Dr. Flynn's Guide for the Newborn
-by Flynn Giddach
Well, since everyone seems to be giving out advice to the kids, I guess I'd better join in. I've been a vampire for about three thousand years, so you'd do well to listen. The first thing you'll want to do is find a way around that "total allegiance to your Lord" clause, and get to work as a free agent. Then, you need to make a name for yourself. Find the toughest, oldest bloodboiler you can, and pick on him: Feed on mundanes in his protection. Leave him insulting notes. Off his kids. The idea here is to prove you're such a badass, they have to resp -- OW! What? Oh, damn.
Um, heh, heh. Sorry. I just showed my article to Jaime, who has decided it'd be fun to lay a compulsion on me. As in, I actually have to tell you the truth (blech). Ok, listen for real this time: DON'T BELIEVE ANYTHING IN THE PRECEDING PARAGRAPH!!! That'll get you killed faster than a Mormon in a mosque. What you actually have to do is a lot more devious.
The Lord of your house is very, very definitely in charge. Your Lord is the Cause of the house, both literally and figuratively. Not only is she the creator of the house and its members, but also hers are the practical and philosophical objectives of its founding. You exist to further her goals. Now don't you feel important? That is not to say that you cannot further your own goals at the same time. Indeed, you pretty much have to. Everyone, including your Lord, expects you to be after something for yourself. If you don't pursue personal goals, they won't understand what you're after, which will make them wonder what you're really planning, which will make them want to kill you. It's true.
So get a hobby. You can make it simple at first, like "Win the favor of my Lord," or "Find out who hates me, and why," or "Collect a rainbow set of human eyeballs." Just keep busy.
Next, you will need to make alliances within your House. What, you thought they were all on your side? You never had brothers and sisters before, did you? Besides, not everyone sworn to your Lord is descended from her. There will be her children, and probably their children, and certainly the contingent of ghoul servants. There may be an "uncle" or "aunt," a sibling of your Lord who supported her and came with her when she left her own Lord's house. There may be hostages, pleasant or hostile, from another house (the word "hostage" basically means "exchanged guest," for those of you born in the 20th century). There also may be servants or mercenaries of some other supernatural race in the service of your Lord.
Not all of these people will be safe to approach (in a sense, none of them are, but it's too late for that). Your job is to sniff out which ones you might do a little side business with, to your mutual benefit. Use their goals to further yours. You can bet they're after the same. Find out what they want from you, and trade it for what you want. You may not get far with the first deal. That's OK; they'll always want more. If they cannot offer you something you want, get something somebody else wants, and then go trade with the third party. Be resourceful. Be sure to make friends (people who need you), because you're sure to make enemies (people who need you dead).
I should mention that trading resources is not the whole of a good relationship (damn compulsion). There's personality and attitude to deal with. Even someone who wants to kill you can be dealt with easier if you peg their personality and respond in a way acceptable to how they think (unfortunately, sometimes the only response they'll accept is for you to let them kill you). There are myriad schools of thought in popular psychology and many books on how to understand people. Read them.
You'll also need to make alliances with members of other Lord's Houses. These will be vital later on, when you want more social pull in the community of the State at large. Hint: don't openly meet with a house that your Lord hates, or vice versa. Can we say toasty? And as for friendly houses, beware that friendly is a relative term. It just means they won't kill you on sight. The best way to meet other Houses is to be sent as a servant of your Lord; delivering an invitation to tea, returning the lawnmower, that sort of thing. As an envoy, you should be protected by common courtesy. And the knowledge of your Lord's rightful retaliation.
Then, while you sit in the drawing room (or courtyard, or dungeon, according to the Lord's decorative tastes), strike up conversations with the servants. Might as well try it with the pets too, you never know. Naturally, you're looking for the same things in the friendly Lord's house members as you do in the members of your own house: attitude, want, and weakness. After a few visits, contact the interesting candidates for alliances on your own, and offer whatever you've arranged, in exchange for something not too difficult or morally questionable from them. They should feel it's a good thing to know you.
Now I'm going to tell you something naughty. Sometimes you can pull off a deal with a member of an enemy house that will benefit to your Lord. And I don't even mean finding out the enemy's weakness.
See, the children of your Lord's enemy might know something about another enemy, and they might be persuaded to make a secret deal, for the right price. I'm talking really convoluted layers of friend/enemy/wary alliance hierarchy here. You'd better have an idea of your Lord's opinion of such things first. But find out carefully. A friend of mine was killed for even suggesting he talk to the ghoul of his Lord's enemy. Of course, there's also the question of eventually using these alliances to support your own, overt bid for more power. You can begin to suggest your plans and see who agrees with you. At this point, you must immediately yell "I REBEL! NOW BOW DOWN TO ME!!"
(Hmmm. I think Jaime's compulsion might be wearing off. Let's see:) "The younger the vampire, the fresher the blood, so the stronger the power. The Lords tell you otherwise to keep you subservient, because they are old and feeble, and afraid of you." heh heh. Cool. I'm back! Oh, Jaime....
