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Player Character
The childe of the city's Seneschal and her secretary.
- And the Adventure Continues: You can set yourself up to try to take over the city of Montreal after finishing the game, or to become a full Anarch and join in the rebellion.
- Badass Bureaucrat: You are little more than a glorified secretary and yet go on multiple black ops missions with the Sheriff. Though in several of these cases the Sheriff is using you to get dirt on your sire, or you sire is forcing you to tag along in the hopes that the mission offs you, but you can genuinely rise to the challenge.
- Bad Boss: You can be one of these to Gerard. Belittling and mocking him at every turn.
- Bastard Understudy: Can be this towards Corliss, either because you legitimately despise her or feel that taking her out is the only way to restore order in the Court. She twigs this and sets you up to be a scapegoat for her own actions.
- The Beautiful Elite: If you're a Toreador.
- Benevolent Boss: You can also be one of these to your butler, treating him more like family.
- Blue Blood: If you're Toreador or Ventrue.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: You have had your memories tampered with to believe Corliss is your sire when you are actually the childe of the blackmailer Grace Epting, who she murdered.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: You can betray absolutely everyone, including those who implicitly trust you. You even get an achievement for it.
- Co-Dragons: Can become this with Qui if you become the Scourge.
- The Dog Bites Back: Happens if a protagonist who despises Corliss for her harsh training of them turns against her during the course of the game. Arundel deliberately tried to invoke this type of behavior, by setting the Fake Memories implanted in the protagonist to break down if Corliss ever moved against him.
- Dramatic Irony: You can become the Scourge of the city despite never hurting anyone other than those humans you feed on.
- I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Should you so choose, you can hate Corliss and spend the entire game undermining her, even to the point of killing her or condemning to her a Fate Worse than Death at Arundel's hands.
- Klingon Promotion: You can personally kill Corliss in the final chapter. In certain endings Arundel then choses to have you fill the now vacant position of Seneschal.
- The Kingslayer: You can end up killing Arundel or Corliss.
- Manchurian Agent: Arundel has primed you to act against Corliss by implanting subconscious triggers in your mind. Interestingly, these triggers exert their effect by undoing already existing brainwashing in you to reveal to the truth about your Embrace. It's a Batman Gambit where he believes that discovering your real memories will convince you to aid him, although whether it works is up to you.
- Nice Guy: You can refuse to feed on unwilling victims and constantly argue for mercy.
- Not Brainwashed: You can insist that you chose to help Arundel of your own free will based on your newly recovered memories, not because you were made to. (Since you do have the option to choose otherwise—when you're actually being controlled, certain choices are grayed out—you would seem to be correct.)
- Odd Friendship: Whether romantic or not, the Player Character must frequently defend having Jordan as a relationship.
- Poor Communication Kills: Downplayed (as no one necessarily gets hurt, depending on your choices). If you're working with the Anarchs, it will slip your mind to tell them about Adeline—you've spent your entire life around people hooked into the Camarilla gossip network, so it doesn't occur to you that Robert and Sevinc don't hear any of that until you're in the middle of something important.
- Rank Up: You can get promoted to becoming the Scourge or the Seneschal of the city.
- Second Love: Both of your love interests are this for you, seeing as you had a first love while you were alive, who you're strongly implied to have killed right after your Embrace.
- You become Qui's if you romance him.
- Sibling Rivalry: Lucca already feels some degree of resentment towards you, due to Corliss's focus on you making her into The Unfavorite. If you're nice to her, you can subvert this trope and team up. If you're not, the rivalry may well turn violent. You can even diablerize her. (Interestingly, you have a third sibling, Nathaniel Harris, but he's not in Ottawa—or dead, if you're a Lasombra—and neither of you appear to have strong feelings about him either way.)
- Tomato in the Mirror: You're not Corliss' Childe at all, but rather the childe of a kindred who Corliss diablerized moments after your Embrace. Arundel deliberately planned for you to find out by ensuring that the Fake Memories he implanted to cover up the truth would break down if Corliss ever betrayed him, so that the shock of The Reveal would drive you to act against Corliss. Your true sire was rumored to be Sabbat—although no one who repeated those rumors ever lived long enough to prove it—and the What Stares Back DLC confirms it, which means you're probably antitribu. (Assuming you're not a Lasombra.)
Gerard
- Battle Butler: Will fight beside you if it becomes necessary.
- Multiple-Choice Past: He can be either a former accountant of Corliss's who saw something he shouldn't have when he stayed late at work, a member of a criminal syndicate that Arundel wiped out except for a few members who he gave to the Camarilla as retainers, or an experienced ghoul butler who was transferred to you as a sign of favor.
