From SuspireWiki

This is a full list of lexicon allowed for usage on Suspire. Feel free to interweave this into your character’s lingo as you’d like:

Contents 1 Lexicon Notes 1.1 Formal 1.2 Traditional 1.3 Jargon 1.4 Slang 2 General Kindred Lexicon 2.1 A 2.2 B 2.3 C 2.4 D 2.5 E 2.6 F 2.7 G 2.8 H 2.9 K 2.10 M 2.11 N 2.12 O 2.13 P 2.14 R 2.15 S 2.16 T 2.17 V 2.18 W 3 Invictus Lexicon 4 Lancea Sanctum Lexicon 5 Ordo Dracul Lexicon 6 Ventrue Lexicon

Lexicon Notes

Formal

These are terms used at court, in ceremonies or in front of important Kindred, when presentation and poise matter. Using these words properly makes a vampire seem formal, respectful and civilized. Using these words incorrectly may be insulting to the speaker or his listeners.

Traditional

These are terms used at court in polite discourse, without seeming too familiar. Using these words makes a vampire look informed, cultured and polite. Misusing these words is crass.

Jargon

These words are used only within certain circles of Kindred society — within particular covenants, among certain tiers of feudal society or by vampires of a certain age range. Many of these words are polite, but informal. Use of these words at Elysium may seem elitist or confusing; many (most?) Kindred don’t know all these terms. Using them can make a vampire seem “in the know” or unconcerned with delicate niceties. Misusing them makes a vampire look like a poseur, wannabe or has-been. Using them with the wrong lord or superior Kindred can be social suicide.

Slang

This is common talk — frank, familiar and often rude or vulgar. Many Kindred have heard these words, but not all vampires can pull them off. Using these words makes a vampire seem hip, experienced, street or authentic. Misusing these words makes a vampire look uncultured, brutish, simple or low class. Using these words with one’s superiors may be a painful social gaff or a serious insult with dreadful repercussions.

General Kindred Lexicon

A

• Ancilla – An ancilla is a vampire who is between being a neonate and an elder. Ancillae have been in their Requiems for anywhere between 50 and 150 years.
• Avus – An avus is a kindred of a bloodline that sponsors a non-member for membership within that particular bloodline.

B

• Beast, The – The beast is a term kindred use to refer to what might as easily be called their darker halves. It is a presence within the kindred's psyche with the stated goal of survival, and only the most simple and animalistic of logic to guide it there. Naturally, then, the beast is often ill suited to society.
• Blood Oath – The vinculum.
• Blood Rent – (n., traditional) Payment due to a lord in blood, traditionally in exchange for granted lands or titles. Blood rent may require a vassal to escort a lord on the hunt, to deliver a living vessel or to give up Vitae from the vassal’s own veins, depending on the contract of fealty between them. “I’ll give you everything between the expressway and Shadowgate Avenue, and in exchange you pay me a blood rent of one boy, no older than 19 and no younger than 14, for feeding, twice a month.”
• Blood Tax – (n., traditional) (v., slang) To demand a payment of Vitae from a subordinate, especially outside the terms of a feudal contract; e.g., to order a vassal’s vassal to provide wheat (q.v.). Also, less commonly, to punish or fine a vassal with bloodletting, violence or a forced drink toward a Vinculum. “The Viscount’s driving down here tonight, and I just fucking know he’s coming down here to blood tax me.”
• Blood Hunt – A most drastic punishment called on a Kindred of a domain. It states that the Kindred in question should be hunted by every other Kindred in the domain. Refusing to participate in a bloodhunt or assisting bloodhunted Kindred is grounds for being bloodhunted yourself.
• Bloodline – A bloodline is a group of vampires that splits off from a parent clan to form a distinct lineage of its own. Some bloodlines do not differ from the parent clan in significant ways, while others claim different powers or weaknesses.
• Boon – The debt and favors currency of Kindred.
• Bottom Feeder – (n., slang) One that is a member of the lowest class of Kindred. A vampire that is assumed to feed on the dregs of society by virtue of their place in the Kindred social order. Typically, one that has existed this way for some time, and has failed to better themselves. "Fuck you, you'll never do better than hooking for blood, you dirtbag Bottom Feeder."
• Burrow – (v., slang) To make one’s haven outdoors or underground; to dwell like a vagrant or make haven in an insecure, often public, location, such as a subway tunnel or city park. (n., slang) Any haven, usually but not always temporary, or site where a vampire burrows. “She’s been spending her days under old bottles in some Southside burrow for the past year.”

