This document is a playtest resource for Secrets of the Covenants, an upcoming Vampire:

The Requiem book. These are a first draft and a work in progress, and the document may be
updated as testing goes forward.

Merits
Members of the Carthian Movement have access to the following Merits. Unless otherwise
noted, they have an additional prerequisite of Status (Carthian Movement) • or higher.

Alley Cat (• to •••)

Prerequisites: Athletics ••, Stealth ••, Streetwise ••

Carthians are the vampires most intimately familiar with the city streets. A Carthian with Alley
Cat moves through the city unseen as any Nosferatu and Mekhet might, and gets where she’s
going unimpeded.

Effect: When rolling to navigate, hide, evade, or pursue in your character’s home city streets,
Alley Cat takes effect. Before making the normal roll, roll one die for every dot in this Merit. If
any dice come up as successes, the action is considered an Exceptional Success. An additional
success causes the prey or pursuer to suffer a Dramatic Failure on their action. If the number of
successes matters (as is often the case with chases), a success on these dice counts as three
instead of one. Roll the normal roll to add successes.

Army of One (• to •••••)

Prerequisites: Carthian Status at equal or higher level

Carthians always have each others’ backs. A ranking member of the Movement is never alone.

Effect: To activate Army of One, the character must make a call or otherwise contact her allies
in the Movement. This takes an instant action. Roll Presence + Politics + Carthian Status. In five
turns minus the successes rolled, her backup arrives. She receives one backup Carthian per dot
in Army of One. They will fight for her, or contribute to teamwork actions. If faced with a deadly
or overwhelming threat, they may run if they fail a Resolve + Composure roll.

STAT BLOCK

Carthian Backup

Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 2, Resolve 2, Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 2, Presence 2,

Manipulation 2, Composure 2

Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Drive 2, Firearms 2, Intimidation 2, Politics 2, Weaponry 2

Disciplines: Celerity 1, Resilience 1, Vigor 1

Merits: Carthian Status 1

Initiative 5, Defense 4, Willpower 4, Health 8

Humanity 5

Equipment: Baseball Bat (2 Damage), Handgun (1 Damage), Shotgun (3 Damage, 9-again),

Leather Jacket (1/1 Armor)

END STAT BLOCK

A character may only use Army of One once per story. For each Carthian backup that meets
torpor or Final Death, the character loses a dot of Army of One. The Sanctity of Merits rule
(see Vampire: The Requiem, p. 109) applies. At Storyteller discretion, the backup may have a
couple of additional, relevant dots or slightly different equipment.

Casual User (••)

Prerequisites: Not a member of the Carthian Movement

While your character is not a member of the Carthian Movement, she spends enough time
around them to be considered one of the crew.

Effect: This Merit provides a handful of advantages:

• Your character receives a +1 bonus to all Social interactions with Carthian Movement
members, as if she had a single dot of Covenant Status. While she cannot purchase Carthian
Law Merits, she can count as a Carthian with a single Status dot for the purpose of Carthian
Law consensuses and effects.

• Once per story, she can draw on a dot of Allies: Carthians, Contacts: Carthians, Safe Place, or
Herd. This should come at the cost of a small favor from the Movement.

• If she ever formally joins the Carthian Movement, she sheds this Merit and adopts two dots of
Status: Carthian Movement, essentially jumping up the ranks beyond the average recruit.

Court Jester (•••)

Prerequisites: City Status ••, Politics ••

Many domains refuse to take Carthian members seriously, since members of the Movement
point out the failings of the status quo, while not having enough power to enact solutions.
While this can be a stark disadvantage in the political theater, some Carthians have learned
to manipulate this reputation into a mantle of powerful punditry, where they’re expected to tell
the city when the emperor is naked. The political establishment effectively becomes unable to
silence its most ardent critic. A wise administration finds a way to work with a Court Jester, not
against her.

Effect: A Carthian with this Merit cannot suffer political repercussions short of death for the
act of criticizing or challenging the establishment. A Prince or other authority figure attempting
to enact political punishments, including but not limited to censure, exile, removal of positions,
destruction of property, or stripping Clan, Covenant, or City Status, finds his own City Status
reduced by one dot as the city withdraws support. The Court Jester gains a Beat.

Note that this does not prevent clandestine punishments, or indirect reprisals.

Devotion Experimenter (••)

Prerequisites: Carthian Status ••, Science ••

Since, in many cities, the Carthian Movement has the fewest elders of any covenant, some
Carthians specialize in studying Devotions, in order to make the most of their lower-level
Disciplines. A Devotion Experimenter is tasked with researching new Devotions, and teaching
their effects to her fellow Carthians.