- Older Than They Look: Looks in his late middle age, but is actually much older than that. (Much older if you choose the butler background, because then he was born in the 1800s.)
- Servile Snarker: If you're kind to him, he feels more comfortable voicing his opinion and so sometimes slides into this.
- Uncertain Doom: In some endings, things don't look good for Gerard. Should you have to flee the city, you won't be able to bring him. This leaves him a) without his source of vitae, and b) in the Camarilla's bad books for his association with you, either or both of which will probably kill him in short order. But, as you have no way of knowing what's happening back in Ottawa in these endings, his exact fate isn't explained.
- Undying Loyalty: Due to a longtime blood bond, has this to you. (If you're kind to him, there are hints that it's genuine as well.)
- Unknown Rival: If you're a Nosferatu, he has this in the form of your rat famulus, who views Gerard as a bitter archnemesis due to his refusal to feed it cheese on demand, and despite your orders is apparently waging a covert war against him. Gerard has absolutely no idea he's the subject of a rodent's undying ire.
Your Companion
Supposedly the Malkavian player character's gift from Malkav. Your companion is invisible to everyone else, and gives you valuable insights and advice, but as the intrigue thickens it becomes clear they may not be entirely what both of you believe.
Spoilers have been marked, but the nature of the character means that even trope names may be considered minor spoilers. You have been warned.
Spoilers have been marked, but the nature of the character means that even trope names may be considered minor spoilers. You have been warned.
- Ax-Crazy: An option for their personality. If selected, they'll constantly goad you towards the most cruel and violent choices available. You can even separately choose to have them typically manifest in a welding mask and bloody butcher's apron.
- Deadpan Snarker: Another personality option. If selected, they'll have something sarcastic to say at pretty much every turn.
- Cryptic Conversation: As much as they groan about Ophelia doing this, they'll do it too, during your dreams.
- Good All Along: Zig-zagged throughout the game. Initially presented as your faithful companion, it slowly becomes clear that they're hiding something from you. Ophelia even flat-out tells you not to trust them. But they're not actually malicious: they were created to prevent you from accessing your memories, but they don't know what those memories consist of any more than the you do. They know that they're blocking you from something, but truly seem to believe they're doing it for your own good. When you find out otherwise, they're even prepared to let themselves be sacrificed in order to allow you to recover your memories.
- Grew Beyond Their Programming: They were created solely for the purpose of blocking certain of the player character's memories, but they've evolved into a fully-realized personality in their own right over the decades.
- Gut Punch: The revelation of your companion's true history. Quickly followed by the choice to either let them essentially die in order to recover your real memories, or to save them and lose any hope of ever remembering your past.
- Helpful Hallucination: They're usually on hand with helpful advice or insight. Though it's not necessarily the player character they were intended to help.
- Limited Wardrobe: Subverted. Alongside the choices to establish their sex and personality, you're given an option to determine the clothes they "always" manifest in. The very next scene, however, has them wearing something different. You then have the option of calling them out for unexpectedly changing up their routine, or telling them they're free to wear whatever they like.
- Not Afraid to Die: Or so they claim when you're faced with the choice of letting them be removed from your mind in order to recover your true memories and abilities. They're just putting on a brave face, though: if you're perceptive enough to notice that they're actually terrified, they complain that you're ruining their Heroic Sacrifice.
- Please Put Some Clothes On: At one point they manifest entirely naked, and when you groan this, they point out nobody else can see them.
- Psychic Block Defense: The Malkavian-specific ending reveals that they were designed to serve this purpose. They're not actually the natural result of the player character's Malkavian heritage: they're a defense mechanism forced into the player character's mind by Arundel to hide their memories of their real sire and actual powers.
- Talking to Themself: What you're doing when you to talk to them. They point out multiple times they're not actually a different person (usually to remind you that they can't give you information you don't already have some way of perceiving), just a manifestation of your subconscious. They're lying, sort of.
The Camarilla
Arundel
- Ambiguously Bi: It's not quite clear if he's bi or gay, but he's implied to have been in a relationship both with Robert and with Eden at various points in time, although his relationship with Robert seems to have had more genuine respect than the relationship he had with his "beloved" Eden.
- Blue Blood: Arundel is a Ventrue and thus of the highest Clan in the Camarilla.
- Crazy-Prepared: He left triggers to un-suppress your memories in the event that Corliss ever betrayed him, so that you would turn on her.
- The Good King: Had a reputation as a remarkably progressive and integrationalist Prince. He's notably only a good king to Kindred. Although, he makes sure the humans he is cruel to deserve it.
- In one of the endings he can become known for being one of the very few Camarilla Princes, if not the only one, to create a domain where both Anarchs and Camarilla actually get along.