C

• Chapter House – (n., traditional) An Ordo Dracul meeting place. Often abbreviated simply, “chapter.” “There’s a Dragon chapter upstairs of the card room behind the Broken Bottle, but I don’t think their landlord knows about it.”
• Charge – (n., formal) A vassal’s official responsibility to her lord or the Prince; her duty. One’s charge is often, but not always, the act of her corvée (q.v.). For example, a Herald’s charge is to spread the Prince’s word, though she could owe a monthly corvée to her lord (who may or may not be the Prince) in exchange for a domain. “You are charged with keeping the border of 7th Street closed, Gough, and we’ll both be sorry things if you fail.”
• Childe – The vampiric "offspring" of a sire.
• Corvée – (n., formal) A tax or rent of service owed to a lord by a vassal. Corvée may be limited to a predetermined routine, such as the monthly collection of graft from local drug dealers, or it may be a number of nights of servitude due every month, involving any errand or mission the lord devises each term. Tonight, the grammar surrounding this word is quite confused; all of these are common uses: “to corvée,” “to perform (his) corvée,” “to pay a corvée,” “to do corvée.” “Go down to Ashton Park and break up the Acolyte rituals there, get them off my ground, and we’ll count this as the first night of your corvée.”
• Coterie – A group of allied Kindred. They need not be of the same clan nor covenant, only working together for some common goal.
• Court – (n., traditional) Per the traditional definition of a sovereign and his retinue and councilors. Among the Damned, court may also be used to refer to the place where court is held (“the 6th Street court”), to a specific instance of audience (“last August’s court”), or all Kindred with direct formal bonds (q.v.) to the Prince. (n., slang) Derogatorily or in jest, any Kindred who routinely attends court. “You’re not the boss here, court, so keep your mouth shut.”

D

• Danse Macabre – What Kindred often call their Requiems - their unlives.
• Diablerie – Also known as Amaranth. The act of utterly consuming another Kindred, rumored to entail devouring their very soul. A diablerist can absorb some of their victim's power or essence in the act of consuming them, but does so in defiance of the Traditions and the Testament of Longinus.
• Disciplines – The supernatural powers inherent to Kindred blood.
• Domain – (n., traditional) The physical territory claimed by or granted to a vampire, especially when that territory is officially sanctioned by the Prince; also, a conceptual purview of authority or responsibility wherein the lord has control or unique rights, such as the “domain of medicine” or “domain of theater.” “I don’t care what your Prince says, asshole, this is my domain, and every monster around here knows it.”
• Domitor – A kindred who has subjected another being to the Viniculum, be that being mortal, vampire, or another supernatural.
• Draugr – A Kindred that no longer has any trace of human morality. Draugr exist only to feed and kill, and have no conception of morality whatsoever. They are a threat to the Masquerade and are hunted down by the kindred as quickly as possible, before their acts bring down the Masquerade and bring the wrath of mortal authorities.

E

• Elder – A vampire who has actively been in her/his Requiem for a minimum of 150 years. Elders often are the most powerful and influential members in Kindred Society and cities with Kindred.
• Elysium – A building or location that has been declared a "safe haven" for the Kindred of the city. The vampire who cares for the Elysia of the city is called the Master of Elysium.
• Embrace – The act of turning a mortal into a vampire.

F

• Final Death – When a kindred finally dies, and their body decays either quickly or into ashes.
• First Estate – The Invictus
• Fledgling – An unreleased, 'baby' vampire. Fledglings are under the auspices of their sires, and all actions they take (including any and all mistakes made!) reflect on the sire.

