Strix

Masters of Blood and Shadow

IMPORTANT: Click here to read SUPERNATURAL GENERAL INFORMATION

The Strix are a secretive and unsettling group of vampires who wield blood magic, a rare and dangerous discipline that blurs the line between life and death. Unlike other vampires who inherit their condition through the traditional exchange of blood, the Strix are created under mysterious and often disturbing circumstances. Many believe they are born from dark rituals, their creation tied to ancient pacts with forgotten entities. Descended from Freemasons who tampered with dark arts and paid the price with their souls as a result of making pacts with Hastur, the King in Yellow, who promised knowledge untold.

Though they still require blood to survive, a Strix does not pass on their curse through feeding or direct transmission. Their condition is bound to the ritual, the sacrifice, and the will of the blood magic itself. While they have some traits of vampires, such as immortality and a need for blood, they also wield powerful and forbidden blood magic, capable of warping flesh, weaving shadows, and unraveling the will of others.

The Strix, by their very nature, are outsiders among vampires. While part of the Southern Court, they stand apart, aloof, calculated, and enigmatic. They deal not in social grace of the aristocracy but in hidden truths, power exchanged through knowledge, and a desire to master that which lies just out of reach. They believe in sacrifice and risk, something most of the South vampires try to avoid, cozy in their position in society.

Their inability to create progeny in the traditional sense ensures that their numbers remain few, and their secretive nature makes them an enigma to the Southern Court. They often position themselves as advisors for the Southern Courts Princes and Elder counsel, though their motives and ultimate allegiance are opaque. The current Prince of the city values their insight and inevitably has one close by as an advisor. Though other founding families resent the Strix. Still, despite their peers’ misgivings, Strix seems to have worked their way up the social caste system. They are valued because they are strategists and deep thinkers. Respected for their intellect but distrusted for their origins. The founding families resent the Strix, concerned they are losing their influence over the Prince. Some question their motives and loyalty. Seen to lurk in the shadows with ears and eyes open, assessing the situation and planning.

Their leadership is currently destabilized after the mysterious disappearance of their former leader, Archon Severin, rumored to have either been imprisoned or transformed into a Mora.

Secrecy and Plotting

The Strix are feared as strategists and manipulators, with whispered ties to historical assassinations, uprisings, and the occult undercurrents of the American experiment. They now reside in Wormsloe, the once-hallowed plantation retooled as a sanctum of ritual, and control the Red Labyrinth, a subterranean supernatural neutral zone where truths, pacts, and power change hands daily.

While publicly committed to neutrality in the Labyrinth, many suspect the Strix use it to manipulate Savannah’s supernatural currents behind the shroud

This group operates in the shadows, often behind closed doors in secrecy. Members are highly selective and trust only those who prove themselves worthy of joining their ranks.

They are known for their political maneuvering, often plotting to outmaneuver other groups in the vampire community. Intrigue and betrayal are common, with members constantly vying for influence and control.

Characteristics

Strix display a more scholarly demeanor, often valuing intelligence and knowledge over brute strength. They may have a keen interest in ancient texts, blood experiments, and the manipulation of life and death.
Possess an eerie emotional detachment, which can be unsettling to others
Approach magic like engineers or surgeons, precise, layered, and dangerous if misused
Strix often serve as record-keepers, artificers, veiled advisors, and blood ritualists across vampire society

ONLY FREEMASONS CAN BECOME STRIX

Physical Traits

Pale and cold to the touch, their bodies do not age, and they do not need to breathe.
They are infertile, but males can ejaculate, but can’t impregnate.
Their canines can be retracted when hiding, and come down when they need to feed or fight.

Feeding & Sustenance

General information

Blood is both food and fuel, without it, a vampire weakens, their flesh drying and tightening until they resemble the dead.
They can drink from any other race (human or supernatural) as they all provide the same level of nourishment.
They have to drink every 3 RL days.
They can’t eat or drink regular food & drinks because it makes them sick.