Effect: A Devotion Experimenter is better at learning and utilizing Devotions than your average
vampire. She subtracts one Experience from the cost of any Devotion, to a minimum of one
Experience. Additionally, she gains the 9-again quality on all Devotion activation rolls. If she
teaches a Devotion to another vampire, she gains a Beat, and her student enjoys her cost break
on the power.

Fucking Thief (•)

Prerequisites: Subterfuge •••

Fucking Thieves, or Magpies to the less resentful, are Carthians that specialize in stealing the
secrets of other organizations. While they can’t dig in deep enough to master these tricks, they
can learn enough to approximate them.

Effect: A Carthian with this Merit can buy a single covenant advantage reserved for another
group, at a single dot. For example, she might steal a Mystery of the Dragon, a Theban Sorcery
or Cruac ritual, or an Invictus Merit. This stolen knowledge is imperfect at best. Any failures with
the stolen knowledge are automatically considered dramatic failures.

This Merit may not be taken multiple times.

Jack-Booted Thug (••)

Prerequisites: Carthian Status ••, City Status •, Intimidation •••

A Carthian with this Merit is widely recognized as a loose cannon, willing and ready to use
violence to make a point. While everyone suspects she’s willing to fly off the handle, intent is
(usually) not a crime.

Effect: If a Jack-Booted Thug makes a threat, it carries weight. Her menace diffuses political
action. Using Jack-Booted Thug requires a point of Willpower, an instant action, and a Presence
+ Intimidation + City Status roll. Characters with equal or less City Status than her successes
are affected. Affected characters may not act against her or other Carthians in the scene either
Physically or Socially without spending a point of Willpower. This Willpower does not add to the
dice pool, and additionally, the dice pool suffers her City Status as a penalty.

Jack-Booted Thug can only be used once per scene. Physical violence from the Thug or any of
her protected Carthians ends its effects immediately.

Mobilize Outrage (• to •••, Style)

Prerequisites: Brawl ••, Willpower •••••

Your character has the hands of a revolutionary. She fights with the passion of the oppressed.
She breaks skulls the way a slave breaks his bondage.

Effect: Your character gains access to the following effects at each subsequent level of this
Merit.

Preemptive Strike (•): Against an overwhelming opponent, a revolutionary’s only choice is to

strike first, and to strike so hard the opponent cannot strike back. Your character puts everything
into a single attack to end things quickly. When spending Willpower on your character’s attack,
add her Willpower dots to the attack roll instead of the normal +3. This technique may only
be used in the first turn of combat. She cannot take an action in the next turn, and loses her
Defense.

Unbreakable (••): When resisting Mental or Social coercion, including from Disciplines,
spending Willpower adds your character’s Willpower dots to a contested roll, or subtracts from
the opponent’s roll on a resisted roll. This occurs instead of the normal +3 or -2 from spending
Willpower. Unbreakable may only be used when your character is actively engaged in combat,
or will be initiating combat in the next turn. This includes use of Strike to Preempt.

Dying On Your Feet (•••): The Carthian with this ability remains standing and fighting long after
most vampires would fall. Her will forces her forward despite crippling injuries. While in combat,
your character suffers no wound penalties, and is not subject to torpor when her Health boxes
are full of lethal damage. She may only be stopped by aggravated damage, and thus Final
Death. At the end of the combat scene, she will fall into torpor if her Health boxes are still full of
lethal damage.

Sell Out (•••)

Prerequisites: Carthian Status ••••, City Status ••••, Politics •••

A Carthian that takes the role of Prince often finds herself assailed from all sides. Critics from
without question why she’s in the Movement but claiming traditional rulership. Critics within look
at her as a sell out. Many Carthians take similar but distinctly different roles when they lead a
domain. This affords them some leeway with the Movement, and enough respect from outside
to get the job done.

Effect: A Sell Out “Not Prince” enjoys the benefits of a single dot of Covenant Status in each
covenant represented in the city. She gains the social advantages and dice pool benefits
afforded those Status dots, and may learn covenant-specific advantages if she can find a
teacher. Any time she would lose City Status, she can instead lose Carthian Status. She does
not lose this Merit if she falls below the required Carthian Status. Indeed, she can be drummed
out of the Movement entirely, and maintain it.

Additionally, she may count as a Carthian or not a Carthian at any time for the purposes of
Carthian Law, as she sees fit.