- Good Is Not Soft: Being The Good King did not keep him from enforcing his rule by fear and force. He is also a horrible monster to mortals, although he tries to justify it by saying he makes sure his victims are bad people.
- Killed Off for Real: You can finish him off while he's staked. At least one of your associates will object.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: He is a lot more forward-thinking than most Kindred. This is not to say he is remotely nice.
- Mad Scientist: Has been lobotomizing huge numbers of mortals to conduct experiments on how their brains respond to repeated mind-wipes.
- Noble Demon: Has an actual code of honor, which is a contrast to most Kindred. It doesn't mean he's not a ruthless killer and conqueror.
- Odd Friendship: His friendship with Robert the Brujah Anarch. Also a case of Opposites Attract.
- The Older Immortal: Arundel is several centuries old and thus significantly more powerful than every other Kindred in Ottawa.
- Only One Name: Just Arundel. He traded in his mortal name for the name of the place where he was born.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: He lobotomizes "scum of the Earth" humans in his experiments with the Dominate Discipline.
- Pet the Dog: If you destroy Adeline instead of Robert he will actually publicly protect you in a room full of elders by offering a transparent excuse for your actions instead of letting them attack you, risking the Camarilla's wrath for the sake of one young neonate.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Arundel unleashes one of those if Adeline kills or forces him to kill, Robert Ward.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: His portrait shows a very smartly dressed Ventrue. The very first thing he does after being un-staked is to balk at his disheveled appearance and change into a new suit.
- So Proud of You: If you are loyal to him, he really doesn't hold back on acting like the proud sire Corliss never was. In fact, he'll drop this trope, word for word, several times in the span of a few hours.
- Uncertain Doom: Most of the Kindred in Ottawa believe he's been Beckoned. He hasn't, although the effects have been bothering him. He's been held prisoner by the Quebec Tremere after being staked in his secondary haven.
- Vampire Monarch: The ruler of Ottawa since it was founded.
- Virtuous Character Copy: Between his age, ambition, and power, he appears to be a warmer, less egotistical version of Mithras. His implied relationship with Robert Ward, and their loyalty to him, is even reminiscent of Mithras' relationship with Roger de Camden.
- Visionary Villain: Arundel dreams of ruling over all of Canada as an uber-Prince.
Eden Corliss
Eden Corliss as a Ventrue, Toreador, Lasombra, or Malkavian
Eden Corliss as a Nosferatu.
A vampire of determinant lineage who serves as the city's Seneschal.- Abusive Parents: Corliss was extremely harsh to all of her childer during the first few years after their Embrace. You can have your character view it as pragmatic Tough Love, or as this, deciding that she was unnecessarily cruel and took it too far.
- Asshole Victim: Kashif says that if she's killed, no one will care at best. He's right.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Corliss can achieve all of her goals if you help her do so.
- The Beautiful Elite: If she's a Toreador.
- Blue Blood: If she's a Toreador or Ventrue.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Eden is playing all the various factions against one another.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Talks about Alisha's flirtations with Arundel in a way that suggests jealousy. To say nothing about her reactions to Arundel taking Ward as a lover.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Pretty much the entirety of Ottawa thinks she would make an absolutely awful Prince.
- Dark Secret: Murdered her childer, brainwashed you with the Prince's help, and is a diablerist.
- Epic Fail: Her grand plan to exterminate all the Anarchs in the city fails miserably and almost gets her assassinated by Robert Ward.
- Fate Worse than Death: If you're in a particularly cruel mood, or just think she's too useful to finish just yet, you can convince Arundel to keep her alive as a... resource.
- Horned Humanoid: If she's a Nosferatu, her deformity manifests in the form of gray skin, long ears, and horns (fairly mild for a Nosferatu, all told). Potentially doubles as Horns of Villainy, depending on how the game's plot shakes out.
- If I Can't Have You…: Her shifting her plotting against Arundel into high gear almost immediately after Arundel takes up with Ward reeks of this.
- In-Series Nickname: Her in-game profile reveals that she earned the nickname "the Spider" during her early un-life in Birmingham, England for "lying low and working from the shadows."
- Killed Off for Real: If you side with Kashif, Robert Ward or Prince Arundel, then you can finish her off.
- Rich Bitch: Is as snobby and arrogant as most Elder vampires.
- Sink or Swim Mentor: Was this to the protagonist. The protagonist's reactions can range from being grateful to her for forcing tools need to survive the deadly world of Kindred into their head, or absolutely despising her for how far she took it.
- The Starscream: Most of the Court believe she was this towards Prince Arundel, to the point where she becomes the prime suspect after the Prince mysteriously disappears. Her detractors are bang on the money.
