The Ones You Die For
The Daeva are all allure and objectification. They embody the social horror of vampirism more elementally than any other clan, because they exploit mortal hungers to feed their immortal ones. They are exploitation. They do not hide so much as clothe themselves in the images we’ve constructed — of beauty and charm. They co-opt all the things we want to be and want to fuck. They are the Prom Queen, the Byronic Poet, the Social Media Butterly. They are the people past the rope in the VIP room.
Let the other clans skulk and mope. The Daeva strut through their damnation. They’ve danced down the centuries as both Madonna and Babylon whore. The thing Daeva want is the thing they shun. They are the perfect predators. They are paragons. If only it didn’t get harder and harder to enjoy. Stimulus fills the hole, but also erodes it wider. Yet the Serpents will never stop striving. They know that if you’re not the one doing, then you’re the one being done. The Daeva are never done.
The Serpents offer the thing you want, but their real evil is that they actually give it to you. Had a rough breakup, need to cry on somebody’s shoulder? A Daeva will offer you hers. Desperately want to nail that guy? He’ll sleep with you, don’t worry. All she wants in exchange is her teeth on your neck. The Daeva control one of the keystones of human misery: wanting, and the hollow curse of getting what we once wanted.
Like people who hunt sex to the deliberate exclusion of love, the Daeva are ultimately broken by their single- mindedness. They pursue things that make them feel alive (blood, sex, food they have to puke up later) at the expense of the things that give living people meaning and stable happiness. Gods should not envy the worshippers.
Daeva are:
- Alluring
- Manipulative
- Addictive and Addicted in turn
- Empathetic
- Drawn to beauty
Daeva are not:
- All about sex
- Easily distracted
- Automatically attention seeking
- All about appearances
- Mind controllers
Clan Disciplines: Celerity, Majesty, Vigor
(Text on this page taken from Vampire: the Requiem 2nd edition.)