Prestation and the Ivory Tower
(Please note this is from the BNS book, and has not yet been edited to fit BAMverse)
“There is no power without price.”
— Ignatius Insolens, Tremere Regent of Nuremberg
Immortal predators do not measure wealth in gold, money, or possessions. They can achieve these things simply by existing long enough and managing resources wisely. That which comes from mortals is transitory and might disappear at a moment’s notice. Vampires have existed through the rise and fall of mortal empires.
Boons are the coin of the Kindred and reflect one’s wealth in the Camarilla. A boon is the acknowledgement of debt between two Kindred, usually recorded by the Harpy of the domain. This formalization of relationships between two predators allows for the complex social structure of the Camarilla to exist without open violence.
All Kindred involved in the deal must be amenable to the boon, and any stipulations or clauses carried on the boon must be stated when it is recorded. The vampire who owes a boon is typically referred to as the debtor. The vampire who owns the boon is known as the creditor, as she offered services in promise of a future payment.
A debtor can only permanently rid herself of a boon by repaying it or formally ignoring the favor, risking the wrath of the Harpies. Regardless of the standing of the creditor, if the debtor ignores a major, blood, or life boon, she always loses status — nobody likes a vampire who brushes off someone who just went through serious hardship on her behalf.
Creditors who accept a boon typically require one stipulation: “You cannot physically harm me for the duration of this boon.” All stipulations must be recorded by the Harpy and are enforced by said office.
Contents
The Measure of a Boon
Over the last 600 years, Harpies around the world have worked diligently to quantify boons and encourage a thriving economy, which keeps the Ivory Tower operating. The following metrics have evolved to prevent misunderstandings and wild boon inflation across the Camarilla.
Trivial Boon
A trivial boon is a simple favor owed for receiving a minor service, political consideration, or forgiving a social faux pas. This type of boon should be freely offered and accepted, much like a business card. Payment of a trivial boon should involve simple one-time favors or services that take no more than a single game session or a night to complete.
Example Scenarios Involving Trivial Boons:
• Making a formal social introduction to an important Kindred
• Covering a potentially embarrassing social faux pas in front of the Harpy
• Warning someone about a potential danger to them
• Supporting a political or social agenda that doesn’t undermine your own position
• Assisting with a task for the evening, such as working security for a salon
• Leveraging one of your disciplines to aid your creditor’s cause
The Backbone of the Boon Economy: Trivial Boons
A trivial boon is an excellent way to start a relationship. Is there an elder you want to meet? Offer a trivial boon to the Kindred who can make the introduction for you. Are you afraid that you mildly offended the Prince? Offer her a trivial boon.
Minor Boon
A minor boon represents a favor that requires a significant amount of time or effort, but low risk. Payment of a minor boon should involve simple one-time favors or services that take no more than two game sessions or a month (whichever is longer) to complete.
Example Scenarios Involving Minor Boons:
• Helping someone find safe passage through a hostile city
• Leveraging backgrounds and influences on someone’s behalf
• Revealing crucial information
• Disposing of a threat without risking life or blood
• Teaching low levels of common disciplines
Major Boon
A major boon represents a large debt that requires a good deal of time or resources to pay, which may involve risking your personal political or social capital. Payment of a major boon should involve one-time favors or services that take no more than six game sessions or three months (whichever is longer) to complete.
Example Scenarios Involving Major Boons:
• Leveraging your backgrounds and influences to someone else’s agenda
• Teaching the creditor advanced levels of a common discipline or low levels of an uncommon or rare discipline
• Revealing a major secret that is potentially very damaging
• Purchasing a major business, building, or land
• Aligning yourself with a political or social agenda that potentially harms your own position with your clan and allies, such as supporting someone’s bid for praxis
Blood Boon
A blood boon is a sacred debt that can only be repaid by shedding blood on behalf of the creditor. The debtor will betray allies, ruin her reputation, or place herself in a potentially life-threatening situation in order to further the agenda of the creditor, thus the name “blood boon.”
Example Scenarios Involving Blood Boons:
• Coming to another’s aid and suffering grievous injury
• Betraying clan secrets or teaching proprietary disciplines, knowing that you will be labeled a traitor if discovered
• Assisting in a praxis seizure via force, and killing allies to see it done
• Holding off a fearsome enemy so that the creditor can flee
• Murdering a rival or an enemy knowing that you might be blood hunted if you are caught
Life Boon
A life boon is a rare boon that should only be given in circumstances when a vampire saves another vampire from an external threat that will destroy the life of the debtor.
A powerful vampire cannot simply threaten a weak enemy and claim a life boon for not destroying her. Owing a life boon can be tragic. Many vampires consider owing a life boon as equivalent to being an unreleased childer. To owe a life boon is to surrender all of your own will until you have saved the life of the one that owns your life boon.