- The Wrongful Heir to the Throne: As the Seneschal, she is technically the heir apparent once the Court finally grasps that Arundel may not be coming back. Unfortunately for her, she's the only one who thinks she'll be any good at the job.
- Woman Scorned: Completely turns against Arundel after he took Robert Ward as a lover.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: You are seemingly always the first person she plans to throw under the bus in any given situation. Because you are not actually her childe.
Lucca Corliss
Lucca Corliss as a Ventrue, Toreador, Lasombra, or Malkavian.
Lucca Corliss as a Nosferatu.
The second childe of Eden Corliss, only just returned to Ottawa after having spent years abroad managing her sire's business interests.- Adoptive Name Change: Or the vampiric equivalent. Despite being consistently refered to as "Lucca Corliss" throughout the game (including in her own profile), Eden's profile reveals that she originally had the surname "Taylor". It's not clear if the change was forced on her by Eden or if Lucca chose to change her name in order to help win over her sire's approval. Of Eden's other childer, the player character's surname is determinative but the game says "you had a family name once" and tells you that "it is rarely used" nowadays, and Nathaniel Harris's full name is only mentioned in the same sentence as Lucca Taylor's, so it's not clear if he continued to use it after his Embrace.
- Agent Scully: She's skeptical to the point of rudeness of Jordan's prophetic visions.
- Alone-with-Prisoner Ploy: If you have a friendly enough relationship with her, choose to stand against Eden, and get apprended in the process, Lucca will be assigned to take you to a holding cell and interrogate you. It's a ruse, and she ultimately helps you escape as part of her own Heel–Face Turn.
- Beat It by Compulsion: If playing as a Malkavian, Lucca's "gift" manifests as an ability to "divine order from chaos." While it makes her quite talented at mathematics and handling financial accounts, as with all Malkavian talents, it comes with a downside. Like the mythological Jiang Shi, she is sometimes forced to compulsively count what she describes as "chaotic clusters": any large grouping of tiny objects like seeds.
- Deceptive Legacy: If playing as a Lasombra, Lucca is unaware of her true heritage. Initially told she was a Ventrue, Eden only recently informed her that her vampiric family are secretly Malkavian, using the unpredictable nature of Malkavian powers to explain away her actual Lasombra ones.
- Fantastic Racism: Extremely prejudiced against Lasombra kindred owing to the clan's history interfering in organized religion. Leads to You Are What You Hate if the player choses to be a member of clan Lasombra.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: It's possible to make enemies of her, but it requires a fair bit of effort, and she's arguably second only to Jordan as the easiest character to engage in either loyal friendship or a romantic relationship.
- Genki Girl: Has a tendency to get excitable in conversation. She's gently chastised by Sheriff Qui for ranting too loudly about clan Lasombra during a formal Camarilla function.
- Honor Thy Parent: Lucca has spent most of her unlife dutifully following Eden's orders and is desperate for her sire's approval, which hasn't exactly been forthcoming.
- I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Lucca's relationship with her sire is complicated. While she is publicly loyal to Eden, she's privately extremely frustrated at having been kept at arm's length for so long and being overlooked in favor of her younger vampiric sibling.
- In the Hood: According to her in-game art as a Nosferatu.
- It's Personal: If you help Lucca investigate the church formerly presided over by the priest her helped her through her crisis of faith, you learn that said priest has been murdered and replaced by a Lasombra using the church as a front. You have the choice of convincing Lucca that the priest wouldn't have wanted her to imperil her own religious convictions for revenge, or to let her take out her rage on the usurper.
- Multiple-Choice Past: As with her sire, her clan affiliation is the same as the player character and therefore varies.
- Nightmare Face: When playing a Nosferatu character, the game remarks that Lucca is notably unpleasant looking even for a Nosferatu, and largely had to manage Eden's business affairs remotely as a result.
- Parental Neglect: Ignored and underappreciated by Eden, to the extent that she's been forced to spend decades overseas.
- Religious Vampire: A devout Catholic in life, she retains her beliefs even as a vampire and has a strong personal connection to the local Catholic priest who helped her resolve her post-Embrace crisis of faith.
- Romance Sidequest: If you take a particular interest in Lucca, you get involved in a side story involving a takeover of the local Catholic church by former Sabbat vampires.
Sheriff Qui
The Sheriff of Ottawa and a Nosferatu.
- The Alleged Car: Drives around a busted up silver Sedan that he calls "she."
- Blood Knight: Qui always advocates the bloodiest and most ruthless solutions.
- Broken Pedestal: Has one with Arundel when he finds his room. It becomes a Rebuilt Pedestal when he finds out they were all jerks.
- Co-Dragons: Can end up as this to Corliss or Arundel with the protagonist as the Scourge.
