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The Elitist Ventrue Clan The Latest ‘Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2’ Reveal
Another day, another clan reveal by Paradox Interactive for the upcoming Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. This time around, it’s the ultimate bloodsuckers in the form of the Ventrue, a bunch of royals and suits propping up and feeding off of the system. The Ventrue founded the Camarilla, the largest vampire sect, and they wouldn’t be mistaken for being humble.
Unusual for the clan, the Ventrue of Seattle were drawn to the dream of building their own power structure without oversight from elder generations. Now that the Camarilla has gained control, many Ventrue have realigned to join these new rulers, or have doubled down on their autonomy. Enterprising Ventrue have entrenched themselves in the business of the 21st century, paving the way for a prosperous future and making enemies of anyone who prefers the old ways.
Given their need to be rulers, Ventrue employ two disciplines: Dominate and Fortitude.
Dominate includes the Mesmerize ability, where the Ventrue place one NPC in a brief hypnotic trance. The person so affected is oblivious to the world around them, ignoring sound, touch and even pain. The other ability is to Command, where the Ventrue’s control over the Mesmerized NPC is extended to the point where they can now be ordered to move, remove obstacles, or even attack others.
The Fortitude discipline includes two abilities. The Absorb ability, which allows the vampire to take a brief defensive stance in which they may deflect all attacks they can see, healing their wounds for every would-be strike. The other is Personal Armor, where the Ventrue’s skin hardens into a stone-like barrier.
Using Fortitude while under attack constitutes a Masquerade Violation, whereas using Dominate does not. You can check out more about the Ventrue and their abilities in the video below.
Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 is set for release on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One next year.
The best part about engaging with collaborative genre fiction on the internet is that anyone can get in on the action, with worldwide accessibility often resulting in absurd story beats that wouldn’t be possible if any single person was responsible for the entire narrative. And while Kane Parsons’ Backrooms film is definitely the young filmmaker’s own unique take on the infamous creepypasta, it’s fun to see other creators join the Backrooms sandbox now that the big screen adaptation is getting ready for a record-shattering opening weekend.
As if cleverly timed releases like Puppet Combo’s The Backrooms game weren’t enough (not to mention that Scary Movie poster poking fun at Parsons’ flick), McDonald’s official social media accounts have now released an analog horror video of their own celebrating the liminal terrors of the McRooms – complete with a familiar purple surprise at the end of the footage.
While it’s funny enough to see the world’s most recognizable Fast Food giant engage with internet-borne Found Footage thrills seemingly out of the blue, the video is actually referencing a long-running gag among the Backrooms fandom where creators jokingly talk about there being a fully functional McDonald’s restaurant hidden somewhere in level 0 of the infamous liminal labyrinth.
Now, would it be too much to hope for a moist-carpet-flavored McShake to tie in with the film?
Backrooms is now playing only in theaters from A24.
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