Vampire Belials Brood (Vampire: The Requiem (White Wolf)) [Hardcover]

George Holochwost (Author), Khaldoun Khelil (Author), Ari Marmell (Author), C.A. Suleiman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Vampire: The Requiem (White Wolf) | Publication Date: January 24, 2007

Vampire Vandals and Violence

From its roots in antiquity to its brutal modern blood-baths, Belial's Brood have been the rampaging barbarians at the gates of vampire society. For the first time, venture inside the vicious culture of Belial's Brood and find out what it is they're after that's worth their very souls.

An antagonists book for Vampire: The Requiem

Go inside an immoral, self-destructive society of ferocious, back-biting, bloodsucking barbarians who worship a demon and celebrate sin

Discover a unique bloodline, a new ghoul family and a wicked mystic tradition of blood magic handed down from Hell

Explode Belial's Brood into a fully realized force in your Vampire chronicles or plunge your players into the roles of these brutal monsters with story seeds, complete new characters and a rich history to draw from

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: White Wolf Publishing; 1ST edition (January 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1588462668
• ISBN-13: 978-1588462664
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,291,579 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

On March 22, 1974, Ari Marmell was hatched out of an egg laid by a rooster on the night of the full moon. Due a mix-up, he wound up in the infant ward at a hospital in New York, where he was claimed as a (relatively) normal human and taken home. He and his family fled New York barely a year later, either because his father received a job offer in Houston, or because they were chased by angry mobs with pitchforks; reports are unclear.

For the next 27 years, Ari lived in Houston. His father told him bedtime stories when he was in preschool and kindergarten, stories without which he might never have become a writer. He received his first roleplaying game--the red Dungeons & Dragons boxed set--at age 9, and the AD&D Players Handbook followed less than a year later. He spent very little time on class work or studies for the next, oh, 13 years, instead spending his efforts on far more important things like fighting orcs, riding dragons, and rescuing extremely beautiful princesses.

Ari went to college at the University of Houston. He began in the Psychology program, but quickly changed his major to Creative Writing. It was in the first week of class that he met his wife-to-be, who goes by the name of George. (No, it's not short for Georgia, Georgette, Georgiana, or anything else that could possibly make sense.) It was also in college that he wrote his first novel, one that he is now determined will never see the light of day, and charitably calls a "learning experience."

In short, Ari graduated in late '96, married George in March of 1997, honeymooned in New Orleans, worked several jobs he hated for the next several years, and quit the last of them in 2000 due to ongoing health issues. During this time, he wrote four more novels, two of which are actually pretty decent. It was also during this time that he managed to break into the roleplaying industry, having attracted the attention of Justin Achilli (developer of Vampire: The Masquerade) with a project submission inspired by his trip to New Orleans.

He and George moved to Austin in mid-2001 so George could attend graduate school while Ari continued to work as a freelance writer. They live there today, along with a large orange cat named Leloo and a smaller gray cat named Pippin who seems unable to grasp the notion that strings, ribbons, and plastic bags do not make up a viable part of the food chain. His first published novel, Gehenna: The Final Night, appeared on shelves in January of 2004.

Today, Ari is shifting his focus from freelancing to more fiction and novel-writing. His second novel, Agents of Artifice, was released by Wizards of the Coast in February of '09. His third novel, The Conqueror's Shadow, was released by Spectra in February 2010. (This was his first published non-tie-in novel.)

Ari's forthcoming novels include The Warlord's Legacy (Spectra, early 2011), the Goblin Corps (Pyr Books mid- to late 2011), and Household Gods (Pyr Books, 2012). You can learn more about him, and keep up with his news and release schedule, at www.mouseferatu.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Demonic vampires of darkness, November 5, 2007

By 

J. Burgos "I <3 Books & Comics" (West Hollywood, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vampire Belials Brood (Vampire: The Requiem (White Wolf)) (Hardcover)

This book is a great supplement for nWoD's Vampire the Requiem game. In it you'll find vampires literally hell-bent on revelling in their demonic and instrinsically evil natures. This book is dark and contains strong material, so I recommend it for adults or very mature players. If you want great atmospheric vampire antagonists in your world of darkness game this supplement is a great value. As a storyteller I would use it primarily as antagonists, but really mature and seasoned role players could portray these beings as playable characters in the right setting. These vampires in many ways remind me of the vampires as depicted in the graphic novel 30 Days of Night by Douglas Niles and Ben Templesmith.

