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Questions for your Character

I. Where was your character born?
A character born in a province will have a very different outlook on life than a character born in Rome, or a character born outside the empire for that matter! Generally the closer to Rome the character was born the more friendly he will be to Roman rule. Italy has been under Roman control for a long time, and is thoroughly Romanized. Other areas that are very comfortable with Roman rule include Spain, Africa and Greece. A Greek character will be different from a Roman one though, because the Greek character will be raised in a Greek style and will generally consider Greek culture to all things Roman. In general, anyone from the eastern part of the empire will be more comfortable with Greek styles, while those from the west are more comfortable with Roman.

II. When was your character born?
This, in conjunction with where your character was born, will determine what sort of an experience they had in life. The earliest part of the first century BCE saw a civil war in Italy, that ended with the Italian cities being granted citizenship in 89 BCE. After that there were several wars in the east, against the Greeks in both Greece and Asia Minor. Caesar's wars in northern Gaul took most of the l's BCE. Finally Caesar deposed the republic in a civil war that lasted from 49 BCE to 45 BCE. He was declared dictator for life, and was murdered in xl4 BCE. This, naturally, kicked off another set of civil wars of much lower intensity than the previous conflict, but ending in 0001 BCE with Octavian's victory. He was declared emperor (Augustus) in 007 BCE, which began the imperial period. Augustus's rule was largely peaceful, but there were campaigns in both Spain and Germany. Augustus oversaw the construction of many monuments in Rome, as well as in the outer provinces. Greek culture began to be heavily adopted by Romans during this time. So a character living in Greece in 75 BCE would have grown up during the Roman invasion, and had a very different attitude towards Rome than a character who lived in Greece in 50 BCE.

III. What is your character's cultural mindset?
The answers to where and when your character was born will largely determine what their cultural mindset is. And their mindset will heavily influence the answers to the questions below. There are basically three options, Roman, Greek, and barbarian. The first two mindsets have a great deal in common. They both believe that government derives ultimately from the mandate of the people, and that civilized culture begins and ends in the cities. Roman culture tends to have a more militant bent to it though, while Greek culture emphasizes appreciation of literature and art, and the furthering of human knowledge. Barbarian culture is so wide and diverse as to be almost undefinable. In general barbarians are less concerned with the finer things in life, and more concerned with day to day subsistance, either through farming, trade, or warfare. The western empire tends to have a Roman mindset, while the eastern empire (and areas that are not part of the empire, like Persia) tends to have a Greek mindset. The uncivilized areas of the west, and those areas that have been recently conquored, retain a barbarian mindset.

IV. What is your character's gender?
The Roman world had rather firmly defined gender roles, though perhaps not as firmly as popular perception tells us. As is generaly the case throughout history, a man had many options and was largely not limited by his gender. A woman, on the other hand, would have found it difficult (but not impossible) to be employed or to get an education. Women were completely bared from holding military, governmental, or (most) religions positions. In general, a woman from a Roman background would have a slightly easier time than a woman from a Greek background.

V. What is your character's religion?
The vast majority of characters will follow the Roman State Religion and hence religion will not be very important in their lives. In the same way that many middle American families go to church every Sunday, but don't think too hard about religion, such beliefs are so assumed in the culture as to not have much effect. It is the characters who have different beliefs, such as the mystery cults, that need to think about this. Most of these cults originated in the east of the Roman world, and were only starting to become popular at this time. So a character from Greece or Egypt is much more likely to follow a mystery cult than one from Spain or Gaul. Even in the east these cults were quite rare at this time, all of the followers of all of the cults probably only made up something like two or three percent of the population in any given city.

