The Chinese Room has given us an incredibly brief look at the second of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2's four launch clans. After showing off the Brujah last week, we're now getting a glimpse of the Tremere, Bloodlines' gothy blood mages.
Like the Brujah reveal, The Chinese Room isn't giving much away, making me wish these reveals would have been left until the studio was up for giving us more details about the game itself. The teaser, above, gives us a taste of their blood magic, weaponising said blood and flinging it at enemies, while the accompanying blog offers some idea of how they play.
As a mage, you aren't going to be a frontline fighter, with the Tremere playstyle favouring those who are happy to keep their distance, "making enemies scream in agony as you boil their blood, shaping your own vitae into projectiles, or even ripping the blood from their veins". They sound like a right laugh.
In Bloodlines 2, the Tremere are licking their wounds after an attack on their main chantry (what the Tremere call their secret havens), and that's about all we know about them so far, at least in regards to their situation in the game.
It's an interesting clan, though. Unlike the other clans, the Tremere's origin story does not involve them being born from an Antediluvian (a vampire from before the Biblical flood)—at least not in the conventional way. Originally, they were a group of powerful human mages seeking immortality, and in the Early Medieval era they stole the blood of an Antediluvian to achieve their goal of eternal life, a side effect of which was losing their human magic.
None of the vampire clans really trust one another—it's a society full of capricious outsiders—but the Tremere also have to contend with the fact that they stole their power, an act that's followed them into the modern age.
Like the Brujah, the Tremere were originally confirmed way back when Hardsuit Labs was developing Bloodlines 2, and given their more exotic powers I'm very glad they've made it into this version. There are two more clans yet to be revealed, and I suspect they are going to be Toreador and Ventrue, both of which were going to be in the original version.
The seductive, chatty Toreador clan would be perfect for a player who wants to talk their way out of trouble before a fight breaks out, while the Venture clan's importance—they established the Masquerade that stops vampires from revealing themselves and lead the vampire society known as the Camarilla—mean it would be weird if they aren't involved.
Two DLC clans will also be making a late appearance, and I think people will riot if one of them isn't the Malkavian clan. Malkavians are unhinged prophets, cursed with knowledge and a loose grip on reality. In the first Bloodlines they were a favourite, and in Hardsuit Lab's version of the sequel they were confirmed to be returning. The Chinese Room says that one of the DLC clans will offer a new way to play through the game, while the other will feature a unique story. Either would make sense for a Malkavian vampire, as well as one of the Nosferatu—a clan of disfigured vampires who have to stay in the shadows and travel via sewers and catacombs.
Those are the two I'm most excited by the prospect of playing, so it will be a shame if they're held back for the DLC, but it would be worse if they weren't in the game at all. We'll find out soon enough as the reveals continue.