- The Dragon: Served as one of these to Arundel. He's less enthusiastic about the possibility of serving Corliss.
- Hypocrite: Talks about the need to reduce police brutality... but will chew out the PC if they tell him not to beat suspects in his custody.
- I'm Having Soul Pains: Why he suffered a great deal of regular pain while at the mercies of the Tzimisce, he mentions that said Tzimisce's experiments into removing his curse felt like it was deforming his soul as well as his flesh.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Is a Nosferatu, but lacks the sewer confining deformities of the rest of his clan. How he managed to achieve this is a huge point of gossip for the rest of the Court.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Has this attitude about being a Sheriff. He hates Anarchs and other violent offenders.
- Playing with Syringes: Fell victim to a Tzimisce flesh-crafter after his mentor sold him out to save his own hide. His odd (for a Nosferatu) looks are the result of said flesh-crafter trying to remove his curse.
- Romance Sidequest: You only get to find out the secret of his unnaturally (for a Nosferatu) good looks if you pursue a relationship (or just a close friendship) with him.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: His Nosferatu deformity is nonexistent except for, according to rumors, a constantly-weeping scar on his neck. This is due to being experimented on by one of the Tzimisce.
- Unequal Pairing: Used to be in a romantic relationship with his ghoul, Sam. This still bothers him even after his ghoul's death, because although being ghouled was Sam's idea and they knew what it would entail, he knows the blood bond would have made things terribly difficult for Sam if their feelings ever changed. You can reassure him or tell him he's right to feel bad about it.
- Wound That Will Not Heal: See above; this is what gossip says his Nosferatu deformity is. It's half-right. The scar isn't a natural deformity, but the result of Tzimisce flesh-crafting; the cost of his more normal appearance is that the scar constantly pains him.
- Zerg Rush: Has this as his primary strategy when dealing with Anarchs.
Henrik Lang
- Fantastic Racism: Strongly opposed Prince Arundel's decision to grant sanctuary to the Banu Haqim.
- Gentle Touch vs. Firm Hand: Definitely leans towards the "firm hand" side of things. Zealously determined to keep the crumbling Tremere hierarchy together, his biography notes that "mercenary maguses" tend to disappear if they come to close to his chantry's territory.
- Resign in Protest: Following the arrival of Kashif Salik, he instructed the rest of Ottawa's Tremere chantry to leave the city in protest.
Jordan Tremblay
Jordan as female.
Jordan as male.
A Malkavian seer/seeress who warns you of your impending doom.
- Because Destiny Says So: Their prophetic visions led them to the player character in the first place, and their belief that they have a role to play in upcoming events leads them to continue following the PC around, even if the player chooses to be overtly disdainful towards them.
- Cult: Jordan assumes control of a cult of abandoned blood dolls. Has the potential to be mutually beneficial to everyone involved, even weirdly heartwarming: Jordan genuinely seems to care for and feels protective towards the humans.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Jordan has a lot of visions that foretell the future with semi-accuracy.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: One of the few Kindred who might actually have your back in the city. They're also very concerned about "ethically sourced" meals.
- Gender-Blender Name: Presumably the author chose the name "Jordan" because it fits regardless if Jordan is female or male.
- Granola Girl/Guy: A genuine college hippie in life, they were first noticed by their sire as a prominent Vietnam War protestor. They retain many of their beliefs as a kindred, even going so far as to take over a cult in search of "ethically sourced" meals (victims who are both willing and fully aware of what they're getting into).
- I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Their sire was a believer in aliens and Conspiracy Theorist who attacked and embraced them without warning and from whom they quickly fled.
- Mad Oracle: They can see the future, but most of their prophecies aren't specific enough to be helpful until after they happen. Their vision of what happens to Vivian was just an image of Vivian walking down the street looking confused—accurate, but not at all useful. Their visions are also so vivid they sometimes confuses them with the present moment (for instance, if you romance her they'll admit they're not sure if it's happening now or if they're foreseeing that it will).
- Multiple-Choice Past: Not as extreme as the player character, Eden, or Lucca, but Jordan's sex is determined by whatever sexual orientation you chose for the player character. If the PC is interested in men, Jordan is male, otherwise she's female (including if the player character is bisexual or asexual).
- Nice Girl/Guy: Is a lot nicer than the majority of Kindred around you.
- Official Couple: Or something close to it. You certainly don't have to romance Jordan, but the fact that they're hands-down the easiest character to enter into a relationship with and their sex is determined by the sexual orientation you chose for the player character at the start of the game makes them the obvious "default" pairing.
- Only Sane Woman/Man: A very amusing example as they're the only Kindred not neck deep in backstabbing and betrayals.
- Odd Friendship: The Kindred of Ottawa think any relationship with you and them is strange.