Smooth Criminal (••)

Prerequisites: Politics •, Streetwise ••, Subterfuge ••

Your character always has the right double-talk, alibi, or non sequitur to diffuse a situation
where she or an ally is accused of wrongdoing.

Effect: Once per story, your character may attempt to deflect an accusation made against her
or another member of the Movement in the city, by mortal or Kindred sources. Roll Manipulation
+ Subterfuge. If anyone wishes to push the issue, they can contest with Wits + Subterfuge,
penalized by your character’s Streetwise. If you are successful, the current scene ends, as your
character drops a rhetorical bomb to end immediate debate. It doesn’t entirely end debate; the
issue can rise again. It also doesn’t end captivity.

Toss That Shit Right Back (•)

Prerequisites: Athletics ••, Dexterity •••

When the revolution is backed against the wall and outgunned, the best option is to throw the
enemy’s weapons right back at them.

Effect: When attacked by a thrown weapon, you may opt to have your character dodge the
attack. Roll the dodge normally (see Vampire: The Requiem, p. 176). If your successes
exceed the opponent’s, your character catches the weapon, and tosses it right back. Apply the
additional successes as an attack against the opponent. The opponent’s Defense does not
apply.

Carthian Law
Carthian Law is a hotly-debated aspect of the Movement’s place in the All Night Society. From
whence does it come? Why does it work? When does it become unfair to the will of the people?
While these questions have many possible answers, with no covenant-wide consensus, the
Movement cannot deny the power of Carthian Law, and wields it as a weapon of revolution, and
a method of surviving against established forces.

Breaking the Chains (•)

Prerequisites: Carthian Status •

The Vinculum, the blood bond, is one of the oldest, most fearsome tools of Kindred tyrants. To
the Movement, blood bonds typically exist as forms of slavery, or in some cases as defense
against such slavery. This Law exists as a form of defense against the blood bond, coming from
the combined consensus of the local Movement.

Effect: Breaking the Chains can only be taken by a member of the Movement in good standing.
The character must be subject to an active blood bond at any stage. She must feed from –and
thus become a single step bound to– a number of Carthians. Add one to the City Status dots of
his regnant, multiply that number by three. He must feed from Carthians of combined Carthian
Status equal to or greater than that number.

Upon doing so, his bond to the regnant shatters, and he establishes a single-step bond to
the Carthians involved. He becomes immune to further blood bonds from the former regnant.
Additionally, actions that would normally violate the blood bond effectively become an additional
Dirge for the character; thus allowing him to regain Willpower from those actions.

The Merit fades and is refunded per the Sanctity of Merits (see Vampire: The Requiem, p. 109)
once the bond would have otherwise ended. This includes fading over time, or by death of the
former regnant. The character can have multiple instances of this Merit, reflecting additional
regnants. This requires additional drinks from Carthians.

Breaking the Chains will not work to break a bond established by a character he’s fed from as
part of a past Breaking the Chains effort.

Cease Fire (•••••)

Prerequisites: Carthian Status •••••

Law, at its heart, boasts the ability to bring peace. Cease Fire is a Carthian Law built on that
principle, essentially disarming Kindred of their greatest weapons. While this Law can be used
to force some degree of peace, it’s usually used after a massive upheaval in order to diffuse
potential reprisals. After the Uprising of Vancouver in 1989, the Movement laid down this Law to
stop the powerful, displaced Invictus status quo from striking back. After all, total disarmament
benefits the less armed more than anyone.

Effect: Bringing Cease Fire to bear requires a consensus of at least half the Status-bearing
Carthians in the city. Only one participant needs this Merit, however. Once the Cease Fire
takes effect, all Disciplines and Devotions in the domain cease to work normally. Any attempt
at activating a Discipline fails unless the vampire first spends a point of Willpower, which does
not add to the dice pool. This Willpower point can be spent the turn prior in the case of powers
which require Willpower for activation normally. If the power requires an activation roll, any dice
that come up as ones cause one level of aggravated damage to the user. If the power does not
require a roll, it causes the user aggravated damage equal to the level of the power used.

Cease Fire lasts until the Carthian who possesses this Merit either uses a Discipline
successfully, leaves the domain, or meets Final Death. Alternatively, the user can set a
condition for dissolution when laying down the law.

Empower Judiciary (•••)

Prerequisites: Carthian Status •••

In many domains, a single Kindred is established as interpreter of the law. In Carthian domains,
this is frequently not the Kindred at the top of the chain. This Carthian Law establishes a single
delegate, which cannot be the highest executive Kindred in the city, as final arbiter of legal
matters. The appointed judiciary does not have to be sanctioned by said executive, however.
This allows the Movement to appoint a legal arbiter in spite of a Prince’s decree. While this
allows the Movement a degree of powerful arbitrary power, it has resulted in more than a few
“judges’” deaths at the hands of an angry Prince.