These vampires are very reminiscent of Anne Rices Children of Darkness vampires from Queen of the Damned, except these are much more monstrous and demonic.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most exciting Covenant book, July 2, 2010

By 

A. McLaughlin - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vampire Belials Brood (Vampire: The Requiem (White Wolf)) (Hardcover)

Belial's Brood is a diabolist Covenant that likely plays the role of adversary in most chronicles, and as an antagonist book, it works well. Beyond that though, this book was certainly the most interesting of the Covenant books, and the material makes for very exciting reading and gameplay. Another storyteller and I devoured this book, and quickly built a chronicle on our enthusiasm for the covenant - the best chronicle our troupe has run to date.

For those familiar with Vampire: The Masquerade, the Brood aesthetic falls somewhere between the Baali and the Sabbat. They practice the vaulderie, which forms the crux of member relationships and is backed by a dark spiritual Pursuit personal to each member. Much as the Invictus draws many of its ideological underpinnings from the Ventrue, the Brood is heavily influenced by clan Gangrel, more specifically its connection to the Beast. The covenant has several factions or sub-cults, which each have their own creation myths (for lack of a better term), favored aspects, and preferred means of corrupting the world.

The book's storyline follows a member of the Ordo Dracul in researching the covenant, only to become entwined in its seductions and join. As far as sourcebook fiction goes, it flows well with the source material and makes for an interesting read. The covenant's unique powers, called Investments, are varied, diabolical, and cool. Examples include the ability to call blood to the character, the power to make one's limbs act independently of the body when removed, and the means to permanently move one's soul into the body of another living vessel. There are a handful of new Devotions that incorporate these powers as well.

As the basis for roleplaying a group of Brood characters, this book is excellent. Readers will surely find powers, myths and factions that appeal to them, beyond the obvious draw of being a bad guy with utterly no concern for Morality. As I mentioned above, it was incredibly satisfying to play, and the vaulderie entirely eliminates the bickering and backstabbing that so often accompany roleplaying a cosmopolitan coterie.

Having read all the covenant books but VII (which, based on what I know about it, I never will), I feel safe in saying this is the best of them. Whether you're looking for antagonists, a fresh feel to a new chronicle or just a good read, you'll be happy you own this book.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sooner's Anti-Sabbat, April 8, 2008

By 

Justin P. Oliver "justin14" (jennings, louisiana United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vampire Belials Brood (Vampire: The Requiem (White Wolf)) (Hardcover)

Belial's Brood is White Wolf supplement that details a covenant from Vampire the Requiem. In it, we are given information ranging from how the covenant interacts with themselves and others, to new game mechanics, to different outlooks on the Brood's history. I do not give books 5 stars often but I could not find much wrong with this book. The art was good and the history and politics of the group were interesting. As White Wolf is becoming known for, the book also offered all of the information as a "take what you want, discard the rest" kind of feel for actually using them in a game.

Some older gamers may notice the resemblance between the Brood and White Wolf's older game group, the Sabbat. I couldn't say it any better than a player by the name "Fabio Sooner" said, "It's the anti-Sabbat, the Sabbat to end all that pile of nonsense the old Sabbat was." This group has all of the benefits and none of the problems that are associated with the old Sabbat. And it all works with Humanity. Still no need for paths. Also gone is the Judeo-Christian concept of infernalists and mass murderes that the core book originally wrote them as.

If your an old Vampire player than this book is worth getting just for the new Vaulderie ritual!