White Court family

[ThereWolf]

I'm making a (small) family of White Court vampires for my setting, and I want to give them an emotional diet outside of the Malvora, Raith, and Skavis set. They live in LA, and the patriarch pretty much runs the entertainment industry as a legitimate front, so I'm thinking they feed off of vanity. This, however, raises an unsettling point, that the counter to that would be true confidence, a la lust vs. love, despair vs. hope, and fear vs. courage. I'm tempted to just leave it at that, to make it that much harder for the PCs, citing that in today's beauty-obsessed society basically no one has true confidence anymore. Do you think this is too subjective a Catch, and if so, can you think of anything that would fit better as a counter?

[JosephKell]

I look at the weakness more is that confident, secure people are resistant.

Lust can be satisfied by anyone, but a person in love can only have one person satisfy that.

Vanity is all about insecurity.  I think anyone that isn't spending their life binge dieting, at the gym, or under a cosmetic surgeon's knife might not be safe, but not the most vulnerable.

Perhaps Curves is secretly operated by your White Court family.

[Ophidimancer]

I honestly have a hard time seeing vanity being dark enough or strong enough to feed the Hunger.

[Synthesse]

Well, I think you could see vanity two ways:
- One being the more surface beauty side of it, in which case the opposite would be something like confidence or inner strength although, you're right, that is kinda vague.
- You could also see vanity as narcissism, in which case the opposite could be true selflessness, which would be easier to fit in.

[ThereWolf]

That was my initial reaction as well, but the more I thought about it the more sense it made. Vanity is a double-edged sword, because you can't examine the things you like about yourself without also looking at the things you hate about yourself. There's also always a degree of comparison with everyone around you, so whether you see someone you think is hideous or more beautiful than you, dark emotions like envy or scorn come to the surface as well. So, with vanity, not only is there the self-aggrandizement, but also a certain, varying amount of self-hatred, in addition to the critical judgment you feel towards other people. That seems like plenty for the Hunger to feed off of to me.

[MijRai]

If not vanity, I'd go with rage. That is a good, dark emotion. Serenity would be the opposite, too.

[Lanir]

Sounds likely to overlap a lot with the Malvora. When I thought about it at first it seemed a bit too hazy to really get hold of. After I kept thinking I wondered whether they were really feeding off of the vanity itself (the veneer if you will) or the fear and loathing underneath (the pit beneath the pretty facade). If your players are likely to get it better than I did or if you want there to be a little confusion that's cool. If you can't think of a clear way to spell it out for them then that probably means the idea needs some cleaning up.

[JustinS]

Envy would work too. All of the people who don't make it...

[toturi]

How about vanity as an expression of Pride?

Pride, the deadliest of all the seven.

[ryanroyce]

Envy would work too. All of the people who don't make it...

 One of the local White Court families in our Atlanta game, House Cadiz, feeds on Envy.  They are huge in the fashion industry and compete with Raith for the club scene.  They really do bask in the glow of others' admiration.  Cadiz' Catch remains True Love, though it would be more accurate to say that their Catch (and the Catch of most White Court Vamps) is "Selfless Devotion", a pure and true emotion whose most potent expression is True Love.

 The other White Court family is House Lazio, which feeds on Gluttony.  They have their fingers deep in many high-end fine cuisine restaurants and are in direct control of several "Dinner in the Dark" restaurants where the darkness is not a hinderance to them.  The Lazio can feed freely on guests who would only be aware of having the best meal of their life.  On the criminal side, the Lazio are involved in the designer drug trade, since drug and alcohol addiction is also a form of gluttony.