The Others

The World of Darkness contains supernatural beings besides vampires. Most Kindred know they exist. Very few understand them. A vampire who mistakes a Lupine for a manageable threat, or assumes a Mage can be Dominated like a mortal, is unlikely to repeat the error.

This page covers what V20 documents about the four major non-Cainite factions. Each uses fundamentally different mechanics. Each poses different categories of danger. The common thread: ignorance is a liability, and Kindred are almost universally ignorant of these beings’ true capabilities.

Kuei-Jin (Cathayans)

Eastern vampires — called Wan Kuei (“Hungry Dead”) in their own traditions, Cathayans by Western Kindred — are not Cainites. They are a distinct supernatural lineage with different origins, different powers, and a fundamentally different relationship to the vampiric condition.

What they are: The Kuei-jin understand themselves as souls who have escaped the underworld and re-entered their corpses to pursue spiritual redemption. They feed on Chi (the spiritual energy within living beings) rather than blood per se, though they can and do feed on blood as a Chi source. Their powers — called Disciplines in V20 terms — are fueled by Yin Chi, Yang Chi, and Demon Chi rather than vitae.

Every Kuei-jin contains a Hun (the higher soul, driving spiritual advancement) and a P’o (the demon nature, equivalent to the Beast). The balance between these determines how human the vampire appears and how dangerous it is. An advanced Kuei-jin may barely resemble a Western vampire’s conception of the undead. A Chih-mei — a Kuei-jin who has lost all Hun — is a feral horror.

Organization: The Kuei-jin are organized into Five August Courts corresponding to philosophical orientations. Within those courts, cliques and factions contest influence. They are considerably more organized than Western vampires give them credit for. The Quincunx — the governing body in East Asia — has functioning political infrastructure that dwarfs most Camarilla cities in sophistication.

The Great Leap Outward: In the modern era (circa 1990s), Kuei-jin are actively expanding into North American territories. Western vampires mostly don’t know this is organized — they see individual Cathayans appearing in Pacific coastal cities and misread it as migration or curiosity. It is neither.

What Western vampires know: They exist. They are Eastern. They are dangerous. Their powers are unknown. The Camarilla has almost no organized intelligence on Kuei-jin capabilities or intentions. Individual vampires who have encountered them know only what they survived long enough to report.

What vampires don’t know: The Chi system, Dharmic advancement, the P’o/Hun dynamic, the spirit world mechanics (Kuei-jin can traverse the spirit world in ways Kindred cannot), the organizational scope of the Courts, the actual goal of the Great Leap Outward, and whether the Kuei-jin even regard Cainites as worth the effort of a sustained political relationship.

Mechanical interaction:

One elder Kuei-jin can match a coterie of elder Western vampires in direct conflict. Cathayans should be treated as entirely unknown quantities — assume their Discipline equivalents are present at significant levels and that their P’o can override rational behavior under sufficient provocation. Vampires who attempt to Dominate Kuei-jin are in for a surprise; their blood bond resistance is poorly documented but well above average.

Kuei-jin (Established) — representative stat block:

Attacks from Kuei-jin in jiange (battle-heightened) state deal aggravated damage. Their natural healing exceeds standard vampiric healing when Chi is available.

Lupines (Garou)

Garou — known to vampires as Lupines or werewolves — are shapeshifting warriors who have been at war with Kindred since before the Camarilla existed. They are not confused mortals. They are not primitive beasts. They are the designated warriors of a spiritual ecology that regards vampires as a disease on the natural world, and they are very good at what they do.

What they are: Garou can shift between human form, wolf form, and a hybrid battle form (Crinos) standing roughly nine feet tall. They possess Gnosis — a spiritual energy that fuels supernatural abilities and allows limited spirit world access. They operate in packs and live within a warrior culture organized by tribal affiliations with deep cosmological significance.

The war with Kindred: Garou regard vampires as Wyrm-tainted — spiritually corrupt by nature, not by behavior. This is not a political position that can be negotiated. Most Garou will attack vampires on sight without deliberation. A vampire who attempts to reason with a Lupine mid-confrontation has fundamentally misread the situation.

Delirium: Mortals who witness a Garou in battle form experience the Delirium — an instinctive overwhelming terror that causes them to flee and retroactively rationalize what they saw as something explicable. Vampires are immune to Delirium but are not immune to the consequences of what a nine-foot wolf-human hybrid can do to a body.

What vampires know: Werewolves exist, are extremely dangerous, have something to do with silver, and actively hunt vampires. Most young Kindred treat this as folklore until the first encounter.

What vampires don’t know: Battle form capabilities, regeneration speed, Gnosis mechanics, tribal organization, the spirit world component, that pack tactics are coordinated rather than instinctual, and that silver is a requirement not a superstition.

Mechanical interaction:

“One werewolf is a match for a whole coterie of young Kindred.” Elder Garou can engage elder vampires. Do not treat as combat encounters to be won — treat as situations to be escaped.