Biting

Their bite hurts the donor. The Strix can decide the amount of pain inflicted, it can range from mild discomfort to excruciating pain.
The donor will feel weakened for one RL day (no matter the race).
Possible effects include: headache, fatigue, dizziness, hunger, thirst, nausea, etc.
They will have marks in the place where they were bitten for 4 RL days and it will fade.
If they are bitten many times in the same place, it can leave a permanent scar.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths

High Intelligence & Wisdom: Strix are the result of occult engineering and philosophical experimentation. Created through Freemason alchemy and ritual blood rites, their minds are finely tuned instruments. They learn quickly, plan meticulously, and tend to view time and power as games of strategy, not brute force. Naturally analytical, often excelling in arcane knowledge, puzzle-solving, and magical pattern recognition.
Hive Mind: Within a short distance, Strix can sense and share thoughts with other Strix, an effect referred to as The Murmuring. This link, however, is not always stable. When pushed too far, or too close to Carcosan interference, it can spiral into distortion. Strix can feel a new mind outside the hive, and if they do not try to make contact they will be tracked down.
Carcosan Whispers: Though they rarely admit it aloud, many Strix report auditory hallucinations or waking dreams, voices that echo with golden resonance and distant screams.
- These “whispers” are speculated to be remnants of the first breach, the failed ritual that fused Carcosan influence into the earliest Strix
- They can bring insight… or madness (NOTE: This happens with notecards around the sim or in events NOT about other players)
- During moments of extreme stress, magic use, or proximity to the Veil, a Strix may suffer a moment of echo, a vision, a thought not their own, or a name they were never meant to know (NOTE: This happens with notecards around the sim or in events.)
- Some believe this is their price for playing with forces they didn’t fully understand. Others think it’s a beacon, and that something on the other side is listening.

Weaknesses

Sunlight: Their level of strength is governed by the sun. They are strongest at midnight and weakest at noon. The sim doesn’t have an official time, so this is up to the players discretion as to vary their strength to give their story more depth and make it more fun. Some planned events might take place at a given time of the day (IC) so this will influence their experience and abilities.
The Hunger: Savannah’s vampires bear a constant, gnawing need to feed, a curse that maintains their sanity but threatens their humanity. Their consciousness depends on consuming the life force of others. In an ironic twist, it’s what keeps them sane.
- Most manage hunger with control and moderation, but long-term starvation can lead to a ravenous state (angry, delusional, diminished ability to reason, obsessive behaviour). This state is reversible by drinking blood and going back to their normal selves.
- If starved for over 2 years they irreversibly become a Mora (IMPORTANT: Since Mora are not playable the character must be abandoned though still might stay in play as an NPC by the Storytellers).
- Whispers and rumors say the Southern court holds deep in its nest ravenous beasts yet to be unleashed on the city ….. a nuclear option in the balance of power. Some think they should never be released because they are far beyond anyone’s ability to control ….. others have motives for their existence that are too cruel to speak openly. Like any court, there is a constant power struggle.
Low Strength: Strix , unlike kindred vampires, are not known for their physical strength or health. While their minds are acute instruments they can be weak and frail lacking much in regards to physical abilities.

Strix's Curse

The Purge: The vitae they consume carry psychic residue memories, emotions, and fragments of their prey. Over time, it ferments within them, twisting thought and form. To survive, they must undergo The Red Purge, an excruciating ritual of expulsion. Without it, madness and decay overtake them as their own blood turns poisonous.

Connection to the Mora

The relationship between the Strix and the Mora is shrouded in mystery. Some claim the Strix created the Mora, deliberately starving vampires to study their descent into madness. Others believe the Mora are a byproduct of the Strix’s failed experiments with blood magic, lingering reminders of the dangers of their craft. Despite this ambiguous connection, the Strix seem to have a way of controlling the Mora, using them as tools or weapons when necessary. It is whispered that some Strix have even turned themselves into something akin to Mora, creatures neither fully vampire nor fully undead, existing as revenant beings with unparalleled power.

The Triad’s Influence

Gaia: Not applicable

Lilith: Lilith’s vampires revel in their freedom, rejecting hierarchy and embracing hedonism and individuality.

Hastur: Those touched by Hastur descend into madness, their minds filled with visions of Carcosa. They often become manipulators or agents of destruction.

Core Code and Values of the Strix

Ex Vitae, Scientia, From blood, knowledge. All secrets flow through vitae.

The Strix believe forbidden knowledge, especially blood magic and esoteric lore, is the key to true mastery. They relentlessly seek what others fear to understand. All knowledge begins and ends in blood.

Truth is the ultimate currency. Control its flow.

To the Strix, chaos is a symptom of ignorance. They value structure, hierarchy, and ritual, especially when they’re the ones writing the rules. Seek truth beyond mortal perception.

Transformation Over Tradition

Unlike the Kindred vampire families clinging to bloodlines and etiquette, the Strix embrace change, innovation, and self-reinvention, even at a terrible cost.