- Parental Substitute: With their actual sire an abusive Cloudcuckoolander, Jordan was taken under the wing of a Gangrel named Melody who taught them most of what they know about being kindred.
- Romance Sidequest: If you choose to romance Jordan, you get this in the form of their cult of abandoned blood dolls.
Adeline Durand
- Bad Boss: Her treatment of everyone is needlessly hostile and confrontational. She also tries to eliminate Alisha Grey due to You Have Outlived Your Usefulness.
- The Chessmaster: Is playing games just the same as everyone else in the city.
- Didn't Think This Through: Arundel is a centuries-old, immensely powerful Prince that she wants to kill the lover of. Right in front of him and his entire court. If you don't step in, Arundel really will be powerless to stop her... in the moment. But then he proceeds to slaughter her allies and kill her before blaming the Anarchs for killing her. Even an Archon should know better than to push someone like that so hard after he's already had such a bad week.
- Didn't See That Coming: Assuming you're not blood bonded to her, it's surprisingly easy to betray and kill her at the end of the game. She even hands you the sword to do it.
- The Dreaded: Everyone's response to the fact Adeline's in town essentially boils down to Oh, Crap!. For good reason. (Even the mortal criminal underworld fears her as "the Demon", as you can learn if you chose the mob background for Gerard.)
- Karmic Death: You can stab her in the chest with the magic dagger she expected you to kill Robert Ward with. She'll react with a Didn't See That Coming before meeting the final death.
- More than Mind Control: If Adeline really wants to make you do something, it's basically impossible to stop her. She can easily use her Disciplines to interrogate you and make you spill everything, or even blood-bind you. She even manages to mind control Ward, which is a feat.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Can give this to Robert Ward and Alisha for their efforts on behalf of Prince Arundel or her.
- Underestimating Badassery:
- She has you pegged for a glorified flunkie from the start and is genuinely surprised if you prove to be an incredibly astute investigator.
- Seems to forget that some Princes are not appointed by the Camarilla but due to their own personal raw power. This gets her destroyed by Arundel if he becomes Prince again and she antagonizes him.
- With Friends Like These...:
- Does nothing to protect Corliss from the assassination plot you tell her about.
- Plans on executing the Anarch leader, Robert Ward, even if he assists you in repelling Corliss' coup.
- Is almost certainly behind ordering Alisha Grey to commit Suicide by Cop if you help Corliss or Arundel into power. This despite Alisha is clearly her pick to be Prince.
Alisha Grey
- The Dragon: Has a powerful ghoul with a magic sword.
- Dramatic Irony: Alisha will only survive if you save her life despite her scheming against you constantly.
- Evil Is Petty: If you offend her, she will ban you from her establishment forever.
- False Flag Operation: Her claim the Tremere attacked her triggers the blood hunt through Bouchard's sewers, but the Tremere down there don't know anything about it, believe they have permission to be there, and are genuinely just doing research (albeit having kidnapped Lang, but that's just inter-Tremere politics for you). Given her attempt to become Prince, it's strongly implied that she faked the attack to deprive Corliss of her Tremere allies. If you manage to eavesdrop on the Tremere during the blood hunt, one of them will say exactly that as they're packing up to go.
- Hypocrite: Talks a big game about womens' rights and made a killing in the feminist-friendly porn market, but will call her employee Abagail a "common whore" if Abagail ends up asking you for a job.
- Killed Off for Real: Can be eliminated by either Robert Ward or Adeline.
- Puppet King: Adeline has promised her that she will be Prince of Ottawa. It's pretty clear that Adeline is the real force here, not her, and that she'd be the kind of Prince who can't argue with an Archon. note
- Small Name, Big Ego: Alisha is the Keeper of Elysium and believes she will be the Prince, but is one of the least powerful vampires in the city's inner circle.
- Unproblematic Prostitution: Most of her vessels are willing ones and agree to be fed upon.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Whether Corliss or Arundel triumphs, she becomes a liability to Adeline.
Vivian Maier
- Bad Boss: Has her loyal servants poisoned and kill themselves to make her False Flag Operation look better. Although if you do her route, you learn at least some of them were actually traitors. Apparently her talk of her butler being "like family" was just a sympathy ploy—he was a spy and she couldn't wait to get rid of him.
- Batman Gambit:
- Vivian's second set of staff are all hunters who believe they're running a covert operation on her, but who she hired because she knows they're all hunters trying to run a covert operation on her. If you're on her route, she makes a big show of "rewarding" you with a gem that supposedly detects vampires, goading the hunters into attacking so they can take it. She slaughters most of them, then takes you on a fake search of her mansion, deliberately giving the survivors an opening to escape and bring the gem back to their base. Along with the handy GPS tracker she implanted inside it.