Battle form: Physical Attributes double. Multiple actions per turn (2–6) without dice penalty. Regenerates 1 health level per turn. Attacks deal aggravated damage. Only fire, silver, or supernatural bites cause lasting wounds — all other damage heals at this rate.

Lupine blood: A Garou contains approximately 20 blood points (10 in physical volume). Each blood point consumed increases the feeding vampire’s frenzy difficulty by +1. Effects persist until the blood is spent. The blood is functional but psychologically dangerous.

Fae (Changelings)

The Fae are not easily summarized. They are ancient beings wearing human shapes, operating by rules that do not map cleanly onto vampire politics, and experiencing reality in a way that makes sustained interaction with them genuinely alien. Most vampires who have “dealt with” the Fae have been out-maneuvered so completely they didn’t realize it until much later.

What they are: In the modern era, Fae take human form — changelings — to survive in a world where the magic that sustains them (Glamour) is increasingly scarce. They are not weak. They simply prefer misdirection to direct conflict, and they are extraordinarily good at it.

Their physical beauty can awaken in Kindred a profound sense of loss — the memory of mortality, sunlight, and things that cannot be recovered. Some elders find this devastating. Some find it addictive.

Fae blood: Feeding on a Fae produces rapturous bliss, a sense of warmth like morning sun, and hallucinatory effects that last for hours. This is not a selling point. It is a warning. Vampires who develop a habit of hunting Fae have a poor prognosis.

Organization: The Fae are organized by kith (type) and court, but their political structures are opaque to outsiders. They have no formal relationship with Kindred political bodies. Individual Fae may form alliances, rivalries, or prolonged schemes with vampires without any of this being sanctioned or known to their courts.

Cold iron weakness: Unforged iron (raw iron, pre-smelting) bypasses Fae defenses entirely and drains their Glamour. Fae can be wounded by normal weapons but cannot soak such wounds as easily as Kindred.

Mechanical interaction:

Fae are not primarily combat threats. The danger is psychological, political, and long-term. Direct conflict is rare and almost always the Fae’s choice of when and how.

Healing: Fae heal as mortals but can soak lethal damage (they do not halve bashing). Fire deals aggravated damage. Cold iron bypasses all soak.

Emotional vulnerability: Vampires viewing a Sidhe of exceptional Appearance (7+) may need to make a Willpower roll (difficulty 6) to avoid becoming emotionally affected — not dominated, but distracted by a profound and disorienting nostalgia. This is not a Discipline. It is just what high-Glamour Fae do.

Mages

Mages are mortal practitioners who have awakened to the underlying structure of reality and learned to reshape it. Individually, a young mage is less immediately dangerous than a vampire of comparable experience. Over the course of a conflict, a prepared mage is among the most dangerous entities a vampire will ever encounter.

What they are: Unlike vampires, mages are mortal — they can be killed with the same weapons that kill humans. They do not regenerate. They do not have blood pools. What they have is Quintessence (mystical energy) and the ability to alter probability, matter, space, time, and mind at will — subject to the constraint of Paradox (magical backlash when reality resists).

Mages do not win fights. They win conflicts. The distinction matters enormously.

Factions:

• Traditionalists (Order of Hermes, Verbena, etc.): The Order of Hermes has a millennium-long complicated relationship with the Tremere, who were mages before they became vampires. Some Hermetics are actively hostile. Some consider the Tremere a fascinating specimen. None are indifferent.
• Shamans and Yogis: Spirit-workers who commune with the dead, trade with ghosts, and practice mystical martial arts. Secretive, avoid the Jyhad entirely, want nothing from vampires.
• Technomancers: Mages who work through technology. Some have become so saturated with magitech that their blood is toxic to vampires — consuming it deals 1 aggravated health level per blood point.

Embrace destroys magic: A mage who is Embraced loses their powers permanently and becomes an ordinary vampire. Some vampire elders have exploited this; some mages guard against it obsessively.

Countermagic: A vampire with Thaumaturgy can attempt to counter a mage’s spell (Wits + Occult vs. difficulty 6; each success reduces the spell’s potency). Mages can similarly counter vampiric Thaumaturgy. This means Tremere vs. mage conflicts are not straightforward.

Mechanical interaction:

Assume a mage has prepared for the meeting unless you have strong reason otherwise. The “chess match” framing is accurate — a mage who has a week to prepare for a vampire encounter is a different problem than a mage encountered cold.

Technomancer blood: 1 aggravated health level per blood point consumed. Feeding on a Technomancer is not viable.

Paradox: When a mage rolls a natural 1 on a blatant magical effect, catastrophic backlash occurs. Mages are therefore reluctant to use flashy, obvious magic in public — but when they judge the situation severe enough to warrant it, treat their capabilities as effectively uncapped.

Comparative Reference

Hunters (mortal organized hunters — Society of Leopold, government bodies, etc.) are covered separately at Hunters.