G

• Gat-Errant – (n., slang) A gunman (or sometimes any thug), whether mortal or Kindred, who serves a lord without vassalage to motivate him; a violent minion who resides outside the feudal structure. In use, this term sometimes implies a basis for service outside of money or material compensation (such as fear or idolatry), but not always. “Romeo’s another one of Culver’s gat-errants keeping wannabe witch-hunters off the royal lawn.”
• Ghoul – A mortal which is not only fed vampiric vitae but also imbued with part of the vampire's will, giving them slight advantages of vampiric nature.
• Grippe – (v., slang) To cause or allow a domain’s mortal population to fall sick or otherwise succumb to infirmity. To spread, or allow to spread, a disease or drug epidemic. Often paired with gutter (q.v.). “Call it what you want, but if you let the cattle grippe themselves with STDs and smack, the Prince is going to call it you been gripping them.”
• Gutter – (v., slang) To cause or allow a domain to fall into financial or social ruin. To drive down property values, to break up families, run stores out of business or render families homeless. “You want to let your childer run rough over the place, then you’re going to have to gutter it so it don’t look so suspicious to the police when people get cut and robbed in there.”

H

• Homage – (n., traditional) A public display of a vassal’s subservience and dedication to his lord or the Prince. Also, the formal ceremony of homage in which a Kindred ritually gives himself to be his lord’s “man.” In the Byzantine dealings of the Danse Macabre, the public declaration of a vassal’s fealty is the essential element of homage. “If you are still loyal, then kneel now and pay me homage here where your Sanctified cousins can see.”

K

• Knight Up – (v., slang) To arm oneself, dress impressively and prepare to intimidate, posture impressively and possibly do violence, especially in service to one’s lord; to summon one’s courage and poise. This is a low-class expression calling the listener to prepare for a more highclass kind of violence (or the threat thereof). “As long as they think we weak, they ain’t going to stop coming here, so shut up, knight up and let’s show them we’re not boys.”

M

• Mobcap – (n., adj., slang) A lord whose territory is completely granted out to subordinate vassals such that none of it remains under his direct control. (In the 17th century, mob meant “slut” or, later, “prostitute.” A mobcap is a kind of hat once associated with such persons.) “Can we even call that mobcap a lord anymore if he doesn’t even know what’s happening on his own turf?”

N

• Neonate – A vampire who is between being a fledgling and an ancilla. Neonates have been in their Requiems for anywhere between 0 and 50 years.
• Nomad – A Kindred who travels from city to city. A Kindred from outside Carcosa’s Kindred declared area. There has been quite an influx of nomads lately...

O

• Outlaw – (n., adj., traditional) Among the Damned, the term outlaw retains its archaic connotations. Rather than broadly describing a subject as a criminal or fugitive, this term indicates a kine or Kindred to whom the laws of the land do not apply. Thus, he is outside the law. Taking an outlaw’s things is not stealing, because laws do not apply to him or his property. Killing an outlaw is not murder. Feeding from an outlaw does not violate hunting laws. Naming a subject as an outlaw is thus a profoundly dangerous act, not only for the outlaw but for the people around him. “I’m here to tell you, then, that the Prince has deemed all Bruja to be outlaws should they set foot in this city again.”

P

• Parish – (n., jargon) Any domain belonging to the Lancea Sanctum. In a strict Sanctified diocese, only those domains belonging to Kindred of the cloth in good standing are called parishes. More commonly, any domain wherein power resides with a Sanctified vampire or is linked to a ministry of the Spear may be called a parish. “Tonight we’ll hear sermons written by Priests from three parishes.”
• Pigeon – (n., slang) A layabout; a homeless vampire; derogatorily, a vampire who travels the city via “uncivilized” means, such as by climbing or swimming. “I’m not going to Edgeville, man, that place is nothing but pigeons and peasants.”
• Plastic Bottle – (n., slang) A cheap, disposable vessel for feeding, whether animal or kine. Often, the corpse of such a vessel. (Sometimes also called an “empty can.”) “Get this plastic bottle out of here before we make the papers again.”
• Pleb – (n., traditional) A common vampire, whether a tenant (q.v.) or a peasant (q.v.). “If enough of the plebs won’t stand for it, though, we could be watching the sunrise tomorrow.”
• Poach – (v., traditional) To feed on another Kindred’s turf; to drink from another Kindred’s fields (q.v.) or herd; especially when the turf or vessel belongs to one’s feudal betters. “You’re caught poaching on my lands, which is the same as drinking from me directly, so now you must do that — twice.”