- She also pulls one involving you, if you work with her. She tells Qui that you are a mole for Eden and he should execute you. However, she does this believing Qui will only arrest you, so that he can both pump you for information and use you to manipulate Corliss into incriminating herself somehow, which is in fact what he does. And while everyone is busy paying attention to that whole drama, she has plenty of time to dig up where Arundel is being held without interference. From there, it's smooth sailing to spring you, go rescue him, and ruin Corliss's ascension.
- False Flag Operation: Has herself crucified in order to make herself look like an aggrieved party.
- Fate Worse than Death: She subjects you to this if you betray her.
- Incompatible Orientation: Noted that Arundel and she could never have a relationship because of this.
- Just Friends: Vivian and Arundel were this despite rumors to the contrary. Later, she implies it's because he's gay.
- Manipulative Bastard: Vivian is playing everyone off everyone else (and don't think that doesn't include you if you work with her).
- Ungrateful Bastard: Will send you with a letter to execute you if you side with her ala Hamlet. She only intended Qui to arrest you—she was betting that he would consider you too useful to immediately kill—but she freely admits that she wasn't 100% certain and your death was an acceptable risk to her.
- Villain in a White Suit: A ruthless, manipulative elder who wears impeccable white outfits.
Michel Bouchard
- Bad Boss: Will kill one of the Nosferatu under his command for screwing up.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Was letting the Tremere use his warrens until he was ordered to attack them. He can't openly defy the Blood Hunt, so he has his scouts remove evidence of their collaboration and essentially throws them under the bus.
- Cool Old Guy: Is one of the more affable Kindred to the protagonist despite his ruthlessness.
- Cool Sword: You can retrieve Ichiro's and give it to him. Apparently, it was originally Michel's.
- The Creon: If you take his route, Bouchard is very clear that he has absolutely no interest in being Prince himself. He just wants his advice to be listened to a little more.
- Eerily Out-of-Place Object: Like many Nosferatu, he makes his home in the sewers. Unlike many of his brethren, however, said home is well kept and designed in an opulent nineteenth century style.
- Frontline General: Participates in the battle against the Anarchs and renegade Tremere despite being one of the Primogen.
- Human Disguise: Wears a extremely expensive, well-made mask based on his pre-Embrace face.
- The Older Immortal: Michel was Embraced in the 1600 and is one of the oldest Kindred in Ottawa. He actually tries to hide this.
- The Spymaster: Like many Nosferatu Elders, he's the head of one of these.
Ophelia
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: In the Malkavian route, she accompanies you into your own memories and will hold back your hallucinatory companion while you recover your true memories.
- Cryptic Conversation: Never says anything straight-out when dropping ominous hints or strange metaphors will do. If you are playing a Malkavian, your hallucinatory companion will grumble that Ophelia goes around dropping cryptic little "seeds" in people's head so they'll do what she wants and think its their own idea.
- Forced to Watch: If you happen to be loyal to Corliss and make certain choices, Ophelia will have to watch Kashif be either executed or imprisoned in horrible pain. Corliss will rub it in her face.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: She will wipe your mind if you catch her and Kashif going through Corliss's office. It's possible to resist, but you need to have poured a lot into either Intelligence or Resolve.
- Meaningful Name: The Primogen of the clan known for its madness is named after one of the most famous madwomen in literature. (For bonus points, she also dresses like Ophelia and used to be an actress who no doubt did a lot of Shakespeare, suggesting she's doing it on purpose.)
- The Ophelia: Naturally. She wears a white dress and a flower, her name is Ophelia, and she's the Malkavian Primogen.
Anarchs
Robert Ward
A Brujah union boss from the 19th century who was formerly close with the Prince.
- Berserk Button: As with many Brujah, inequality and injustice make him go nuts.
- Cannot Spit It Out: A Downplayed Trope example where he actually does share a lot of his plots with you. But he could have saved a lot of trouble by sharing the most important bits first.
- Fantastic Racism: Faced much prejudice within Ottawa as a Brujah.
- Foil: To Arundel. Both are charismatic and have big plans for the world, but opposite ways of going about them. Arundel is a Ventrue, one of the Clan of Kings, and of noble birth, while Ward is a Brujah, derisively nicknamed the Rabble, and working class. They both also become mentors to fledglings from other sires, although this point depends more on the player's choices; if you're loyal to Arundel, his relationship with you becomes much closer to Ward's relationship with Hauberk, while if you don't, it remains a minor plot point. Additionally, Ward took Hauberk under his wing just because Hauberk needed it, while Arundel had a specific use for you.
- Killed Off for Real: If you side with Corliss over him. Or if the protagonist doesn't have the guts to stand up to Archon Adeline.
