play with that they can intuitively sense the presence of corpses. It is through a combination of scent and supernatural perception that the Sangiovanni work. The Sangiovanni automatically detect any corpse within ten yards per point of Blood Potency. Doomed is the creature that would attempt to hide a dead body from the Necromancers.

In addition to this, the Sangiovanni can feel the presence of ghosts as though they had the Unseen Sense: Ghosts merit (God Machine, pg. 175).

Bloodline Bane: Taint of the Dead

The Sangiovanni carry in them the taint of death. On the outside, they may appear pristine and beautiful and fully human. On the inside, the touch of the grave clings to them. The living can feel this, an intangible sensation of wrongness, that repels them. All Sangiovanni are treated as having a Humanity score 2 lower when it comes to relating to humans.

In addition to this, the Sangiovanni have a particular love for the dead. A love that crosses clearly into the lines of obsession. Whenever a Sangiovanni is confronted with a corpse for the first time, they must roll Resolve + Composure, with a bonus equal to the bonus granted to their detachment rolls. On a failure, the Necromancer gains the Obsession Condition, with a focus on the corpse in question. What the Necromancer desires from the corpse varies from kindred to kindred. For some, they wish to study it, to touch it, to taste it, and at times, something wholly more depraved. But whatever the desire, the Sangiovanni will attempt to pursue it, and all other actions will suffer. Resolve this condition when the Sangiovanni has satisfied their desire.

Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Obfuscate, Vigor

Devotions: Sangiovanni have access to a number of Devotions that they refer to as 'Cattiveria'.