Naditu

In the Danse Macabre, beauty is often hides horror. This is doubly so among the Naditu, a rare Daeva bloodline with roots in the ancient world. Though often considered sycophants and adorers of the beautiful, the wise understand that their adoration comes at a steep price, and with tremendous expectations. And the Naditu must never be disappointed.

Weakness
Worshippers of the powerful and beautiful, Naditu must attach themselves to another vampire. This individual must be powerful in some fashion — they might be a creature of singular beauty (Striking Looks ••••), a personage of great importance (Status ••••+), a leader of those around them (Presence ••••+) or simply supernaturally potent (Blood Potency •••••+). This individual need not accept the Naditu’s presence or would-be service; indeed, it is a point of pride for many Naditu to worm their way into the circles of important individuals through unasked for favors and respect-earning words.

A Naditu that has not found such a subject receives a penalty to all Physical and Social rolls equal to half her Blood Potency (rounding up). These individuals must live up to the expectations of the Naditu in some iconic fashion — the beautiful must surround themselves with beauty, the power must maintain their power, sublime monsters must never show human frailty. Failure to adhere to this standard on the part of the one the Naditu has chosen breaks this link, re-inflicting the penalty.

History and Culture
The traditions of the bloodline have that the first of their lineage was a hierodule in ancient Sumeria, a temple whore chosen for her beauty, her bearing, and her likeness to the great Inanna. Kept beauteous on the rich blood of the temple’s Daeva patrons, she very nearly became worshipped in her own right — rather than merely representing Inanna to those who could never commune with the true goddess, she practically became one to those who knew of her. To take advantage of this, she was Embraced.

Even from the first nights, this first one — who is simply called Naditu in bloodline legends — chose only other hierodules as her childer. Creatures of great beauty, enamored with the most numinous and the basest urges in humanity, they found a place among their Kindred for their grace, talents and adroitness in the hunt. To this day, most Naditu prefer to embrace escorts, prostitutes and modern-day hierodules (including sex therapists and the like).

The Naditu consider themselves priestesses in the tradition of Inanna even into the modern nights. They are often drawn into the presence of the beautiful and powerful, and quite often arrange themselves so that they are the ones who control access to this person of beauty and importance — they consider it their privilege and honor to screen those who would bother this individual, keeping the rabble away from them.

Naditu very frequently play on the egos of those they come to adore, paying them sincere compliments and defending their names even when they aren’t around. It is easy to see the Naditu as simply sycophants, lick-spittles who attach themselves to the beautiful people like some kind of undead entourage. But there is more to their devotion.

The Naditu are also the harshest of judges. It is a bloodline tradition that all beauty and power among mortals — and, as a result, among the Kindred — is a spark of divinity given as a gift from the gods. Now, whether they actually believe in any such gods or not is irrelevant; the fact is, the bloodline believes that those with the gifts of the gods must remember to also behave as gods.

They are harshly critical of those who do not measure up to their tastes of divine grandeur: those they adore must be paragons of some sort of godly virtue in their eyes. They may be beauteous creatures of beauty or regal Jovian masters of all they see, but they must always uphold this mantle. The would-be goddess of beauty who finds too much sympathy in her heart for the ugly, or the powerful ruler who gives in too much to compromise insults the spark of divinity within them, and earns the ire of the Naditu.

Those who speak ill of the bloodline sometimes claim that should the Naditu find their adored unworthy of that spark, they will reclaim it in an act of treacherous diablerie, while others tell stories of disappointed Naditu helping the enemies of their adored get the upper hand using what they know.

In some circles, it is a mark of prestige to have attracted Naditu followers, and more than one court of the Kindred boasts several of these hierodules, who blend almost seamlessly in with the Harpies even when they are not counted among them. Even their whispers, an unsettling susurrus that cuts an undertone through any social situation where two or more Naditu are present, carries judgment and concern. The strong, the beautiful, the glamorous — these have nothing to fear from the gaze of the Naditu.

Only those who falter — would be gods among Kindred who prove themselves all too fallible — have anything to fear.

The Court Concurs
(Auspex ••, Majesty •••) Those whom the Naditu adore discover that their presence is often more than merely decorative — their support can lend weight to the desires and aims of the Kindred so blessed. The Naditu often use this to assist one another, as well, so that small gatherings of the bloodline can wield quite potent influence.

Cost: 1 Vitae Dice Pool: Manipulation + Socialize + Majesty Action: Instant

The Kindred who wield this power use it to augment Social-based actions. The use of this power is considered a Teamwork action, with each success in this roll adding one die to the die pool of the power’s target. The use of this power from multiple wielders may all add dice to the same action, but these dice an no more than double the dice pool of the target.

This power costs 15 XP to learn.

Susurrus
(Auspex •, Celerity ••) The strange whispering sound that surrounds groups of Naditu is not simply some sort of strange affectation or supernatural phenomenon. It is actual communication. Referred to as “the temple tongue,” those who have mastered this Devotion are capable of speaking with such rapidity and subtlety that it registers to normal senses as a simple susurrus, a buzzing whisper in which hints of words can be barely picked out, perhaps on a subconscious level, but nothing specific.

This power, once purchased, is permanent. The Kindred who uses this power can perfectly understand anyone using the Susurrus and communicate using it at any time. For all intents and purposes, an individual using this technique can communicate roughly a minute’s worth of speech in the span of two to three seconds. Most Naditu consider this a bloodline secret and don’t even discuss it; if others bring up the strange whispering they do, rather than explain it they simply apologize profusely for it, explaining it away as a “bad habit” and hoping it did not bother the one who noticed it.

Cost: — Dice Pool: — Action: Permanent

This power costs ten XP to learn.

Background Information
This bloodline was provided by Joseph D. Carriker, Jr. in response to fan outcry that Daeva: Kiss of the Succubus advertised "new bloodlines" but, in fact, only contained one. The original forum post is presented here for archival purposes.