Kara de Maubin

A note about Kara:

Kara de Maubin was my tabletop Vampire for a handful of gaming sessions. There was some confusion among my gaming group to which I did not properly attend. I include this notice here so that others, most importantly White Wolf themselves, would not make a similar error.

When I first began learning about Vampire: The Masquerade, I wanted to try to shoehorn my pre-existing vampire, Pasht, into the White Wolf rules. Pasht's creation predates my knowledge of Vampire (beyond perhaps knowing only that a vampire RPG existed) and does not conform to those rules. Rather than start from scratch, I did my best to create a similar character. From this, Kara de Maubin was born.

I continued to play Pasht online, independent of any rule system, on various freeform roleplay boards. When I finally got a chance to play Vampire, I dusted off Kara's character, which had lain unused for easily a year or more, and played her independently of Pasht.

Kara and Pasht do share a lot of characteristics. Both are petite, dark, and rather tawdry. They also happened to have the same vampire hunter seeking them, but as I was not happy with the treatment of my vampire hunter character when she was used in the tabletop game, I will not write further about it.

There are also differences. Pasht has a certain taste, a fondness for the glamorous (silk and champagne are big with her), where Kara prefers bikini tops and see-through thongs. (Ahem.) Pasht is of ancient Egyptian origin, and is over 5,000 years old, whereas Kara is Spanish and of a paltry 10th generation.

My error lay in attempting to peristently attempting to conform Pasht to the White Wolf rules, which simply was not possible without a massive retcon. I had often spoken of my online roleplay characters to my tabletop gaming partners, so they were familiar in passing with Pasht's personality. When asked about Kara's personality, I merely said that she was "basically Pasht", so my fellow gamers began to refer to Kara as Pasht. This lasted until I stopped gaming with the group, which has since splintered apart.

My intent in producing this page is to show that, although Kara de Maubin is a White Wolf character and subject to their rules and legal notices, Pasht is not, nor will she ever be. Despite allowing people to falsely call Kara "Pasht", the two are seperate characters. Pasht does not have Obtenebration or any similar ability; that is a White Wolf creation and she is not a White Wolf character. Kara cannot summon animals, turn to mist (well, maybe a cloud of darkness if she got high enough in Obtenebration), cast illusions to disguise herself (though by times she's certainly wished she could!), or magically transport herself; these are abilities I have conferred upon Pasht, some of which are available to OTHER vampires in Vampire: The Masquerade, others of which do not exist in the World of Darkness.

Specifically, any written work I produce involving Pasht is not subject to White Wolf approval. She is my character and I may do with her as I pleased. Kara and her history are entwined in the White Wolf system, which means that I cannot publish any work involving her without White Wolf's approval. Such work would probably take the form of fiction for supplements to Vampire: The Masquerade, although I confess I am not well-versed in White Wolf's policy on this.

Kara is subject to White Wolf's restrictions. Pasht is not. She is my character alone, dammit, and she will stay mine.

(by Ree)