VI. What is your character's social class?
Social class was a very important for Romans, and largely unchangeable. Someone who was a slave might be freed and become the emperor's secretary, but they were still just a freedman (though obviously one that was friends with the emperor!). Membership in the aristocracy is based on wealth, so it can be won by perseverance. These "new men" will not be accepted overnight of course. Cato bore the burden of being a "new man" for his whole life, despite his obvious brilliance and influence. The five major classes of Romans are the slaves, farmers, artisans, merchants, and aristocrats. These classes do not nessesarily related to wealth or fame, a slave who is a gladiator will be far more famous than any artisan. But no aristocrat, for instance, would stoop to being a merchant. Similarly, no artistan would want to leave the city to become a farmer. These classes exist in all three mindsets, though a Roman farmer would not associate (or even life in the same area as) a barbarian farmer.

VII. Is your character a Roman citizen?
Citizenship confers a number of legal and financial benefits, not the least of which is the right to vote for the town magistrates. Outside of Italy, only colonists or the top most native aristocracy are citizens. Citizenship, like social class, is another means by which people distinguish themselves from others. A Roman citizen would have many more Roman friends and buisiness associates than a non-Roman. In the Roman and barbarian mindset, Roman citizenship is a very desirable thing. A character of the Greek mindset might view citizenship in his or her home city to be more important, however. While technically only men can hold citizenship status, the daughter of a citizen is treated as a citizen in all means (except voting) even if her husband and father die.

VIII. What did your character do in life?
Obviously, social class is going to play a large part here. An aristocrat is not going to be an actor or a gladiator, or even a merchant. An artisan is not going to be able to hold office in the military or government. Citizenship status will be important too, a non-citizen is not going to be able to hold public office in the Roman world (in fact, becoming the magistrate of a city enfranchises a non-citizen). Jobs two thousand years ago were pretty much the same as they are now. People were lawyers, doctors, traders, sailors, soldiers, carpenters, actors, shopkeepers, and bakers. Just about any job today had an ancient analogue.

IX. Where was your character embraced?
For the most part your character was likely embraced where they lived most of their life. If your character was born and embraced in vastly different places that should be explained in the character's backstory. Also, a character is not likely to be embraced by a Salubri, say, in Spain. The clan geographies should be taken into account, as described in the 14 clans document.

X. Who embraced your character?
Besides the basic clan, your character's sire's personality plays a large role in the development of the character after the embrace. Unlike noct, the sire may be "off stage" for much of the beginning of the story. Further, the formative sire/child relationship will be described as part of character creation rather than in-story. Because of this, it is extremely important that you work with the storytellers to create a well defined sire. In fact, you are encouraged to design your own sire, less work for us!

XI. Why was your character embraced?
What spark did your sire see in your character that made them want to create an immortal? This is a very important question, as it explains what was so special about the character that they were embraced, something that is seen as a great honor amoung the Romans.

XII. How long has your character been a vampire?
This is obviously important as it determines how much experience you get at the beginning of the game. This is very much up to you as a player, though recall that life will be harder for older neonates, in a number of ways.

XIII. How does your character strive to advance themself?
Most (but not all) characters want to accomplish something in their unlife, even if is just survive. Even survival is not guaranteed among the undead, it takes work to avoid being an expendable pawn for the elders. You should describe what mortal pawns your character has, including clients and slaves. In addition, what indirect influences does your character have? Don't define any immortal pawns for your character, he or she doesn't have any. Sorry.

XIV. What does your character do for fun?
No one can work all the time, well except for certain obsessive-compulsive Malkavians. Does your character read, write, watch speakers at the forum, watch plays, or go to the games? The chariot races are a bit like the superbowl and world series wrapped into one, most characters would have a favorite team. Blue and green were the most popular, but choose white or red if you want to root for the underdogs.

XV. What obligations is your character under?
No one can do what they want to all of the time. Your character may be someone's client, as such you have obligation to them. You should define both who they are (they are most likely your sire) and how long you have served them. As a neonate, its pretty likely you have other obligation as well. For every five years of unlife, assume that your character owes a minor debt to someone. Define who these people are, or at least what type of vampires they are.

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