R

• Regent – (n., formal) The lord of any domain who receives his authority, territory and/or title directly from the Prince (q.v.), even if he is not strictly the Prince’s vassal. In cities with especially strict feudal codes, the Prince may only appoint Regents directly below his own station in the feudal hierarchy; he may not appoint Regents as vassals of other lords. In practice, the overlords directly subordinate to the Prince, whether appointed by him, a predecessor or some other body (such as the Primogen) is also called a Regent. “You may be my landlord, Haunt, but I am a Regent now, and you will be careful how you speak to me.”

S

• Serf – (n., slang) A tenant who pays a corvée to his lord; a mortal or ghoul who knowingly serves a Kindred lord; any unappreciated vampire in the feudal hierarchy. “You’re making a fucking serf out of yourself, running all these errands for him.”
• Sluice Off – (v., slang) To draw kine from another Kindred’s domain through deception, persuasion or bribery, especially in secret and usually for purposes of feeding. For example, bribing a gang to move its makeshift headquarters out of a rival’s domain or luring homeowners into new properties over a period of many months would both be sluicing off another’s territory. Moving kine by force is not. “The Duke still thinks those people have been moving out on their own, but when he finds out that Benedict’s been sluicing off from his fields for a year, there’s gonna be fire, trust me.”
• Society – (n., with the; adj., jargon) Of or pertaining to feudal culture and hierarchy among the Damned; of or regarding the Invictus; with the, the Invictus (e.g., “He’s in good standing with the Society”). “The Duke’s a Society lord with secret allies in every covenant.”
• Squire – (v., slang) A ghoul. Derogatorily, a lackey or toady; any obsequious kine or Kindred in the feudal hierarchy. “On your feet, you squire.”
• Stroker Hive – A place in Carcosa. (n., slang) To refer to something as wanna-be or otherwise inferior to something else. "Why don’t you go back home, Stroker Hive? You’ve not got the teeth to be hurting me in my own Elysium." or "Dude, did you see him pulling a Stroker Hive when he got asked his opinion after the Priscus already spoke?"
• Swamped - (v. slang) To get blasted, monetarily; to lose a great amount of something. "Man, I got swamped last time, I'm not really ready to re-invest in your company."

T

• Tenant – (n., traditional) Any resident of a domain who pays the landlord money, blood or service in exchange for a dwelling. A tenant has no vassalage outside of his own haven and no authority to subinfeudate the space he rents from the lord. A tenant’s feudal rights vary from one city to another (sometimes, from one domain to another) but are always few. “Jude is just one of my tenants — I don’t like the way it looks if he gets broken within my borders, but I’m not going to war with the Church over him.”

V

• Vassal – (n., adj., formal) A Kindred who receives territory (and sometimes title) from a lord (q.v.) through feudal tenure on conditions of homage, allegiance and sometimes corvée (q.v.). Casually, any directly subordinate Kindred in the feudal hierarchy, or any vampire at the “lower” position in a feudal bond (q.v.). In practice, all Kindred in a city’s feudal hierarchy are vassals to some lord, except for the Prince from whom all vassalage descends. “I am Delacroix, vassal in Edgeville to citizen Carver, vassal in Druid Hills to the lady Sycorax, and Hound to our Prince.”

W

• Wheat – (n., traditional) Mortals. “Why is it that the Prince gets to say who eats who, but we’re the ones down here with the wheat?”

Invictus Lexicon

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Lancea Sanctum Lexicon

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Ordo Dracul Lexicon

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Ventrue Lexicon

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