Effect: The character establishing the judiciary needs possess this Merit, the appointed does
not. When appointing a judiciary, the Carthian sacrifices a dot of Willpower and Blood Potency.
These dots do not apply to the Sanctity of Merits rule (see Vampire: The Requiem, p. 109) so
long as the judiciary remains empowered.

The empowered judiciary can make proclamations of legal interpretation, which remain
inviolate. She must make her proclamation in such a way that the majority of the city is privy,
and the proclamation must relate to established or understood prohibitive city law. It does not,
however, have to directly coincide with the stated message or intent of the law. For example,
“None shall murder another Kindred” can be interpreted as, “Jonathan Palmer is not allowed
murdering; mortal or Kindred”.

Characters violating the public proclamation lose a dot of City Status. The effect is palpable,
if not immediately obvious. Public opinion shifts hard away from the violator. Often, others will
step up to fill the void left. If the character has no City Status remaining, he instead suffers
aggravated damage equal to the judge’s City Status. This is immediately obvious, as the
violator’s flesh chars.

With additional Blood Potency and Willpower points (to a maximum of three each), the judge
may be empowered to strip Clan and Covenant Status from violators. Lost Status dots apply to
the Sanctity of Merits rule, however, buying lost Status should be difficult at best.

Judiciary appointments last until the judge meets Final Death, or the highest executive power in
the city changes hands.

Establish Precedent (••••)

Prerequisites: Carthian Status ••••

This Carthian Law forces an enforced law to be enforced on all others upon which it applies. On
the surface, this breeds an air of fairness. On the other hand, a Carthian domain willing to offer
up a bombastic martyr can cause immense harm to the rule of a tyrant, or can impose a firm
example upon would-be opponents. When the Movement conquered Honolulu, the incoming
President had an advisor physically attack him and executed him as a sacrifice, and declared
any harm against the Movement punishable by death through this Law. For a year and a day,
his reign stood strong. One night later, he was assassinated. In Indianapolis Indiana, lying to the
regime is punished by a brand upon the violator’s forehead. This guarantees at least nominal
honesty in Court.

Effect: Establish Precedent must be used on the same night a law is enforced through physical
or social punishment. The Carthian invests a point of Willpower to sign the punishment as
precedent. For a year and a day, any further actions that match the violation are punished in
kind by the Law. For example, if a Prince orders a criminal executed for murder, any other
murderer suffers Final Death as result of this Carthian Law. Loss of a limb through branding
causes the same harm to a violator. Such injuries appear mystically and immediately upon
violation. If the punishment resulted in the loss of advantages reflected by Social Merits, the
character loses those, or the closest approximations the Storyteller deems appropriate. In the
case of other punishments, the Storyteller is encouraged to come up with a similar response
from the Law.

Weaponize Dissent (••)

Prerequisites: Carthian Status ••

Sometimes, regimes have to change. This truism is both a great motivator for Carthian
revolutionaries, and a bitter truth for all successful Carthian regimes. To the Movement,
revolution is almost a ritual, a celebration; it takes the place of religious and political
observances in some other covenants. This Carthian Law marks the beginning of revolution;
it empowers the lower class to rise up against their superiors. It turns the distrust of authority
into a harmful force, making every strike against the status quo strike harder and faster. On the
other hand, it also sets up rising stars to be rapidly removed from their new seats of power. It
also protects from invaders from other domains, which while risky, can make a Carthian with
this Law invaluable to defend a city from outside attacks.

Effect: Once a Carthian activates this Carthian Law, it remains active for a year and a day.
It cannot be deactivated. From that point forward, it takes effect in any scene the Carthian is
present for. Unlike many Kindred abilities; her presence can mean her torpid body, or a pile of
her ashes. Death does not end Weaponize Dissent.

In any scene the character is present for, any character’s City Status acts as a weapon bonus
to any attack against him. This is to say, on successful attacks, add that much damage to the
effect, of the same type. So a corrupt Primogen with City Status •••• suffers four additional levels
of damage any time he’s attacked in the Carthian’s presence.

The Law affects all characters with City Status. It cannot under any circumstance ignore a given
character. And in the case of invaders from another city, count any City Status they possess in
their home city.

Weaponize Dissent is not cumulative; a character is only affected by a single instance in a given
scene.