- Loved I Not Honor More: Chooses the Brujah Clan and Movement over Arundel. At first.
- Morality Chain: When they were still friends and fought the Sabbat together, Arundel asked him specifically to step in and stop Arundel from ever becoming that bad. Ward will remind Arundel of this if you rescue Arundel and Ward is the one helping you.
- Odd Friendship: His closest friend as well as more than friends was Prince Arundel. It even drove a wedge between him and Corliss.
- Parental Substitute: Took Hauberk in after his abusive sire abandoned him. Lucca actually sarcastically refers to him as Hauberks' "new daddy".
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized:
- He blows up Elysium as part of a False Flag Operation to kill Alisha Grey. Twice.
- He launches an all-out assault on Elysium if the Seneschal is still alive.
- Skewed Priorities: Unleashing a bunch of anarchist bombers on Canada public places is not actually that helpful to his cause and just brings an Archon down on him. He was invited to be ambush but his reaction is Disproprotionate Retribution.
- Smoking Is Cool: When your species is biologically wired to be terrified of fire, having a habit that requires you to regularly light and snuff tiny flames in front of your face is a bit of a flex. The narration will note that you're impressed by how casually he puts his cigarettes out.
- Stalker without a Crush: Keeps dogging the protagonist, even if the protagonist insists they want nothing to do with him. This is because he knows about Arundel's plans involving you, and thinks you can help him find Arundel.
Kashif Salik
- Dark Secret: Is actually a member of the Anarchs.
- Faking the Dead: Everyone assumes that he's dead when he doesn't come back after the Blood Hunt through the sewers. Not so; he's just really good at Obfuscate.
- Fantastic Racism: Utterly loathes the Tremere and looks for any chance to kill them. (The Tremere and the Banu Haqim have a long, nasty history, so this is no surprise.)
- Killed Off for Real: If you don't side with him, Corliss defeats him in his assassination attempt.
- The Kingslayer: Can assassinate Corliss with your help, even if she's only the acting Prince.
- Real Men Love Jesus: Or in this case, real men love Allah. He is a faithful Muslim as well as a Judge.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: If you back out of the plan to assassinate Corliss.
- What Does She See in Him?: Everyone is confused about his apparent romantic relationship with the Malkavian Primogen, Ophelia. Being a society full of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, the local Camarilla variously assume he's mind-controlling her with blood sorcery or she's planning to toss him aside once she's done with him.
Sevinc
- Affectionate Nickname: Calls Ward "Bobbi".
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Briefly forced to attack Ward by Annabelle. If you happen to screw up enough, Durand will find Sevinc and get in there first.
- Canine Companion: Has two ghouled Rottweilers called Süphan and Ararat (named after two volcanoes in Turkey, fittingly for an Anarch firebrand's pets).
- Heroes Love Dogs: Well, antiheroes love dogs. Süphan and Ararat are her pets as much as her weapons.
- Failure Is the Only Option: No matter what clan you play as, Sevinc will object to Robert bringing you on board because of it. (Probably because she just doesn't like you.)
- Hot-Blooded: Sevinc wants to deal with pretty much everything by either going in swinging or blowing it up. Sometimes both. (Some of her dialogue suggests she's been an Anarch for a long time, and her impatience is a function of having had to wait and see the Camarilla fuck up several times over.)
- Ironic Name: Sevinc means "joy", but she's not exactly the cheeriest person.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: The DLC adds a romance path for her, which is basically this. She's no less antagonistic to you, she just also wants to jump your bones. Also has shades of Did They or Didn't They?, as she will not admit whether you two actually kissed or whether she added that to your fake memories, presumably as a bizarre form of flirting if you ask.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: She really doesn't like working with you and will push back on Ward's attempts to bring you on at every turn (unless you have a very, very good relationship with Ward, she will convince him to lie about the gallery bombing). However, she'll eventually come to respect you if you stick with them, and if she ends up having to mess with your memories to fool Durand she's genuinely apologetic she can't do a cleaner job.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: She and Robert argue all the time, but they genuinely care for each other.
Hauberk
A bestial Gangrel neonate.
- Abusive Parents: His sire threatened to destroy him for showing the slightest weakness and then abandoned him. It scarred him so badly he thinks Ward is going to kill him for getting captured.
- Dumb Muscle: Not the brightest bulb, but formidable in a fight. His attempts at philosophizing are entertainingly confusing.
- Fiery Redhead: Red-haired and very aggressive.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Like Sevinc, he doesn't like working with you at first; unlike Sevinc, however, he warms up a lot faster.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: A self-appointed version. He decided to re-name himself Hauberk, a moniker that causes Robert some head-scratching.