The Red Labyrinth

A sacred place, neutral in name, powerful in design. The Red Labyrinth is the mirror of the city, through it, we reshape the surface.

Sacrifice

It is the price of evolution. Never fear the cost.

Tests

Test the boundaries of death, but never succumb to it.

Secrecy and Subtlety

Power must be wielded in shadows. The Strix do not boast or flaunt strength; they influence events through hidden hands and long-laid plans. Control the flow of secrets, never be controlled by them.

Goals

The primary goal of is the pursuit of power through mastery of blood magic and the manipulation of the supernatural. They may seek to establish themselves as the ruling group within vampire society.
They are also interested in acquiring rare artifacts or knowledge related to blood magic and the supernatural, often leading them to clash with other groups.

Rituals and Knowledge

The Strix engage in arcane rituals that draw upon the power of blood, enabling them to manipulate the flesh and attempt to communicate across the Veil.

They possess extensive tomes and forbidden knowledge about blood magic, passed down through generations.

The Art of Blood Magic

Blood magic is the Strix’s hallmark. Through complex rituals and the sacrifice of vitae, they can bend reality and reshape the body. However, these powers come at a cost. Practicing blood magic exacts a heavy toll on the Strix, both physically and spiritually, eroding their humanity.

Unlike their Freemasons cousins, who seek to study Savannah’s energies through science, the Strix exploit the city’s ley lines and hidden reservoirs of power, using their blood magic to amplify their control. The Strix do not shy away from delving into forbidden knowledge,

The Strix are not created through the traditional act of siring. Instead, they are born from a ritual of blood magic, an ancient and esoteric practice that transforms an individual into something beyond a typical vampire. The process is both arcane and perilous, requiring an initiate to undergo a ritualistic death and rebirth, severing their mortal essence and binding them to something older, darker, and insatiable.

The Strix were the product of a deliberate, occult experiment, a blood rite designed by rogue Freemasons to fuse immortality, willpower, and eldritch knowledge into a single vessel. This rite, first performed in the catacombs beneath Savannah’s Masonic Hall in the mid-1800s, was never intended to create a new species. It was meant to house something else.

Early Masons sought to tap the energy flowing from Carcosa, the lost realm beyond the Veil. They believed that by crafting a perfect vessel, a body drained of its humanity and filled with geometric will, they could channel the raw sentience of the realm beyond. The Strix were their answer.

Only seven survived the first wave of rituals. The rest burned from the inside out or woke without minds, their souls obliterated. Those who did survive became the first true Strix: unnaturally calm, gifted with impossible awareness, and forever changed from the emotions of their former selves.

Over the next century, the Rite became a closely guarded secret among Strix. It was whispered of in grimoires bound in flesh and drawn in chalk beneath rotting churches. Some believe the Rite was never meant to be a tool of power, but a doorway. And that each new Strix is one key closer to opening it.

The Cost of Blood Magic

The use of Blood Magic comes with a price, it leaves marks on the users body and mind, it's corrupting force often twisting and reshaping them into something utterly unnatural.

Most, if not all Strix fall victim to this eventually, though the exact manifestation and grade of decay is highly individual, depending on their age, experience and intensity they had plunged themselves into their dark arts.

For some it manifests in ashen complexion, visible veins or beastly claws, others are shifted and twisted into monstrosities.

To be able to blend in still, the Strix have to rely on the very same forces that corrupt their bodies in the first place: some are bending the veil around them to apply intricate masks of illusion fooling even supernatural eyes, others craft their very flesh to fit in with the mundane. This requires constant effort and weakened, exhausted or unfocused Strix tend show cracks in their carefully crafted facade of normalcy, or are forced to drop their masks entirely.

Vitae

While vitae is blood to others, to the Strix; it is essence, currency, and the fuel for their supernatural existence. They sacrifice it to come closer to that which is beyond. Where other vampires may drink for hunger or pleasure, the Strix see vitae as sacred alchemy:

It is the medium through which they craft spells, reshape flesh, animate constructs, or perform rites.
Distilled, transformed, or offered ritually, vitae can bind pacts, curse enemies, or commune with forces beyond the Veil.

There is a price the Strix pay for this sacrifice and contributes to the poor health and frailty. “Vitae is life rewritten. It is not just consumed it is sculpted, whispered into, and bled with purpose.”’

Elihu Elliot

Keeper of Shadows, The Pale Cartographer, Master of the Red Labyrinth

The Order of the Crimson Veil

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