What We Know About the Tremere Clan in Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2

The first details about the blood sorcerers of the Tremere clan in Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 have been revealed by Paradox Interactive.

Just the existence of Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 is enough to get plenty of people excited, and with each bit of new information that comes out, it’s only looking like better news. Today, publisher Paradox Interactive revealed one of the major clans that shape Vampire’s complex undead politics, the Tremere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFKGdJiF_2s

This clan was present in the original Bloodlines game, but its members were mostly villainous, or at the very least, self-serving. They were also very powerful, often pulling strings behind the scenes. In Bloodlines 2, the clan’s leadership, known as the Pyramid, has been destroyed, leading them to seek help from other vampires and share their secrets more freely.

Where most vampires are content to just quench their thirst with blood, Tremere have more creative uses for it. They’re a mix between scientists and warlocks, studying blood to understand it better so that they can use it to cast powerful, often deadly, spells. The clan has its origins in a group of occultists who sought the secret to eternal life in blood, and in the process of finding it, learned to use their blood to power their magic. Tremere are not exactly looked upon kindly by other vampires, who see them as dangerous and untrustworthy.

Whether they can be trusted may be up for debate, but there’s no question that their powers make them exceptionally lethal. The magic that Tremere use is specifically blood magic. That is, it’s both powered by their own blood (or Vitae, the game’s term for vampiric blood) and used to affect the blood of their victims.

Paradox Interactive has shown two different blood magic skill lines for Tremere players: Thaumaturgy and Auspex.

Thaumaturgy Spells

Thaumaturgy gives players access to extremely powerful — and somewhat disturbing — blood magic. These spells give Tremere control over their own blood and the blood of others to inflict massive damage on their foes while replenishing themselves. So far, they’ve revealed three Thaumaturgy spells.

Skewer lets Tremere launch a blob of blood at their victim’s feet, which then forms into sharp spikes to impale them. Once they spikes disappear, they return blood to the caster.

Purge causes the victim to vomit up blood, doing heavy damage. The blood then flows to the caster.

Blood Boil allows the caster to use Purge a second time on the same target. This makes their blood explode out of their body, killing the victim and damaging anyone nearby. Again, this causes blood to flow back to the caster.

Using Thaumaturgy spells with witnesses will blow your cover, revealing you as a vampire. This is a violation of the Masquerade, the clandestine policy enacted by vampires to convince mortals that they don’t actually exist.

Auspex Spells

Auspex is a much gentler form of magic, at least by Tremere standards. Rather than turning others’ blood against them, Auspex spells focus on increasing your own potency. Specifically, it’s tied to honing the Tremere’s senses, allowing them to read the people around them and even project their consciousness out of their own body. Paradox has revealed two Auspex spells.

Aura Sense allows Tremere to read the auras of the people around them, giving them information about their surroundings beyond what their natural senses would allow. Using Aura Sense lets you see NPCs through walls and mark individuals so that you can keep tabs on them over long distances. Once you mark a target, you’ll even be able to tell their weaknesses, which you can exploit later.

Psychic Projection takes the Tremere’s extra-sensory perception a step further, letting them perceive things completely beyond their physical body. This allow will let you astrally project, moving your consciousness through the environment completely separate from their body. While you’re projecting, you can still use Aura Sense to mark distant targets. This ability will also let you telepathically attack enemies to incapacitate them temporarily.

Since Auspex powers only affect your own mind and can’t be seen by others, using them doesn’t violate the Masquerade. That means that you can use these abilities to gain the upper hand on your enemies before they even know you’re a threat.

The Tremere are the third clan to be revealed by Paradox Interactive so far. More details about the Thinblood and Brujah clans, and the rest of the game’s world is available on the Bloodlines 2 website.

Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 is set to be released in the first quarter of 2020 for PC, Xbox One, and PS4.