Example Scenarios Involving Life Boons:
• Protecting a fugitive (who might even be Bloodhunted or on the Red List) on behalf of your creditor
• Protecting your creditor from the Prince’s justice to the bitter end
• Hiding a terrible crime, such as diablerie or infernalism
• Saving the life of another vampire from an enemy at significant risk to your own life
Kindred Credit: Owing Boons
Harpies distrust outsider Kindred who refuse to owe boons. In fact, a Kindred who does not have at least one registered boon to another member of the Camarilla suffers from the lesser social ban.
The Camarilla depends on the interconnected web of status and prestation to help preserve the Traditions. A vampire who owes nobody has nothing to contain or chain her actions. A vampire who refuses to play by the system is worse than a rogue. Neonates refer to these loners as “vampire hobos,” living on the edge of society and ignoring bonds of loyalty or propriety.
An advantage to owing a boon is that once a vampire offers a boon to repay a debt or forgive an insult, the topic is usually never discussed again. Offer an insulted vampire a boon and, if accepted, you are certain that she will not seek revenge in the future. If that insult is brought up again, the Harpies will socially eviscerate that vampire for ignoring a boon paid in good faith.
Some vampires find offering boons a blow to their egos, as it feels like a loss. However, the only real loss to an immortal is Final Death. Kindred not connected to others via boons lack the basic protection offered by owing an immortal predator a debt. A vampire who is owed a boon will wish to see it collected eventually. Once a boon is owed, a relationship is created. The creditors you owe now have an invested interest in keeping you around. After all, no one wants their debtors to suddenly go missing.
Conversely, young or powerless vampires cannot be bullied into owing a boon to an elder merely because of the vast gulf of social power that exists between them. A service must be provided or a real insult must be levied to result in owing a boon. Lazy elders who try to pick low-hanging fruit will find that the Harpies and other elders scrutinize their transactions very carefully. The Kindred who attempts to erroneously claim to save another’s life will find others angry at them for devaluing boons.
Collecting Boons
A vampire with a host of boons can call upon the skills, powers, and influences possessed by vampires across several domains.
Boons offer control over your enemies rather than risking your existence by killing them. Forcing your enemies to submit to your will is the ultimate experience for a vampire. Why would you allow your enemies to escape so easily? Refusing a boon from a vampire is akin to saying you believe that vampire is dishonorable. These relationships help Kindred foster control over their existence and gain allies. If nothing else, you should use boons from your allies to counter boons that others might have over them.
Boon Breakers and the Harpies
A boon breaker is a vampire who has refused to pay on a boon owed. Stigmatizing a Kindred for this reason is the worst punishment a Harpy can levy. The Harpy must first publicly give the debtor a chance to repay the boon.
Should the debtor not complete this task to the Harpy’s satisfaction, she declares the rogue vampire a Boonbreaker and conveys the following social effects:
• All boons owed to and from a boon breaker are null and void. The vampire now exists as a rogue on the edges of vampire society.
• As long as the vampire suffers from the moniker of Boonbreaker, she carries the negative status Disgraced.
Often, debt holders owed by a boon breaker will hunt down and kill their former debtor. Most Princes will banish boon breakers from their domains, lest that vampire damage the reputation of the entire city.
A boon breaker may appeal to the Harpy who punished her for mercy, once she has shown a willingness to address her crimes and pay her boon. A Harpy who forgives boon breakers too often will find her fellow Harpies monitoring her actions a little closer.
Should the Harpy refuse mercy to a Boonbreaker, the former debtor may attempt to appeal to a court of Harpies numbering at least seven but no more than 13 (often referred to as a Murder of Harpies). The Boonbreaker may tell her story and offer evidence. The Harpy who awarded the negative status has the option of defending her actions.
At the end, each member of the court will publically announce her vote. Should the Murder of Harpies overturn the Boonbreaker’s negative status, the remainder of its term now falls upon the awarding Harpy to suffer.
Should the punishment be upheld, the Boonbreaker now suffers an additional six months for each member of the court of Harpies who voted against her.
On rare occasions, a Murder of Harpies from domains in the region (such as a group of states or a small country) will gather at a Regional Conclave to pass judgment upon an entire domain accused of ignoring boons. Should the Murder of Harpies decide by majority vote that the accused domain has ignored prestation and station, they may declare an entire domain to be Boonbreakers. All boons coming into and out of that domain are considered null and void. Domains suffering from this stigma are often deemed very disreputable, and many consider anyone who lives there unaligned. Sometimes entire domains go to war over boons.
Bloodhunts and Boons
A blood hunt cancels all boons owed and owned by a vampire. The very act of a blood hunt negates the existence of a vampire. A creature under a blood hunt is no longer considered a vampire and thus does not deserve prestation. Should a vampire manage to cleanse her name and have the blood hunt removed, she regains all of her previous prestation.
Vampires Faking Their Own Deaths
Vampires occasionally fail miserably in politics, and some try to start over by faking their deaths. A wise vampire settles all outstanding affairs before attempting such a gambit.
Harpies take a very harsh stance on miscreants who attempt to escape debts to others in such a fashion. A vampire caught in such a desperate move will quickly discover that all boons owed to her have been declared null and void.
This does not remove any prestation debt the vampire owed before she faked her death.
